IBM Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

Good flexibility to work
Mid level management is good

Cons

1. Very bad compensation plan
2. Lateral moves very difficult thus limiting your professional growt

Advice to Senior Management

1. Make compensation plan better
2. Have a program for lateral moves within the company thus making professional development possible

Pros

IBM continues to seek out the best and brightest among computer professionals from around the world. The culture of technical excellence and advancement is still solidly in place.

Cons

With so many highly talented and skilled professionals, the culture at IBM is often cutthroat to the point that genuine talent is overshadowed by personalities and cliques. Employees are often viewed as disposable and interchangeable, with more emphasis frequently placed on bringing in fresh college hires than retaining more experienced workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Delivering value to shareholders needs to be a long term project. You cannot keep treating more experienced workers like we are disposable and expect to retain a dominant position. Nor is sending jobs to the location with the cheapest wages a viable long term solution. The morale level at many locations, in the United States and abroad, is virtually non-existent.

Pros

IBM IS THE GOOD COMPANY

Cons

I don't like the management

Advice to Senior Management

The management need more time with thier employee

Pros

Great place to work at. Very nice management . Flexibility

Cons

Low salary and perks - No fun

Advice to Senior Management

Love the way you run business - Keep it up

Pros

Lots of opportunities for self development, career development. Many great education courses can be completed when required.
 Flexible schedule is often available. Lots of work can be done from home.

Cons

Lower average salary comparing to other similar companies. A lot of politics involved in any change even within a team.

Advice to Senior Management

Value people more based on their real contribution and not on the fact that they belong to minority or majority group. Right now it seems that people from minority groups get lots of advantage over the majority group. They rarely get fired even if they do not provide any real contribution.

Pros

- Flex work schedules
- One could get by all the way until retirement by doing just enough
- One could try anything from research to finance to sales to development without leaving IBM

Cons

- Very varied policies across the company. You could be a smart guy looking to for a promotion from band 7 to 8 in one area, while in another area, people half as smart as you could be on the way to becoming band 10s.
- WAY too much politics
- WAY too much process; needed o keep a large company in order, but often makes no sense at a micro level
- You could climb up the career ladder by being at the right place, saying the right things, contacting the right people... without the need to actually be great at what you do. If you're the quiet type, forget growth here.

Advice to Senior Management

- Put some importance in taking genuine care of your employees. If they are happy, customers will automatically be happy.
Classic examples from personal experience...
- Management to employees: No, you cannot pool in money to keep sodas near your offices, because that will upset the contractor of the vending machines at the other end of the building, quarter of a mile away. THIS is not a good place to work.
- Employee to manager: I can provide a temporary patch to the customer so he can get his system back up and running. Manager to employee: No, thats someone else's job. If you do his job, the system wont break and will hence never be fixed. Let the customer get upset, so that team can realize their mistake.

Pros

Big company that is not going to disapear on you,
Descent benefit

Cons

Pay scale not the best,

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more frequent feedback

Pros

You have access to lots of up to date technology. There are a lot of competent people that work at IBM. You can gain a lot of valuable experience in the industry. The benefits are decent, and the work hours are very flexible.

Cons

Management is very stingy with salary increases and promotions. The performance review process (PBCs) is very opaque and and seemingly random. You are given very vague feedback from management on the type of work expected from you and your performance relative to your peers.

Advice to Senior Management

Work harder to motivate and engage employees. Have a clearer process for obtaining promotions and raises. Provide more relevant feedback regarding job performance and expectations.

Pros

employee discounts, wide variety of coworker backgrounds

Cons

There is a axiom - "IBM stands for I'm By Myself" and they ain't kidding. We were absorbed and instead of getting ibm salaries, we kept our government salaries. Doing the same jobs as existing IBM people but at a 60% discount. Consistent reductions in staff/ requests for contractors to "take off" to improve quarterly bottom line which increases work for remaining people.

Advice to Senior Management

do a better job of determining EVERYTHING that is required before offering a bid for a contract.

Pros

Flexible work hours. Work from home. Good benefits. Incredible array of technical resources: redbooks, web sites, wikis, forums, other publications.

Cons

Senior management is focused only on short term business results at the expense of everything else. Most gains have come from acquisitions. Offshoring and relentless focus on the bottom line is eroding quality in existing products and services. IBM is trading off its brand recognition, but how long can this continue? There is a frightening lack of coordination and communication from one part of the company to another. It can be very frustrating to get simple things done. Upper management inaccessible, doesn't care. Most management is non technical and doesn't understand the work they oversee.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest. Respect your employees. More frequent and candid communication. What's going on and why? Don't dance around the subject of offshoring.