IBM Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

1) Flexible work schedule - if you need time off in the middle of the day for any reason and are in an exempt position - this never seems to be a problem.
2) Water Cooler time - assuming you are in an exempt position, management doesn't seem to mind some time spent socializing throughout the day.
3) Opportunities - It may be tough to get to the top but there are more 8 and 9 figure businesses to run inside of IBM than most places. You may not meet the CEO but running a large business is possible without ever meeting the CEO because there are so many opportunities.
4) Cultural Diversity- If you like learning about and working with people from multiple cultures, IBM may be the place for you. At one point I worked on a team from across 6 different countries which is both challenging and a great opportunity.
5) Time off- IBMers start with almost 4 weeks of vacation (3 weeks plus 4-5 personal choice holidays) and most exempt positions have unlimited sick days. That is double most employers out there.
6) Large corporate perks - We get discounts from cell phone plan to mortgages to life insurance to TVs. Leave for paternity leave, education, and other life events is also pretty standard where I work.

Cons

1) Politics- Its a big company with big politics.
2) Performance pressure - few employers put such pressure on the employees to perform such that there are programs to continually trim the bottom 10%.
3) Average work schedule - every place I have worked the average employee that is doing well is pulling a minimum of 50 hour weeks and normally its closer to 60.
4) Compensation - all and all the compensation is just average and IBM works hard to do that. Even in good years like after 2010, IBM rarely pays bonuses of half of the "potential" they have declared.
5) Offshoring - the heavy focus on cost cutting has increased offshoring aka global sourcing to be the norm. 10 years ago they used to move the old dead projects offshore. Now, new and innovative work is begun offshore.

Advice to Senior Management

- Reset expectations for a bonus plan because no one has been getting their potential for years.
- Give more flexibility for top performers to innovate

Pros

Some very competent and smart people work here. The IT tools to do your job are quite good.

Cons

Very difficult to get promotions or raises anymore in the US (we think IBM cuts about 5-10% of its workforce every year), work very long hours without monetary rewards.

Advice to Senior Management

Do something to regain employee loyalty, which has essentially disappeared. There is just so much work you can get out of employees when their only motivation left is keeping their jobs.

Pros

IBM has many great achievements to its name both as a company and in technology.

Cons

IBM appears to place very little value in its HW business.

Pros

Good benefits. Lot of good people to work with.

Cons

Big company with lot of politics. It's not what you know but who you know at IBM. Lot of inefficiencies including excessive meetings.

Pros

Benefits, lots of really intelligent people

Cons

Focus on process orientation, reliance on fire-fighting

Advice to Senior Management

Treat workers like people not resources on a spreadsheet, allow coworkers their personal dignity, loud does not make right

Pros

It's an ok work, not busy, very well defined responsibilities

Cons

not highly paid, not good benefits, not good team moral

Pros

Ability to work from home
Large number of opportunities if willing to relocate
Diverse group of intelligent people

Cons

Poor Worklife Balancing
First level managers have little to no power to impact anything
Glass Ceiling for non executives
Poor Bonus Structure

Advice to Senior Management

IBM has a large group of talented people. The processes in IBM are good to average, but they require constant monitoring and adjustment. IBM management is under the impression that all of our processes are so perfect that they can just continue to reduce the amount of people associated with them. They seem to be totally disconnected on how much effort is required. Even when they reduce people they still expect the same or more amount of information. If reductions have to take place then decisions have to be made as to what is not going to be done any longer. Doing more with less only works for so long.

Pros

flexible work options, great benefits

Cons

IBM has 2 paths - specialists and managers. This makes no since because it encourages the knowledgable employees to get “stuck” at the specialist level and promotes people who dont necessarily understand the details of IBM’s business / products to management level.

Pros

You get to put IBM on your resume.

Cons

It's not that the people aren't well meaning, but the entire company goes out of its way to obstruct the business process. The company is so compartmentalized that there is no teaming across organizations and you are made to feel incredibly small, despite your contributions. They don't give rewards to the employees for profit growth- only revenue growth. Try growing on 100B revenue... No incentives... as close to a government job as you can get--except without the job security.
The company is stripping away at its mobile employees and moving them to onsite locations for 2/3 of the salary. Really not a healthy place to be.

Advice to Senior Management

lol - no.

Pros

Big company, easy to fly under the radar and keep your job if you're a mediocre employee. Lots of different projects to move around to.

Cons

Exceptional employees are not rewarded well. Upper management has no respect for employee concerns. Benefits get worse every year. Merit raises and bonuses are pathetically small.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire Sam P... Fire 50% of the managers. Offer better incentives for exceptional employees. Look at the top 100 companies list for ideas on how to better treat employees.