Company: IBM
Date: 2015-08-31
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Constantly reinventing ourselves
Pros: IBM is a company of experts. No matter what you are trying to accomplish and what domains it touches, there is one or more experts at IBM willing to help you. Here more than anywhere, I have felt like a part of a larger whole where all play their parts, many to perfection. IBM is also constantly trying to reinvent themselves, and that means there is always somethign new, cool, and exciting to work on. In the span of a year, there will always be multiple, game-changing announcements that open up new markets, technologies, and futures for us all. Finally, IBM is a place where you can have many different jobs and reinvent yourself. In two years here, I have had 5 or 6 different opportunities for new, exciting jobs. And they were all very different! Every "brand" at IBM has it's own sub-culture (almost like States in America), it's own expertise and set of challenges. With a company so large and diverse, it's possible to move from sales to development to marketing to management, and be working in completely different "companies" as you do so, all the while remaining a proud IBMer. The benefits are great, with fantastic health coverage, 401k matching and the works.
Cons: With a company so large, IBM can be very political. This exists to some extent throughout the company, though it's much more prevalent in other places than others. Depending on the agendas and motivations of those above, a unit can forge ahead at formidable speed or seem to have no direction (often when too many "executives" go in on the same project). When things move as fast as they sometimes do here, the team can move forward with little or no direction. What's truly negative is when there's conflicting direction. Though IBM has taken steps to flatten the organization, it does remain in places very top-heavy. Also, IBM is very quarter-focused. In some places, growth is more important than numbers. In many others, too much emphasis is put on this quarter's results and not enough time on future-proofing. With constant reinvention comes constant reshuffling, and job security is not what it once was at IBM. Low-growth or less future-facing groups will constantly be pruned, which is not a great practice. Finally, compensation will be a bit lower than the tech giants (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc) though it remains competitive.