Company: IBM
Date: 2018-11-13
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

As any huge company, it totally depends on the organization you belong.
Pros: - Stability: if you are in for a long term tenure at the company and are willing to drink the kool aid, here's a good place to stay.
- Roof is very high. Ample margin for having a career here. Again, if you're into that.
- Projects can be interesting, specially if you land on a research lab (which fortunately is my case). Outside the research world... some projects seem all right, some other constitute the material nightmares are made of.
- Overall, I'd say the life for research stuff here in IBM is quite ok. Definitely a good company to do research. Otherwise... maybe not that much. Depends on what you like.
Cons: - You have to deal with some archaic technology stacks (exhibit A is Lotus Notes... they called from the 90's, want their collaboration suite). Anyway, I guess the decision to stick to Notes is understandable: it just works, and the hideous UI can be hidden behind our web-based email client.
- It's a big company. Red tape is a reality. I think IBM acknowledges this and try to improve things, but still... bureaucracy is a thing here.
- Salaries are comparatively low. Unless promoted routinely, you'll always have the feeling your friends with similar experience earn more than you.
- Since IBM's niche is the enterprise sector and not the end user, the company is no longer perceived as cool. Not a bad thing per se, but I believe this is detrimental when it comes to attract (young) talent.
- Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded with overhyping, specifically when it comes to Watson APIs. Cognitive computing: IBM buzzword only used inside IBM.