IBM Reviews in Sydney, Australia Area

Pros

Work life balance is second to none
365 sick days every 2 years
Professional people to work for and with
Many Job Opportunities within IBM

Cons

Do not pay the absolute best in the business
Finding people to do what you need to may be challenging

Pros

IBM give you a nice balance between personal stuff and work so no pressure there - good for those with small kids. Quite stable at GTS.

Good for women as they are first candidates from promotion.

Cons

This is a money machine with the management vision not going beyond the quarter.
IBM are a collection of brands who will be cutting each others throats for every cent of revenue
Very risk averse and hates to invest -- most of innovation is done at the client's expense, so your moral code will be terrorised
Each solution we do is done like it is first of its kind... Trying to get hold of an SME is more like a ping pong game and you will play the role of a ball.
The amount of dead wood - we have forests

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the talk. Lead by example. Reduce the hypocrisy and complacency. Innovate REALLY not in your heads. Fix managers' charisma -- most have none. You are very process oriented but 90% are just obsolete burden which exists for historical reason. To test your new management appointments, please sack them if they start with changing the reporting hierarchy -- you are a matrix, why you need so many levels of management?

Support your staff and provide them with real career advancement opportunities -- your GOM is a joke with 95% positions dead, opened to follow the process.

Pros

Lots of varied clients to get experience. Good place to enhance process procedures

Cons

Offshoring and movement to lower cost centres. They have consultants working whose kpi are to move as many positions offshore as possible. Contractors have aosolutely no rights and can have contract terminated at any time. 2 weeks penalty if u leave before contract end. Morale is very low with people not being replaced when they leave presenting additional work to colleagues. Extreme money orientated

Advice to Senior Management

Start thinking of customer experience rather than the bottom line al the time

Pros

- Brand, Reputation
- Knowledge sharing culture
- Strong tick box in your resume

Cons

- Incompetence is rewarded rather than punished
- Bureaucracy
- No 'rising star' programs
- Total absence of career progression, performance and manager sentiment transparency

Advice to Senior Management

Look beyond quarterly targets and horizons, nurture talent instead of squeezing people into utilisation targets.

Pros

Good training, encourage working from home, good with work/life balance issues and they try to accommodate peoples unique personal situations within the working environment

Cons

To many internal meetings that are pointless, to much "you have to do this to comply with requirements" so people just go through the motions, such as on-line updates on products. To much dead-wood around the place, lack of local authority to approve anything, processes that are far to rigid which make it hard and waste time. Not enough emphasis on doing what is right for the customer, things have to fit within the IBM policies and procedures or they simply do not happen.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow greater flexibility and work with your customers to really meet their needs and requirements.

Pros

- Flexible work arrangements.
- Good work life balance.
- Wide ranges of project opportunities in multiple cities
- Clearly defined career path and progression.

Cons

- Not the best employer in terms of salary
- Tedious paperwork compared to other employers.
- Tick box approach to review and promotion

Advice to Senior Management

- IBM GBS could adopt more "consulting" like culture from PwC, Cap Gemini and the likes.
- Should pay at least market rates to better retain talents.

Pros

Some very clever people working at IBM.
Very broad portfolio of software, hardware and services.
Long standing relationships with some very large customers.

Cons

Does not pay well compared to competitors and very hard to get pay rises and bonuses.
Hard to get things done (due to lots of red tape).
Lots of emphasis on controlling expenses.

Advice to Senior Management

Less emphasis on cost control as it's turning a lot of people off and you're losing some very good staff as a result.

Pros

Flexible, ability to work from home
Great internal career development and learning
Good people
No Micromanaging

Cons

Salary way below industry average
Some managers are more concerned with there own careers rather than giving you the time you need on yours
Constant re-organisation/outsourcing

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more opportunity of career development

Pros

Great graduate training and exposure to large complex projects and clients. Great place to learn new technologies and learn proper processes and documentation.

Cons

Get lost in the sea of people and often get stuck on a large project, unable to get out of it if you are billable. The red tape you must go through to be considered for a promotion is also outrageous.

Pros

Excellent company to work for, excellent work life balance..

Cons

Not the pay master and that may lead to some intellectual capital go out of the company..

Advice to Senior Management

NA