IBM Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

Lots of resources, ton of internal training available, great market creating and shaping role for IT industry

Cons

110% of focus is now on making quarterly profit targets only

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to balancing profit growth with valuing employees.

Pros

good job security for top performers, generally good compensation, exposure to lots of technologies

Cons

bureaucracy, global teams makes it hard to communicate and work quickly, tons of meetings, lots of interlocking with many other products, lack of engineering freedom, scope creep,

Advice to Senior Management

invest in good engineers and let them drive ideas from the bottom up. invest in quality by staffing projects better and allowing time instead of paying the cost of quality after delivery. buy vs. build has negative long term implications on brand quality and recognition even if short term gains are noticeable due to decreased risk.

Pros

- extremely flexible work options (you can basically telecommute anytime you want, and hardly anyone comes into the office)
- IBM has a great brand and is recognized on resumes
- very strong team environment ... since the company is so big, everyone has to help each other out by sharing knowledge and expertise

Cons

- huge company, so you can feel lost at times. but I relied on the internal company directory to find the right contacts and get things done
- everyone is extremely busy, so as an intern, I had to be proactive about my project or risk having a pretty unmeaningful summer. great culture if you are a go-getter
- pay was so-so compared to my MBA peers

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage some work-life balance and mean it

Pros

IBM recruits and hires some of the smartest people you'll ever work with. It provides services for large, well-known clients. If you like business travel, it's a great place to work.

Cons

Salaries are lower than competitors, which drives a high turnover rate -- a certain percentage of the people you're working with today won't be here a year from now. Additionally, outsourcing efforts have resulted in regular layoffs -- most of IBM's tenured employees work in constant fear of being laid off without notice.

Pros

Good work environment and support facilities

Cons

Management has no guts. They'd rather sign an IT support contract and outsource support than take a risk and develop a real product.

Advice to Senior Management

retire and let someone else lead the company

Pros

compensation, travel budgets are flexible, good way to see the world if your in that stage of life

Cons

long hours, very little time in home city

Pros

Great Salary, flexibility to work from home, evenings, etc.

Cons

No proper work planning, Deadlines are defined before understanding the scope of work by people who do not understand technology. As a result, people are expected to work round the clock all year. Too many meetings around the globe at odd hours. Too little face to face work.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees and listen to their concerns. Chasing a stock price will not pay off in long run.

Pros

Lots of smart people to work with, top notch in their technical skills. Working on latest technologies makes getting up in the morning to go to work a worthwhile endeavor.

Cons

Overall treatment of employees needs to be improved. We are certainly not "interchangeable parts." Lack of pay raises because one has reached "50%" of market penetration is a joke - one wonders who they survey to reach that conclusion.

Advice to Senior Management

Forced bell curve for appraisals is a quick way to kill enthusiasm for working at the company. When it becomes "just a job" you will have high turnover - because people can be treated the same way for more $$ elsewhere.

Pros

IBM is really flexible, depending on the position that you are working. Also they provide opportunities to experience many different jobs within the Raleigh-Durham area.

Cons

IBM can tend to require some weekend work and since you are able to work from home in addition to working in the office, you often end up working much more than the 40-hour work week.

Advice to Senior Management

I would advise enabling managers to reward top performers better. Also, I believe it would be a money-saving opportunity as well as beneficial to the environment to encourage more work from home.

Pros

Brand name and illusive good feeling that you are working for a tech giant.

Cons

All the Cons of large consulting company + treating people like head-count.

Advice to Senior Management

I heard this from another IBM-er recently - IBM is good company for investors but not for employees. Management should listen learn from this.