IBM Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

Pay and benefits were good. Flexible work/life balance and could work remotely.

Cons

Lack of job security as you never knew if your job would be redudant. Always changing procedures that work to try out potentially better but not always good procedures. Couldn't always meet team members scattered across the US.

Advice to Senior Management

Better training. Need better forecasting of possible jobredundancies and better help in finding new jobs within IBM.

Pros

Very laid back culture, people are down to earth. Very flexible work force. Management usually is very supportive except in crunch time. You get a lot of recognition for being an IBMer

Cons

During crunch time they take it to an unbelievable extent. Management is terrible at listening to employees. The communication channels break down rapidly in some key areas within the organization. Instead of making progress, we regress backwards.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper management need to make a 1-on-1 effort to reach out to the down below folks. There is a lot of penalty in open doors so folks are afraid to raise any concerns.

Pros

Great work culture. Great work/life balance and job flexibility.

Cons

Lack of loyalty to committed employee's and constant layoffs,

Pros

company has an excellent reputation

Cons

all about processes and matrix management , never met my manager,

Pros

Flexible, creative, stable, and environment with a balanced work and personal life

Cons

way too beauracratic; takes forever to complete a project

Advice to Senior Management

continue to innovate

Pros

i) People, people people. My co-workers were mostly young and fun people. Very helpful and knowledgeable.
ii)Growth opportunity. IBM is a big company, you can switch between very different fields and still work for IBM - which is good for salary, further opportunities and meeting new people.
iii) The Research Triangle Park is a great place to live. The ocean is near, smokey mountains are near. A lot of nice clubs and a college life and city feel in the Raleigh area.

Cons

i) The cubicles were grey and rather boring. Some more collaboration on specific problem solving would have been better. Do not get me wrong, there are a lot of meeting and talk between developers and managers, but it was a tiny bit more general.

Advice to Senior Management

I think managers should be educated to be managers, since most computer related people are a not exactly social. But still, I liked the managers, cool people.

Pros

Flexible work schedule.
Low work load for the competent.
If you're a tech geek and play the politics, you can play with lots of new toys.
Still sells some hardware, software, and operating systems that are excellent tools for having stable business IT.

Cons

A lack of backbone in lower management unless it's a factor in drive to rise in the ranks.
Those that rise in the ranks usually have a vision of having a fiefdom instead of looking at the company as a whole.
For a technology company that does consulting for banking and pharma, they can't seem to learn from processes they help implement for their customers and serve their customers well.

Advice to Senior Management

If you don't have the backbone to stand up for your employees, don't get into 1st line management.
If you don't care who your people are and what they do well to help the business, don't get into middle management.

Pros

they care about their employees

Cons

you have to go above and byond and then some to get recognized.

Pros

Highly competent but under appreciated co-workers, interesting work, Benefit package is good, and flex time/ tele commuting is great, IF your boss will allow it.

Cons

The only thing that counts is stock growth, by ANY means necessary. Treating employees like parts is going to hurt them.

Advice to Senior Management

To the Execs...don't be so greedy. You could clothe, house, & feed a small nation with what you make. Without the people "beneath" you holding you up, you'd be nobody, so be a little more generous with them so they can be generous to their communities.

Pros

IBM has lots of resources, reach and opportunities for employees that are successful.

Cons

IBM can have a lot of heavy processes