IBM Reviews in France

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – - Easy to change job or start a new career
- Flexibility in work
- Interesting jobs

Cons – - Salary not very competitive compare with other companies
- Not easy to climb quickly in the management line

Advice to Senior Management – Increase salary

Current Employee – been working at IBM full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Company moves to high technologies

Cons – Low salaries for all employees, except shareholder profits

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IBM part-time for more than a year

Pros – It's a big recognized company which will offer many opportunities. Not inside the firm because they do not hire, but after for your job search. If you are lucky enough to be in a good department, like marketing department, you will have some benefits such as
- the possibility to work at home from time to time, you get a laptop which you can carry everywhere.
- having flexible working hours : no one will stare at you or make a not funny joke about the time you arrive / leave at you workplace. As long your job is well done nothing else matter.

Like I say before, people you work with are the key. I have an amazing team. They trust me, my work and I have responsabilities, interesting projects, I learn a lot.

Cons – Like every big company they have process, too many ... I heard it was one of the worst. It is really boring to follow every steps, to have to fill tools with information, to get approval for every € spend...
There is also a lake of creativity, we do every the same kind of event and activity, because of all the process we don"t have enough time to create. And we work a lot with agencies which are here to deliver creativity.
The do not hire even if you succeed beoing the best of your open space... No way
When you arrive you really have to be proactive, work don't come by itself you must look for it, ask for it.
My experience is great as I said but many of my fellows are disapointed, they do nothing or ininteresting tasks as excels files, they are really bored.
As an apprentice we are really noy paid well 1100...

Advice to Senior Management – I am really well managed, everyting was explained to me when I arrived and after.
But It's so not the case of the other trainees or apprentices, they are quite alone, they have someone to manage them who is appointed but they often don"t have time to care about the new one. They really should be aware of where are the needs in order to not waste an apprentice / trainee

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – Great Cie to work and discover

Cons – ww cie sometimes to much far from local

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – - The company's image, still... At least for the general public, 'I work for IBM' means something...
- IBM is really serious about training, and very well organized for that.

Cons – - Way too much time spent dealing with processes...
- No chance to grow a team (at least in Software development): no organic growth, no new projects...
- Every year, only around half of the employees get a salary raise. You may never get a raise if you're not (considered) better than your closest colleagues. Say 'Bye!' to team spirit...
- Cost control is way too tight. Some employees even start to buy computers on their own money to be able to do their job correctly! And travel is extremely restricted.

Advice to Senior Management – - Planning to spend 35k$/year/employee for the next 5 years on 'returning value to the shareholders' (c.f. 2015 plan) is outrageous given what employees get in the meantime...
- Planning for the whole growth to be driven by acquisitions precludes existing teams to grow. Very bad for employee's morale...
- Be careful about imposing constraints on how to do things without any justification except pleasing the team in charge of implementing/checking these contraints. The costs of those constraints never seem to be accounted for...
- Stop restricting salary raises to only around 50% of employees!
- Let managers decide how they want to spend their budget: do you really think that an accountant (or, rather, a policy) knows better what's good for the business?
- For employees the work of whom is not tied to a specific country, don't let their country's results affect their raises and bonuses.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – The possibility to collaborate with highly skilled individuals arround the world

Cons – The processes are to constrainting

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at IBM

Pros – Really thrilling engineering challenges and problems to solve. Feeling to be surrounded by competent and intelligent persons. Interns are well perceived and can wander around the whole site to ask questions on their problems. Their insight is appreciated.
Montpellier is a cool city.

Cons – Not extremely fast-paced, maybe not enough for some. Intern pay is low compared to standards. Sometimes they don't have much work for interns and consequently give you stupid tasks.

Advice to Senior Management – Create a real internship program, more orientated towards the intern, not simply involving him on a team that doesn't always need him and only gives him work "on the go". Make it more fast-paced.

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – Vacations days and social benefits ...

Cons – Unattainaible objectives (when clear)
Opacity of evaluation and lack of recognition on all non sales-related activities
Huge waste of energy and time on internal processes hindering work
No ability for the management to recognize financially good performances (individual or groups)

Advice to Senior Management – More informal recognition would go a long way (job dinners, team events, ...)
Reward client-related good performances even when not related to new signings
More visibility on career options and requirements for promotion

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – Large range of products. Large panel of compétences among colleagues. Benefits policy. Possibility to move to different jobs. Holidays given at arrival !

Cons – Too much reporting. Too Boring to preserve your image versus your results. Spend More than 25% of my time on administrative tasks. Everything is complex...every single task become a nightmare because of process.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop spending time in meetings during which no actions are taken for customer ! Don't believe the numbers given by employees via reporting ! Pend time with customers instead of being stucked at office.

Current Employee – been working at IBM

Pros – IBMers are globally very competent and willing to share their knowledge. Young people do have the ability to learn greatly in a very short time.

Cons – Compensations are lower than other companies for the same job. Employees moral is quite low. Motivation decreases as the company makes benefits and salaries stay the same.

Advice to Senior Management – Management should consider students as a value source and not only a way to save on taxes. A better salary policy would increase people motivation.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend