Company: IBM
Date: 2015-12-01
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Working at IBM in Assessment
Pros: Huge ability to learn anything anyone could desire, with a base of research and research papers no one could get through in a lifetime. Some very good people work there, and some very gifted people too. Watson is a huge resource, if only the sales force had the imagination to apply what it can do to user's needs, and if the users don't know they need it, educating them to the point where they'll fight over it.
Cons: Since I left some of the less talented people have been rewarded and some of the more talented people have left. Only lip-service given to 'thought-leadership', even if you bear the title. If you're not bringing in sales, you are a second-class citizen. Always worry about an organization that 'celebrates' sales to tobacco companies. And whose North American members are so insensitive about what works with the British and what jars with the British. And like the assessment industry generally, IBM happily sells products to people that in their heart-of-hearts, they know are of minimal benefit to the customer. As Steve Jobs once said, IBM is about freezing a product in time, to facilitate the sales process, not about dynamic product development. Process always beats product.