IBM Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

Good people. Einsteimer. Access to leading edge tools.

Cons

Layoffs. Low pay. Lack of product roadmap.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Work/Life Balance & the IBM Brand

Cons

Large Corporation which can be a pro and con.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication to employees, overall very happy with the management team.

Pros

For a young person or someone new to IT IBM still looks good on a resume. Working there for a few years will allow someone to get basic skills and experience that will be helpful after leaving IBM.

IBM has fairly decent benefits in regards to Medical and Dental insurance, flexible working arrangements and 401K.

The flexible work arrangements make for a reasonable place for a retiree to work as a supplemental employee. There is also a lot less pressure as a supplemental employee and pay is typically better than being hired as an IBM contractor.

Cons

IBM's intent is to offshore many jobs in the US. This results in high performing employees, in addition to lower performers, being laid off to move much of the highly technical work oversees.

IBM used to provide a lot of training for employees in order to maintain current skills and allow folks to upgrade into new technologies. Over that past several years education has been curtailed to increase earnings per share in a decreasing revenue environment.

Few and far between pay raises/promotions for expected work load.

When I first started with IBM management and executives were engaged with employees. Under the current CEO management has become isolated from employees. The result is a work force that has no general direction or input into product/development cycles. It also displays itself in lack of innovation in products as the folks in the trenches no longer have input in the design processes.

To sum it up I have told my children to look at IBM as an employer of last resort.

Advice to Senior Management

Management and executives need to reengage with employees. This will allow those that know what is truly going on in the business and products to provide much needed data that can be used for product planning and schedules.

The current CEO and board need to stop looking at short term earnings and stock price. They need to start looking long term and how to grow revenue organically. There was a time that IBM was the largest computer producer, the largest software vendor, the largest external storage producer, etc. Today it is the leader in none of these. With 31 years I can say it was not the development teams that caused this to happen. The responsibility lays squarely with the executive team.

Pros

Opportunities to learn. Exposure to unique hardware. Nice people most of the time.

Cons

Salaries way too low. Huge time demands, nights and weekends - no family time. No opportunity to move up, especially for contractors. Employees under-appreciated.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more realistic about release times. Stop expecting people to work 70 hour weeks to make up for short release times and not enough personnel.

Pros

I was paid fairly, and in the olden days (say before 1997) allowed a lot of leeway toward education and professional enrichment. Salary, bonuses, and even awards were more than fairly given in my case. The experience I had at IBM really launched my professional career, most of my experience before was in unrelated fields.

Cons

Over time, management becomes more "metrics driven" - which is to say, short sighted. Oh how many things we did twice because they weren't realistic about the scope of the work, or how it fit strategically. Perhaps that's because much of the "boots on the ground" management has no idea what their underlings do. Also, those awards and bonuses seem pretty arbitrary when you look at the big picture, seems if your own management isn't strong, your dept will never get their share - no matter how hard they work.

In the end, they'll either sell your division, move your job to India or China, or just plain lay you off. Everybody I know still in "the company" is watching their backs, just waiting for the axe to fall.

Advice to Senior Management

Grow a pair, get rid of Palmisano before he bankrupts the company. But even more important; Decide what business IBM wants to be in. There's not a lot of call for "taking vast sums of money for poorly delivered offshored services" (yes I mean you IGS). So, figure out where the "family jewels" of IBM are, and take a management approach to exploit those that looks out past the next quarter, and past Palmisano taking his money and running.

Pros

IBM is such a giant that working hard is really up to you, so even if merit-based raises are misaligned with reality, you can easily latch on to a decent salary without much effort.

Cons

IBM has a very long chain mgmt chain, and an excess of red tape. Outsourcing of US jobs is happening constantly and the catastrophic results are treated with crowdsourcing, to no effect. Yet the senior mgmt in charge of this flawed strategy continue to move up the chain while the few left behind continue to mop up the mess being made.

Advice to Senior Management

What makes IBM the big blue, is top quality at a top price. The cost cutting madness and job movement abroad is giving investors returns, which is great. However, your customers are left with low quality at a top price. Yes there is the promise that we will send our experts over to fix things up, but the reputation of IBM is being cut up into pieces. The savings made today will need to be reversed in a couple of years when the support machine drains the coffins, unfortunately by then the years of expertise you let go will be working across the street.

Pros

Great benefits - one of the best 401k plans, good healthcare options
Very good work/life balance - work from home options
Good place if you want to get into management path

Cons

Very big and slow moving company.
Typically the last ones to try anything new and cool. on the verge of being obsolete in terms of software offerings and research.
You cant just do good work and expect to be promoted, you need to work for the "right" people on the "right" projects, often grunge work to get recognized. Too many good people get overlooked while other unqualified people get fast-tracked in their careers. S/w engineers often switch to management path to get job growth as managers run the company rather than technical people. The technical career path is not as well defined as the management path is.
Pay is mediocre compared to other big companies in the area, top management rakes in big bonuses and stock each year while individual depts get tiny amounts to distribute as raises.. getting a 2-3% raise is considered as a big deal.

Advice to Senior Management

Think of ways to retain and employ talent, while reducing dead-wood in the company. Improve pay and make it competitive with the market. Invest in the new areas of research, its been ages since IBM came up with something worthwhile and cutting edge. All the company seems to be doing is acquisitions and making money off of that.

Pros

Solid corporation to work, good benefits, great training/learning opportunities, great experience, many smart and talented employees, potential for good work/life balance if on right team/area/discipline;

Cons

potential for poor work/life balance if on wrong team/area/discipline; outsourcing U.S. jobs to lower paid overseas workers, trend towards not respecting U.S. employees and employees in general (i.e. taking away reimbursements for work at home, low cost awards, etc.), a somewhat secretive mgt. communication culture, lack of strategy for true growth/innovation (stock has been flat for 10+ yrs), only way they stay profitable is cutting more and more costs and cutting jobs

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership team needs to consider stepping out of the 'bubble' (vacuum) board rooms, & get down on the 'ground floor' with the true workabees at IBM. They do not seem to be in touch with reality of how things really work in the field, and are making decisions based on theory, what Wallstreet may think, cutting costs that may help short term but could hurt the company long term, & show much more respect for employees than they have been. Since Sam took over, the company has more and more gone down hill and the stock has gone no where but side ways, even with all of the cost cutting and 'outsourcing' initiatives.

Pros

The benefits are exceptional: free health insurance, dental insurance, disability, 15 vacation days, 12 holidays, 6% 401K matching, ability to work from home

Cons

I was frequently on call which meant I had to carry a pager for a week every other month
The raises and promotions were pretty minimal each year
I was not allowed to apply to other internal position even after deciding upon an availability date upon hiring.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe the company should focus more on working as one unit that all departments working as individual entities not concerned with any other departments progress.

Pros

It's a good place to work for a few years. You'll meet some great people (not the managers). The benefits, although each year there are fewer and fewer, are still pretty competitive. You can work from home (just know it will be 24x7 including holidays, weekends and vacations).

Cons

-Don't expect long-term employment, especially once you reach 50 (your days are limited once you hit that birthday).
- Morale is very low due to the constant lay-offs, most people are scared for their job and I think that once the economy turns around, more people will voluntary move to a more secure company.
- IBM doesn't really innovate anymore, they just buy more companies.
That yearly patent count contains some pretty ridiculous patents!
-The matrixed organization brings a lot of frustration and confusion as managers fight for budgets and/or control of a project.
-Yearly reviews aren't always fair since a manager has to give a proportionate share of bad and good reviews --even if everyone on the team did a fantastic job. The dollar amount for raises and bonuses are purely up to the manager, it's not tied to performance (it's supposed to be, but that stopped a few years ago).
-Each year, you'll lose a little bit more of your benefits, especially retirement benefits (which only a few get now anyways). The company is making record profits, but you wouldn't know that because they don't seem to "have the money" for raises and bonuses.
- And as for "spirit," it's like's morale, it's low. You don't even get a christmas card, christmas bonus or cheap holiday party anymore.
- Long hours, there are no 40 or even 50 hour work weeks (that work/life balance is just a marketing ploy) anymore, it's more 60+. This is because too many people were laid off.
So, like I said, it's good place to plan to work for a few years, new college students love it, but then get out -- take your experience to a place that actually will reward (financially and emotionally) you for it.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop laying off people (and outsourcing American jobs to India), start motivating people in a positive way, put some action to that work/life balance. Respect your experienced workers.