IBM Reviews in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Area

Pros

Lots of resources and opportunities available within the company

Cons

not many opportunities to provide management feedback

Advice to Senior Management

get feedback from employees more often

Pros

1. Excellent work / life balance options
2. Above market rate salaries
3. Tons of opportunities to learn
4. Large population of employees and big project teams lends exposure to diverse cultures.

Cons

1. Assignments can be long and hopelessly monotonous.
2. Performance rating system seems to be flawed. You may be held on bench earmarked for an engagement for future project by the Partners / RDM's; but you still will get less rating for your low utilization, which was not your fault in the first place.
3. Performance targets are set in Feb / March for the year. Evaluations for the year occur end of November / December, leaving first 2 months and last 1 month out of the scope. You are left to accomplish the 12 month goals in just 9 months..

Advice to Senior Management

Performance rating system seems to be flawed. You may be held on bench earmarked for an engagement for future project by the Partners / RDM's; but you still will get less rating for your low utilization, which was not your fault in the first place.

Pros

Company is amazing. great benefits, amazing co-workers, all fellow employees willing to help you and talk to you about your career

Cons

LDR Job-they were not upfront for how long we would be in this position- In the beginning said 6months to a year, after working for 14 months they said it would be another year or two before opportunity for advancement would arise. Unclear about how focused on "cold calling" the job would be.

Advice to Senior Management

More upfront about what job entails and how long you will be required to stay. Excellent job on feedback and helpfulness with new college grads in first "real job".

Pros

Work life family flexibility. Competitive pay, great benefits, challenging, fast paced. Lots of technology innovation, and career growth.

Cons

Large organization with allot of complex matrixed management and data models. Its a large company with tons of products. Can be very complex to navigate and stand out.

Advice to Senior Management

I love working at IBM, my only advice would be for us to get out of our own way sometimes. I think the processes sometimes stifle the ability to be innovative, creative, and responsive.

Pros

Learning
Advancement in career
Brand
Salary
Working conditions are very good and flexible
Culture
International Exposure
Paid Vacation
Other perks

Cons

Work Pressure
Good for higher management
Work Hours
Pressure to perform
No appreciation from team members/ managers
No training for freshers

Advice to Senior Management

There should be recognition to freshers. Also, the team should be given feedback by the supervisor or the project management about the performance and the evaluation should be done on the basis of performance and knowlegde

Pros

Within Global Business Services (GBS):
Good benefits package
Great brand
Well known clients
Many different types of consulting
Able to move from Industry to Industry

Cons

Cost cutting is the name of the game
No office culture at all
Everything is done virtually, including manager reviews
More administrative work for than most firms

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to the days of "World Class Training" and buzzing innovative office culture. In addition, most everyone in the company will agree that the 'offshore' (read: IBM India) investment strategy is not working, period.

Pros

This is for what we call Supplementals

12month contract with 6 month extension....read the CON first

Now, once you've proven yourself that you can keep scheds, have good feedback from the "lead" on whatever project and also have a few jobs involving subbing for a Deskside person going to vaca, they will ask you if you want a steady 40hr position and be a perm deskside. that's what im doing now, ive completed the initial 12 months, gave me a 6month ext, the client i work for doing support gave back positive feedback and im doing a 3yr supplemental contract now. once you get 3yrs, which is a bit rare for most Supplementals, you'll get the full benefits package with 401k and health. my manager is pretty easy going, 98% hands off, lets me work and just emails me a few times a month. so i do like the job...though now...a few yrs of doing deskside support...of course im aiming to go higher including the pay rate...ill take advantage of the free microsoft cert training theyve got and will ask to be a regular IBMer

Cons

i thought i was going to start doing deskside support right away but nope, you start off doing ad-hoc stuff. installing POS for clients, doing servers, networks (add/move/change). many late nights and early mornings. hours were sort of up and down, one week id be doing 45-50hrs, another 4-8 initially. my very first job was offsite to work with a group of ppl ive never met and install POS. lol i had no exp with POS, but i was good with comp hardware so its was pretty easy, but i felt like being thrown straight to the fire, all good it was my highest paying job as a 18yr old

Advice to Senior Management

You guys aren't bad, i like my manager, everything's gravy, im in my young 20s earning double, triple on what my friends make.

Pros

Life Work balance is good where I'm at
Stability seems pretty good even with downed economy if you are doing a good job

Cons

Getting promoted can get difficult
As in most large companies, some of the benefits have been taken away like retirement for new employees

Advice to Senior Management

Promote people based on the performance reviews and not based on structured documentation that takes months or years to fill out or complete

Pros

IBM is a good, stable company with a good working environment. The leadership is not always great but the abiliy to move around lets you quickly get away from the bad ones.

Cons

The Management can be slow to react. IBM can be slow with its products. The salary could be better too.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the ideas of your employees. Do not take the 360 feedback as a personal attack. Get better at getting your products out quicker to the market.

Pros

Big company, global environment, good access to resources

Cons

compensation, promotion and evaluation process, bonus structure

Advice to Senior Management

To maximize shareholder's returns you need to take care of who's delivering your projects