Company: IBM
Date: 2012-09-21
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

If you are able to find your own particular space in the behemoth - it can be the best place to be.
Pros: Trust in its employees - is a true org. cultural tenet, not just one among the archaic company values. Mostly an employee is supported around personal challenges / circumstances.
Investment in employees in terms of training and education is very good - across technical, business, personality-development arenas. The training calendar and mandatory training days enforced specific to role and position is by and large respected & enabled across the org. 
Collaboration across different business groups globally and at an individual level among employees who've joined of subject-specific fora is good. 
Access to a very vast knowledge bank of intellectual property, case studies, subject matter expertise etc. is mostly free to employees across all groups/subjects. 
The span of organisation being across all aspects of technology & consulting + being spread globally - there is a real opportunity for a capable high-performing employee to seek roles across different groups and/or locations; the organisation encourages the same.
Cons: Not among the highest paying organisations - base pay + yearly increments. 
The matrix structure can be a hindrance to getting work done smoothly and quickly; level of accountability at each involved role thereby becomes lot less. 
Similar model of separate functional & people manager structure - if not defined carefully can be counter-productive for individual performance & growth management.
A high bent on 'process-orientation' can almost appear techniques for stalling the job. 
At the time of hiring it can be a challenge to get sufficient clarity on the immediate role & project and subsequent growth plan.