Company: IBM
Date: 2014-12-25
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

A great company but not for long time
Pros: 1. You can have a great career path. There is no limit, theoretically.
2. A lot of new technologies. Every year, there is a new technology to learn, or a new version of a product to get more knowledge in, or even work with it at a customer site.
3. There are a lot of resources to use and to get knowledge or to get ready for your customer.
4. A lot of methods and a lot of theories to use about how you should engage with you customer.
5. A great experienced and skilled people who you can work with, if you had the chance.
6. You will have the chance to learn how to invent new things, and how you keep IBM rights for these ideas. 
7. If you understand the system and you can take the right turn at the right time, then you can keep at IBM forever if you like. Like working in any other governmental position. 
8. You have the chance to move to other countries as you have internal insights for other positions in other units. But again it is not that open as your country and the other country should approve this move.
Cons: 1. It is simply an old company. When a company is old it is simply because the management is old. Old in thinking and old in age. They keep inviting you to invent, while they don't dare to invent in the management path.
2. Although you can have a long career path, but this is for a technical path. Don't think about a management path. It is a path that is not for those who are thinking and using there minds.
3. In a big company you can not control such a huge entity unless you have rules. Sometimes these rules are designed for special countries who have special situations. So you have to accept the system as is, as part of the deal.
4. With the first sign of a finical problem, the easy and proved solution for the management is to get rid of you. Simply because you are only a cost for them. No matter of what you did or you can do for the company … unless .., you belong to a new area (cloud, analytics, mobile, security, or social) but this is only so far for 2014, because it is changing every year. 
5. You should accept to have a low salary, simply because you are working for the dream company. One of the great benefits that IBM is offering is simply being working for IBM and to hold its name, so if you accept that, you don't have the right to accept more salary.
6. IBM, at least IBM in Egypt is simply don't have HR for a long time ago. There are some efforts for this to be changed. But with the rate of change, they still have long time to go.
7. You career is with with no limit, theoretically. However practically, it depends on the following:
1. Which country are you working at. So if you are working for IBM Egypt for example, like me, then you are not lucky enough. Don't think about something great from inside IBM Egypt. You have to move to other country, regional, or outside region to have a better chance.
2. Are you a sales person, or a technical person. But this is a dilemma that is common on all IT countries, in which the sales persons is always having the big posts, while the technical persons are only losing their personal lives. 
3. How much of your personal life you are ready to scarify. If you are ready to be called at any time at day or night, by your manager to do any stupid request, then you will be able to make a great career unless you are lucky enough to have a descent manager.
4. You should accept traveling and be on the road most of the time. All the management will keep telling you that they want to help you to manage your personal life. However it is not true, because they are simply can not do it, what they can do is to keep you working and keep you billable as high as possible.