Company: IBM
Date: 2014-03-23
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Not what it used to be.
Pros: Benefits are relatively good... though constantly being whittled away more year by year. 

Opportunity to learn/grow is good. For example, last year they started a new program "Think40" that basically allocates 40/hours year to education/employee development. IBM used to have an _excellent_ education program: useful/helpful classes, time to take the classes, etc. Over the years that was pretty much eliminated. But now it seems management has figured out continual employee development has value and is starting to bring back some of that former excellence. 

While you are expected to put in extra time for crunch issues, IBM is good about giving time off for personal things. For example, a very close friend of mine (not family) passed away last year. There was no question about taking off for long distance travel for the funeral. That kind of adaptability on IBM's part makes it easy to put in extra time when IBM has an emergency.
Cons: Constant threat of layoff. 
Constant need to pick up workload from those laid off.