Company: IBM
Date: 2014-03-09
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

IBM is a huge and well-run computer company that grows mostly by acquisition rather than organic internal innovation.
Pros: Very stable and successful company; decent benefits, effective management, solid products, strong software and services businesses.  Strong research division, which does most of the internal innovation like the Watson project.
Cons: Easy to get lost amid over 400,000 employees and many divisions and product lines.  Political infighting between competing organizations can ruin your day.  Opportunities for innovative work are limited, as the company innovates mainly by acquiring smaller, more innovation companies, rather than innovating internally (other than in IBM research centers).  Hardware business is struggling currently, but that could change.