Company: IBM
Date: 2014-04-17
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Not a bad place to work for a short time
Pros: This entire review is from the perspective of being a hardware designer at IBM.  ie working in STG.

-There are still some really great people left here.  Some posts have complained that there's nobody good left, and that everyone who is still here is an idiot.  I do not find that to be the case in my area.
-There is still some really cool work going on here, if you are lucky enough to get yourself assigned to it.  You do have to advocate to your manager to try to get yourself assigned good work.  Otherwise, they will just throw you at whatever needs bodies for the short term.
-I don't know that much about the SW side of things, but maybe if you can get yourself assigned to Watson or one of the new flashy projects, that would be better.
-Most managers are pretty flexible if you want to work from home a couple days a week.
-Ginni seems to be a pretty skilled, and charismatic, marketer.  I... I guess I don't know if I should put this in pros or cons.
Cons: -There is to some extent, some "middling" going on at IBM.  The lower-performing employees are indeed long gone.  And indeed, some of the higher-performing employees have moved on to greener pastures.  Leaving the middle behind.
-There is very little trust, in either direction, between management and employees.  Management has repeatedly shown themselves to be interested in nothing other than the EPS roadmap.  Of course, that is what they are measured by, so it is a classic case of "you get what you measure".  
-If you are interested in working on cool projects that can really change the world, know that that takes a backseat to EPS here at IBM.
-The employee evaluation process ("PBC") is severely flawed.  It is a stack ranking system, and every year those who got consecutive low marks get laid off.  Meaning that next year, the previously "good" people are now "bottom of the barrel", and now it's their turn.  Managers know this, and try to game the system, by rotating who gets low marks, so hopefully nobody gets low marks two years in a row.  Further, upper-level management provides quotas to local management, and I believe these quotas are tied to how the business unit performed (financially).  So if you work in STG, and STG delivered poor financial results, there will be a higher percentage of low marks for STG employees.  Keep in mind that STG works on things 2-3 years in advance.  So you may have met all your development goals (ie for the next product cycle), but the stuff that was done 2-3 years ago isn't selling well, so you get screwed.  Basically, your actual performance has very very little to do with what rating you receive.
-IBM does everything their own way - they have a very severe case of "Not-Invented-Here" syndrome.  You will become an expert in the way that IBM does things - and this may or may not transfer well to any other company.  Being employed here for a long time will likely hinder your efforts to find a job elsewhere if ever you decide to move.  
-If you do take advantage of "flexibility" in terms of working from home, do be aware that there is a risk you (and your contributions) will be less visible to management, leading to a higher likelyhood of a low rating.
-Pay is below market.  They come out and tell you, during your yearly salary review, where you stand with respect to average market wages in the local job market.  Management has made it clear that if you make more than 90% of market average, you will likely not receive raises.