IBM – “Avoid IBM”

Pros

The only reason why one would benefit from working for IBM would be the large scale of the company, which includes benefits and name recognition. In the past, it would be argued that IBM allows you the opportunity to advance your career, the availability of a wide range of other positions within the company, and stability beyond what you would get working for a smaller employer. That is no longer the case, so about all that you can count upon is that the company name will be recognized when you put it on your resume and go about looking for your next job. In the past, you would be managed by people who had experience working in the technical areas you supported, so they would understand the complexities of the work you performed, but that is no longer the case. You may be given an IBM logo shirt or mug every so often.

Cons

Employees are no longer valued for their skills, experience, or hard work. Despite what you may be told by a recruiter or hiring manager, you will not receive training. You will not get a raise. Your input is not valued, because the concern in delivering contracted services is only about cost, never about quality.

You will be expected to keep things moving along in their current state, not to improve them. Your skills will deteriorate, because you will not have access to the latest technology or training. Your work will be compartmentalized and focused, so you will become only an expert at performing a small range of tasks that are boring, unvarying, and not applicable outside of your current position. You will realize that you are not going to be able to compete with others in the job market outside of IBM, so you will continue to work there, fearing a move outside of the company. It will feel like a tarpit, holding you back as you struggle.

Management will lie to you. You will see earnings reports distributed that speak of fantastic results and rosy outlooks for the future, but you will also be told that there is no funding for your bonus, you will not get a salary increase, you cannot take that class, and that travel budgets are frozen. You will have to pay for your own network access, even as you are expected (and required) to be able to connect while supporting off-hours oncall paging rotations. You will see lavish pay for the executives, corporate jets being purchased, and pensions for executives that seem to be a typo, they are so good.

You will have project managers with no technical knowledge at all insist upon what tasks you can perform and how long they will take to complete, if they maintain communication with you at all. IBM will make many promises to a customer to get the contract signed, but when it turns out to be physically impossible to meet the agreements in the time constraints and with the number of staff that you work with, it will be your fault that goals are not met. You will have to explain why something was down for too long to a management member grilling you with absolutely no understanding of the fundamentals of the technology involved.

You will see your benefits decrease year-to-year. There is no longer a true pension. You may even be give a paycut of 10-15% suddenly. When coupled with a lack of pay increases for a number of years as well as inflation, you will find yourself making less money than when you started with the company.

You will be asked to work at least 15% overtime, unless you are eligible to be paid for it. In those cases, you will need to prove that the overtime is necessary and get approval on multiple levels. You will keep track of your hours to bill the customer, but as the end of a quarter or fiscal year approaches, all extra hours will be prohibited. You will have two choices: do not work over 40 hours, but somehow manage to make sure that all work is still completed, or work all the overtime, do not bill it, and take comp time. You will not take the comp time, as you will be too busy or too afraid to take a day off. If you take time off, then you will be seen as non-essential and will certainly be chosen for the next round of "workforce reductions."

You will live in fear of losing your job. There will be rumors all around regarding upcoming firings, moves of job functions to cheaper centers or overseas, and other frightening scenarios. You will pass these off as rumors until they each begin to come to fruition exactly as described.

You will not have the opportunity to move within the company. In times of turmoil, moves between departments, contracts, and divisions are frozen completely.

You will regret joining IBM.

Advice to Senior Management

You have stopped valuing the skills and knowledge of your technical employees. There is no easy fix for this, as the reputation of the company is on the decline due to the treatment of current and former employees. They will not be kind in their evaluation of the company when dealing with coworkers, clients, and competitors in the future. The mindset of upper management and executives is contrary to the direction that would be best to resolve this, so no positive change can be made without a complete overhaul.