IBM Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

Learned a lot of process and professional development skills
Great early career building company

Cons

Opportunity to make a killer salary was not available
Stale, very corporate, very process drive

Advice to Senior Management

Make it a more fun and exciting place to work.

Pros

work is challenging, people are nice to work with, many groups to interact with, salary is good, training can be good at times,

Cons

can be long hours, not much in the way of recognition, no seasonal parties, focus on process sometimes too much

Pros

IBM had sustained me through the down turn of the market. For business' it's a great way to become successful and be out front in terms of the best developers working for you.

Cons

Not much movement for me and not too many jobs within the west of Canada for my job title of IT Infrastructure.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase the ability to actually grow within the company so the we can increase our salaries, so that we don't end up leaving the company for better, more competitive salaries.

Pros

work was interesting at times

Cons

long hours can be required.

Advice to Senior Management

just make sure you are ready to work hard when you are needed.

Pros

Flexibility in work hours and locations depending on project, partially autonomous from IBM Corporate, casual work environment if not working on customer site

Cons

Trending towards more offshoring, requiring more and more calls early in the morning or late at night. Moving away from s/w development and more towards delivery and project management of offshore resources. 44 billable hours required. Add another 2 or 3 hrs for administration, education, and giveback. With so much stress on billing you might as well do contract work and get those billable hours into your own pocket instead.

Advice to Senior Management

In the 90s IBM learned it's lesson that it's employees are its most valuable asset. It is slowly forgetting that.

Pros

Our team is small and we are left alone to do what we do best. Good management and a solid team = good place to work.

Cons

Same as all large corporations, sme decisions are made for political reasons. Also since we have zero turn over its hard to advance.

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

- prestige, good to have on resume
- can try different roles every year or two
- can work from home!

Cons

- If you do everything as expected - e.g. work tons of overtime, work at night and weekends when paged, work with India overnight to respect their time zone (why can't they respect ours?), you are only an average person, who has a serial number and means nothing to IBM.
- bonuses and salary increases suck

Advice to Senior Management

- treat people with respect, give salary increases and bonuses to hard working people

Pros

Excellent place to launch acareer.Difficult to move up but benefits and expereince make up for that.I say one should go for it.At IBM, we make some of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. Equally impressive is our worldwide network of IBM solutions and services' professionals that translate these advanced technologies into business value for our customers.

Our range of products and services has given IBM a unique role in the networked world; we are at the center of the global e-business revolution. It's fuelling our growth and inspiring our people. If you spend some time with our people in an R&D lab, in a brainstorming session or even in the cafeteria over lunch, you'll feel it. A strong sense of purpose. A new determination.

Cons

Moving up and benefits aren't as great.

Advice to Senior Management

Tkae it easy on the new guys.They are your future.Build them not break them.

Pros

To get a good name on your resume and some good sweatshop experience.

Cons

No pay raises or bonuses, long hours, no recognition and a very uptight place to work. Minimal communication with senior management. I have worked there for 8 years and would recommend getting out after 3. It is a good name to have on your resume but you have to endure the stagnant corporate culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up. Differentiation is not working you are losing large numbers of employees by following this policy.

Pros

Stability (unless your job is in line for outsourcing). Flexible work arrangements (ability to work from home a significant proportion of the time). Sophisticated Enterprise 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, etc.) Many passionate, competent people scattered throughout the organizations who are hanging around because they are loyal to Big Blue.

Cons

Sub par compensation. Projects assigned at random/based on who you know. Too many senior people with outdated skillsets and big egos. Little opportunity for career growth. Difficult to get funding to attend professional conferences/training. Constant fear of work being outsourced to India or elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop relying on the deteriorating value of the IBM brand to attract new employees. Figure out what else IBM stands for these days, other than constant outsourcing and idiotic experiments in Second Life.