Company: IBM
Date: 2016-11-02
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Not what it seems!
Pros: 1. Business
- IBM is reinventing itself from a technology perspective, driving new areas in cloud, big data & analytics, mobile, IoT (Internet of Things) & cognitive.

2. Brand
- Internationally recognized brand

3. Culture
- Good work life balance....but (please see Cons).
- Good application of social media/technology for communication e.g. blogs, Sametime chat

4. Organization
- Strong pool of talents distributed globally e.g. SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) available for sales support, customer workshops, projects etc.
- Project managers generally gives you the autonomy to work independently, and generally supportive to fresh graduates.

5. Compensation & Benefits
- Benefits are quite generous. Employees get a "Blue Benefits" card to access 2000 kr worth of benefits from healthcare to gym, shopping etc.

6. Others
- Very good library of knowledge portal
Cons: 1. Business
- Despite shifting to new technologies and significant investments (globally, not locally in Sweden), exposure to these projects are very very limited. 

2. Brand
- Brand is losing its appeal since few years ago. 

3. Culture
- Very selfish culture. Most people are only looking after themselves. No one speaks to you or introduce themselves even if they are sitting next to you. You can sometimes be in the office the whole day(s) without speaking a word to anyone!
- Extremely slow if you are looking for a project or idle (waiting on the bench). When in projects, most managers leave early but asks you to work late shifts... sometimes even on the weekend.
- Senior management is detached from the employees and very old-school thinking (don't be fooled by their speeches on vision, design thinking etc...)
- Despite the use of social media to aid communication, many IBMers (especially managers and above) do not respond UNLESS they are the ones who initiated the dialogue. The managers are only interested to respond if they need something from you. 

4. Organization
- Despite the strong pool of talents/SMEs, (1) they are usually not accessible or have a habit of not responding; (2) most local IBM offices stick to their own pool of resources strictly - which means that cross-border projects can be very difficult except of "very cheap" fresh graduates.
- Almost all managers are not interested in you! There is a system where people need to meet the requirement of "managerial skills" before getting promoted - although this is fair and good, these people are allocated into managerial roles/shifts, and there are only interested in meeting that requirement for promotion or KPI target. They do not have proper managerial training, poor counseling skills, and does not even take ownership in tracking your career progression.
- A lot of very good and talented people have left IBM. That said, many of these managers stay away until a few days before your departure to have an exit interview... asking why you are leaving!!

5. Compensation & Benefits
- Although good benefits, the internal process to obtain them is just ridiculous! This includes travel expense reports.
- Compensation is not generous, unless you know how to negotiate. Increments and bonus is almost non-existent, despite promises during interviews.

6. Others
- Very poor and expensive food in the restaurant
- Building is very old and the furniture are poor (broken chairs and tables left around). If the council had not approved a new plan to convert the IBM building to a school campus, IBM would have continued to stay in this rotten building!