Company: IBM
Date: 2009-02-20
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

IT is becoming a commodity and it's affecting how IBM views its employees.
Pros: In IBM, you do have access to a large intellectual capital knowledge base and the people you work with are very smart.  If you manage to move from account to account, it allows you to see how many different companies work without the stress of having to find work on your own.  The higher you go up in the organization, though, you are expected to be a mercenary and find the work on your own.  You don't get the big bucks for nothing.
Cons: There is a constant pressure for cost savings.  In the US, labor makes up the biggest cost component and IBM has had a policy of micro-layoffs to stay under the public radar.  This occurs at the expense of employee morale and in some cases, customer satisfaction.  With the increased reliance on off-shoring to lower cost regions, US layoffs are going to accelerate.  On top of this, training is almost non-existent.  It's hard to justify 40 hours of training when you have a utilization target.