Company: IBM
Date: 2017-11-03
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Variety of opportunities & Amazing colleagues
Pros: GREAT people who are smart and hardworking but fun and have good values. Interesting work and the opportunity to have a variety of different roles, growing your expertise in different areas, throughout a single career. Lots of opportunity to travel and learn new things.  Impressive family policies including a NEW parental leave program that doubles from 6 to 12 weeks and  includes fathers, partners, and adoptive parents. (For birth moms, this is in addition to the typical 6-8 weeks of paid maternity leave – so you can take up to 20 weeks paid.) 

I started at IBM when I was fresh out of business school and I have been here for almost 17 years. My life has changed drastically from the time I was hired - when I was a single woman with a dog - to now, as a mom with 2 kids. IBM has supported me through all of these transitions, allowing me to go on an international assignment for 2 years to be with my English then finance/ now husband, take leave of absence to stay home with both of my children until they were 1 year old and to work part time when they were small . Throughout these transitions I have been able to grow my skill set and expertise so that now that my children are a bit older I am able to have a high profile leadership role. I could not have asked for a better company to work for or partner with for the past 17 years.
Cons: IBM is big - which is a strength, because of the number of opportunities it offers, but for the wrong kind of person it can be overwhelming. People who need a lot of hand holding have a hard time here. People who can figure things out and get things done thrive and enjoy a lot of challenges, as well as the opportunity to travel and meet some really great people from all over the world.

Senior management is mostly good, but can be somewhat out of touch with what is really happening on the ground. I have been very impressed, though, with most of the new marketing leadership that have come on board in the past 12-18 months. For the most part I have seen good vision and competitive spirit, which is what we need.