Company: IBM
Date: 2011-07-08
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Good Experiences with ample opportunity, could use help with communication between divisions
Pros: Work life balance is great but to get ahead you need to put in the extra hours. The finance arm is full of smart, very analytic, process driven people. The company structure was designed by very smart people so there can be trust in these processes. The company is very gracious with it's benefits including luncheons, after hours, and discounts on the services IBM buys from other companies. There are seminars that give different success stories within the company showing the different ways to become successful given all the opportunities that are available, this makes career guidance easier. IBM also puts a lot of trust in it's employees weighting them with a lot of responsibility but giving the flexibility to try new things. Internal development programs are great, though they must be done at your own fruition.
Cons: Overall company structure can be confusing, it is not so much a matrix as a 'pyramid'. Your experience can vary greatly based on your management but based on experiences of my colleagues it is fair to say that feedback is poor and needs to be beaten out of your superiors and when you do get it, it is vague and you feel like they are holding back real thoughts. Also communication between arms is very tough, constant follow up is needed with anyone outside of your division and frequently you are put off or given the wrong answers/data. I had to frequently escalate my communication to my superiors to obtain basic information. Basically if you can't show up at someones office to get it it will be a while before you do. It is a 'sink or swim' environment as an intern so if you do not go out and actively ask for projects you are unlikely to get much challenging work and therefore not an offer. Unfortunately IBM has produced little revenue growth so 'resource actions' aka layoffs, have been common and only the toughest survive.