Company: IBM
Date: 2010-10-31
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

Decline and Fall ...
Pros: The only advantage that IBM has is that it is the inheritor of an enviable technological heritage.  However, this often leads to complacency and so, it could be a disadvantage.  Perhaps companies too, like civilisations, have a finite lifespan.  They are born, they grow, they attain glory, and then they decline and fall to dust.
Cons: IBM, in late 2010, is a company at precisely the same point in its history as the Roman Empire was in early 410.  While the stock appreciates and the patrician elite makes its millions, there is mutiny and desertion in the legions, and barbarian incompetents are fast filling up the ranks.  It is a company that hopes that it can cash in on past glory.  There is no vision, the leadership coterie is totally uninspiring, and all that poppycock about smart planets, on demand, and globally integrated enterprise is just another gimmick to dupe customers, shareholders and employees alike with inane buzzwords.  

If you are at all competent, you'll soon find out that work / life balance means nothing.  Like in every other company these days, you'll end up having to do the work of 10 other incompetent colleagues.  If you're clever, you'll adjust the level of your competence to match your salary and the general competence of everyone around you, thus effectively lowering the average competence of the group.  Eventually, the bad will drive out the good and the barbarians will have all but sacked the city.