IBM Reviews

Pros

IBM give you a nice balance between personal stuff and work so no pressure there - good for those with small kids. Quite stable at GTS.

Good for women as they are first candidates from promotion.

Cons

This is a money machine with the management vision not going beyond the quarter.
IBM are a collection of brands who will be cutting each others throats for every cent of revenue
Very risk averse and hates to invest -- most of innovation is done at the client's expense, so your moral code will be terrorised
Each solution we do is done like it is first of its kind... Trying to get hold of an SME is more like a ping pong game and you will play the role of a ball.
The amount of dead wood - we have forests

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the talk. Lead by example. Reduce the hypocrisy and complacency. Innovate REALLY not in your heads. Fix managers' charisma -- most have none. You are very process oriented but 90% are just obsolete burden which exists for historical reason. To test your new management appointments, please sack them if they start with changing the reporting hierarchy -- you are a matrix, why you need so many levels of management?

Support your staff and provide them with real career advancement opportunities -- your GOM is a joke with 95% positions dead, opened to follow the process.

Pros

- looks good on resume to external companies
- lots of career paths and options
- very ethical company - focuses on customer success

Cons

- no decision making ability
- lots of process/rules to follow
- no perks
- deceiving incentive plans

Advice to Senior Management

- fix incentive plans

Pros

Health and vacation benefits are good.

Cons

Compensation is sub-par.
Given a 15% PAY CUT because of job reclassification (with no over time allowed). We perform the same work, and get paid less.
Yearly reviews are not individual performance based. Instead, the yearly bonus/raise is competitive to your group (a 2+ rating). This means you are required to make your teammates look bad in order to make more money.
They also do not provide all the tools you need or reimburse you for all your expenses. So prepare to spend your own money to do your job.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensation. We make the money, we should earn the money. Without us, you are nothing. Keep that in mind. We do our best to earn IBM extra money via ODS work, we go the extra mile to ensure customers are happy and continue purchasing. Who is keeping us happy? It certainly isn't IBM.

Pros

Variety of opportunities
Legacy of a long standing company
Clear Business direction
Opportunity for technical growth

Cons

Huge place, information soliciting can be cumbersome

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

IBM gives you good opportunities to grow professionally, work life balance is really good.

Cons

Compensation not so great compared to other companies with similar profile

Pros

Knowledge and Learning
People Management Skills

Cons

Less Compensation
No overseas opportunities
Less career progression options

Pros

Some good policies of old days are still existing, like relocation benefits but they won't last long
Flexible work timings
Presence in major cities of world

Cons

Moving away from Employee caring company to Employee sucking company.
Believe me IBM US is still a great place to be in. The subsidiary companies like IBM India, rather cost center like IBM India is a glorified body shopping shop for employees they ship from India. After few years you will realize what damage they did to your career.
Compensation - That remains pathetic in India and US ( IBM India only)
Health Benefits - They have increased the insurance contribution from employee to 100% in US and in India where insurance premium is to be paid by employer as per law, they have managed to reduce the coverage to 3 lakh (family) which in today's India is nothing.

Advice to Senior Management

Start caring about employees and stop treating them like machines to churn dollars.

Pros

> Flexibility of work
> Freedom to Work from home
> Excellent knowledge sharing repositories readily available in intranet
> Huge diversity and exposure

Cons

> Non challenging work
> Slow growth in terms of promotion and monetary gains
> No incentives
> Low motivation from management

Advice to Senior Management

> Work towards employee satisfaction by giving incentives and benefits
> Rotation policy for sending employees who have stayed in the company for prolonged period to go onsite
> Salary hikes as per the market

Pros

There are a lot of resources available if you're persistent and talk to the right people. The company is large enough that you can almost certainly find a project that interests you. There are quite a few bright people around from whom you can learn.

Cons

There is a bit of an ingrained "old school" culture that values conformity over creativity. There are quite a few conservative enclaves that want to simply keep their job and work under the radar until retirement. One encounters quite a bit of resistance to any actions which are perceived to threaten this.

Pros

Many career possibilities, challenging projects and many good people to work with.

Cons

Difficult to transfer from one organization to another.