Company: IBM
Date: 2009-03-24
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Great Brand, Terrible Management
Pros: The Name is huge, and there are lots of smart people who are also decent human beings.
Cons: The brand name is the only reason that I selected some areas of satisfaction in this poll, because IBM will help my career growth when I decide to use the brand name to land something much better outside the company. It's pathetic how they bring in talented people, train them, and then stupidly lose them because compensation is sub-par for the level or work and workload, and management is out of touch and arrogant. Great strategy - spend money to hire and train and then let other companies reap the benefits. It seems like the really good people leave unless they become someone's pet and find a political loophole to career advancement. The good ones who stay probably do it for family reasons due to workplace flexibility, or don't want to take a risk... IBM should be one of the most sought after companies to work for, but it's just a place to build a great resume for 2-5 years and move on for anyone with career ambitions. 

I haven't worked outside of Market Insights, but from what I hear, this is supposed to be one of the best places to work. Maybe it is by IBM standards, but not by what you would expect. There are way too many politics. Management doesn't even take the time to get to know employees or take an active part in developing them. It's all passive. The employee has to initiate everything (career talk, mentorship, and even just basic learning about how to do the job). You only interact with the first line managers even though the executives make the decisions. If you get a few minutes with them, they act like God. It's an outdated style in today's world. It sounds nice to say that employees should manage their own careers, but there's way too much workload and secrecy to cut through. Most of my senior colleagues tell me that if you want to advance, it's more about wasting working time to put on shows and kiss executive ass than about the quality of the work. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun when you can just leverage the name for 50-100% higher salary and a better title... The thing is that management could avoid that by just respecting and fairly compensating employees when they have the chance, but that makes too much sense.