Company: IBM
Date: 2008-06-17
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Lots of opportunities, and lots of management.
Pros: The company is involved in many products and businesses, so there is a lot of opportunity for doing different things throughout your career.  People tend to stay with the same job for two to five years before moving on to do something different, and this is supported fully by management.  There are even opportunities for moving to different areas within the United States, or even to other countries, if you are interested in seeing new places, both on temporary or permanent assignments.  If you wish, you can have a varied career, changing jobs as your interests change, while maintaining the continuity and benefits of having a single employer.
Cons: The company can be somewhat management-heavy at times.  Sometimes it appears that there are levels of middle management that exist simply to keep people busy.  This seems to be especially the case in some of the older organizations that have been producing the same or similar products for many years.  This tends to create a lot of politics, especially when dealing with people in different management chains who seem to be getting a completely different vision for the direction of the project.  Good first-line managers shield their employees from this, while bad ones can make it nearly impossible to be productive.