IBM Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

Freedom, flexibility, good salary and benefits

Cons

Boredom, non-challenging, poor communication, design by committee

Pros

The benefits are good, and there are really a lot of smart people to learn from.

Cons

Salaries and bonuses are out of sync with the industry. I'm a 2+ performer and got a <$1000 bonus after almost 10 years at IBM. Layoffs happen twice a year until you're so overloaded with work that you threaten to quit. That's when they get you a resource in India who's harder to work with than a local intern (and this resource will quit to find another job).
Executives make a lot more and love spewing pearls of wisdom on the overloaded worker bees.
No camaraderie because everyone "works from home", so if you're social and prefer to be able to break the monotony of your cube, you'll have nobody but the janitors to talk to.

Advice to Senior Management

Improving the expense:income ratio by outsourcing jobs to India, laying off people, and cutting budgets for travel, development, marketing and research is a very short term way to fix things.
Look at the flux of people leaving IBM and recognize that things are very, very unhealthy. Please get an anonymous survey of employees to measure satisfaction (I've never seen one in almost a decade working here).
Oh, and a $1000 reward that vests in 6 years (plus a dozen strings attached) as a thank you to employees for a great 2010 is simply pathetic!

Pros

Great company and history
Smart people
Stock is doing awesome
Very helpful management

Cons

Most employees are pretty senior which makes it hard for young college graduates to adjust in the company environment (though this might be team dependent)
Compensation is average as compared to other companies in the field
Employees need more challenging work that requires greater innovation. IBM has been too dependent on it's existing technologies and solutions.

Pros

Excellent technology, extremely smart, talented people. Constant learning, never ending engineering challenges, and problems to solve. Part of something bigger than yourself if you so choose.

Cons

Some management are not knowledgable, too political. Ranking, appraisal system is counter productive, not sustainable. Management afraid to treat people well, for fear that people will ask for what management cannot provide.

Advice to Senior Management

Say what you really think, don't be restricted by your perceptions of what is acceptable or possible in the current system. It's there to be changed.

Pros

Great company with excellent history; Number of jobs available; Learning Opportunities

Cons

Pay is less compared to other companies; Rigid with few things

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Learn a lot , good people , interesting work ,

Cons

no growth , lack of career support

Pros

You get to work in an energized environment with a lot of very smart people. The projects actually go out to customers that provide us with feedback and gives you the drive to continually improve your design(s). Even if you are an engineer, you directly impact the bottom line no matter where you are on the totem pole. It's a fun place to be if you get on projects that are highly visible by upper management, otherwise, it can get pretty boring fast.

Cons

Management tends to not recognize high achievers in their immediate areas, and in some cases even promotes/awards the slackers. Projects that are funded can suddenly not be funded and the reasons aren't provided to the workers. Since the downturn in the economy, raises/bonuses have been weak and/or non-existent in most cases to the employees, but the management is tied to the stock, so they've been making out pretty nicely! Also, with IBM being a global company as they promote all over the place, all that means is that they are growing our BRIC share (Brazil, Russia, India, China) geographies while getting rid of American employees. Granted, this is a capitalist society, it's just sad to see all the expertise and quality control slip away to these emerging countries.

Advice to Senior Management

Without micromanaging, have a good pulse on your group. Know who the real contributors are! Also, push back on everything going to India/China. It's been proven time after time that given the limited resources we have in favor of these emerging countries, we still provide better work with less. Also, bring back better raises and bonuses to retain the employees and foster growth. Nobody wants to work somewhere for multiple years without a single dollar of an increase. Not even cost of living! It's sad to see a company that once many revered as being the premiere company in the US to work for slide so far down the list. Listen to your employees and learn from them!

Pros

Clear career path
Usually Flexible about work life/balance

Cons

Uninspiring workplace
Too much Bureaucracy
Conflicting message from leadership
Short sided decisions

Advice to Senior Management

Care more about employees instead of just the bottom line.

Pros

it is supposed to be a solid company

Cons

hostile environment, it doesn't live to expectations

Advice to Senior Management

better growth options for women

Pros

Great culture,
Flexible timings,
No micro-management,
Work Life balance is understood well by all
Office environment is brilliant

Cons

Too Big. Feel insignificant
Contributions go unnoticed
Too many hierarchical levels
Some bosses have been around for too long
People with little or no skills are some times recruited

Advice to Senior Management

Cut down on management. There is too much hierarchy and people contribute very little in the top management. People down the value chain end up doing a lot more than most others at the top but get paid the least