Company: IBM
Date: 2014-04-02
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former

Great potential, but unable to capitalize on it
Pros: Great overall technical delivery capabilities; as with other firms, actual ability to execute depends on team assignments.  No other company can deliver the combined capabilities of IBM's hardware, software and services businesses, and IBM Research's thought leadership.
Cons: IBM seems to care less and less about its employees, evidenced by people being treated as "numbers", demanding ever increasing staff utilization and pooling consultants across industries to reduce cost and bench time.  This is odd, as its biggest asset is its people.  In addition, although leadership claims to want IBM to be more relevant to its clients, which (in my view) requires investments to explore opportunities with those clients, the focus (in the services biz) continues to very much be on sales and delivery of large, profitable projects.  In addition, HR is advocating organic growth, but has done little to improve the archaic and onerous process by which consultants' career advancement is managed/controlled.