Company: IBM
Date: 2016-09-14
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: current

Digital Sales Summit Program Review
Pros: Training effectiveness: IBM commits 6-9 months of devoted training time to new hires for their sales roles if you are an coming out of school, and 3 months for experienced hires. It is a wealth of knowledge and their is a lot of development that you receive through this program.

Mentorship: This really boils down to personal experience, but not for a lack of availability. The people here are definitely open to be mentors during your time at IBM, and they will continue to work with you if you show initiative during your time.

How Summits are treated: It is really nice to come to work and have a big group of other summit hires that you work alongside (this may be different depending on where you work). They provide you with enough resources to succeed, and continually try to improve the experience. 

Shadowing experiences: This is up to you. It is highly encouraged for you to reach out to other IBMers. IBMers will be open to this, for the most part. They are very valuable because IBM is such a large company. There are tons of shadowing opportunities that can lead to opportunities or a deeper level of understanding.

Sales training & curriculum: This is very extensive. They have 6-9 months of training about sales methodology, IBM products, IBM processes, and building a strong foundation of knowledge. You will get what you put into the experience. 

Hands-on (in-field) experience: The training gives you experience in around 20 client conversations with sales advisors (IBM employees who were very successful salers). They believe that you learn by doing, and this environment is conducive to a less-pressured approach to just learn, and succeed when you do go on quota.

Quality of peer group: There are tons of smart, hard-working, and very nice employees. For me, the people that I work with are great. They challenge me and do so positively.

Interview: I spoke with an IBM representative at a college networking event, completed a phone interview, and attended a hiring event that gave more information about IBM, included 4 interviews, and a team presentation. I was given an offer a month later.

Community culture: IBM is changing a lot. Before really understanding IBM, I had a skewed view of the culture. It is a great culture for me: collaborative, hard-working, and generally trying to improve as people.
Cons: Training effectiveness: This program is really tailored to client-facing sellers. There is a gap in training for digital sellers. There is training that is supplemental for digital sellers, but it can be improved to greater address learning gaps.

Mentorship: None.

How Summits are treated: Some sellers will be hired directly onto teams. Others will need to get the job at IBM, and then they will need to connect with a team to work for after training. It is a little frustrating to think about and act on, but is definitely good practice to connect with a lot of other people at IBM.

Shadowing experiences: If you ask, you can find good experiences, but you have to provide value if you can. 

Sales training & curriculum: N/A.

Hands-on (in-field) experience: It would be nice to have set in-field experience, but this really depends on the teams which is why it isn't scheduled as part of the official training.

Quality of peer group: Some may not enjoy or click with their group. There are a lot of people that work at IBM.

Teaching team: N/A

Management style and effectiveness: There may be some micro-managing, but it depends on your team and manager.

Interview: It was frustrating in terms of timeline. They would not be very good at communicating what was happening. I received duplicate messages from different people, and some logistical conflicts. I suggest being proactive about reaching out to your contacts to confirm next steps, follow up, and stay top-of-mind for the recruiters. I wouldn't just bother them, but show them that you are committed and able to provide value by reiterating your fit at IBM. It was also a very rigorous process during the hiring process.

Community culture: A lot of working here is learning how to find and work with people internally. Some sellers may not want to share information because they will be worried about you taking over the client relationship or it is not worth their time to help you with a deal. I say this because working here has another layer of learning how to be effective internally.