IBM Reviews

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Big company to work for

Cons – IBM is very process driven

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good opportunities to move across the organisations.

Cons – You need to have a strong network!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at IBM full-time for more than a year

Pros – A great company to work for very structured and open to change

Cons – Later years many functions have been outsourced and opportunity to progress has been limited
Constant drive to raise the Bar puts extreme pressure on staff

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Lots of chances to experience different environments, customers and technologies

Cons – Only join if you're happy knowing that the head of the UK Outsource Business is "Proud" of the fact that the majority of his people have a had a real terms pay cut for the past seven years

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your people properly

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at IBM full-time

Pros – Your cv will thank you.

Cons – Bureaucratic, old boys club, people are simply numbers. Old boys' network mostly.

Advice to Senior Management – What's happened to respect for the individual

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – great graduate scheme.
performance judged on product delivery and its success in the market.
big name, everyone has heard of them, good for cv.

Cons – performance judged on product delivery and its success in the market.
innovation purely comes from buying up smaller companies.

Advice to Senior Management – invest more time in experienced talent

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Flexible working
People
Opportunities
No limits to the roles you can perform just don't expect the pay to match.

Cons – Pay not in line with market . Pay rises low and only the top people get them.
The PBC appraisal system is a nightmare. Distribution is dictated even though HR say it isn't.
People can achieve their goals but as rating is relative to peers you could still end up with a poor rating. The bonus for top rated people still poor which makes people think it isn't worth trying!

Advice to Senior Management – Scrap the PBC system!
Invest in your people!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at IBM full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Excellent technology strategy and products. Strong Brand. Good credentials. Employees have good tools for working at home. Whole IT infrastructure is robust and rarely fails. Generally staff are respectful and talented with some management exceptions. Benefits are acceptable. Salaries appear below market rates.

Cons – IBM efforts to reduce expense cost means the staff are increasingly meeting the day to day costs of the business i.e. self funding cell phones, stationary, some client hospitability. Working for IBM costs the employees money. Expenses are difficult to claim and are often rejected even when completely legitimate Long work hours are expected. Some offices are in a poor state of repair and require attention (dirty carpets, broken chairs, broken phones, data ports not functioning, leaking ceilings, broken elevators) Processes are difficult and prohibitive making the working day painful and frustrating. Sales staff are driven in an unacceptable manner to achieve quarterly goals. Clients are now being driven in the same way to do deals. Corporate Money being diverted to growth markets and mature markets are having most back office functions outsourced to Asia/S America etc. The consequence is day-to-day business operations for USA and Europe is now more projected and onerous having moved out of the host country. Clients are also finding this a challenge too.

Advice to Senior Management – They know what they should be doing.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at IBM full-time for more than a year

Pros – great company to work for

Cons – long working hours expected daily

Advice to Senior Management – j

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at IBM full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Huge company with opportunity for career advancement, however this is only for people who are strong networkers and self-promoters, don't expect your boss to have any ideas.

Cons – IBM very openly only wants to please one stakeholder - their shareholders, and that really should be your only interaction with IBM - buy their stock - it rises slowly but steadily no matter the business outlook.
The reason for their ability to grow the stock price is that everything else is expendable - particularly employees - when I think of the talent we once had in our team I could weep. The farewell emails from experienced people get very depressing.
IBM management now sees employees in very black and white terms - if their business unit is hitting targets then everyone is good, if targets are not met, everyone must be bad.
Targets are set from on high, and the pressure to hit them is intense. No excuses, no explanations.
The sad thing is that when I joined, people seemed to be everything. People were proud to work for IBM. Now, morale has never been so low, everyone is unhappy. We all know that employees have very little value in IBM - everyone is replaceable.
When I joined, IBM had three values:- "Dedication to every client's success, Innovation that matters, for our company and the world, Trust and personal responsiblity in all relationships". Let me tell you these values no longer exist, and are very rarely mentioned. It should now more accurately be:- "Dedication to the 2015 Roadmap, Acquisitions that save us the bother of innovation, Trust and responsibility towards the shareholders."
I think the way to approach IBM now is that it's just another job in the modern world, working for a large company who only sees the bottom line, working for managers who don't understand the business in which they work. You do your job for a couple of years and keep your head down.

Advice to Senior Management – My advice to senior management is to begin to turn this big ship around. The 2015 roadmap is only a couple of years away now and must be followed in order for IBM to keep its credibility with shareholders, but I hope they have a more inspiring target for employees after that. I hope Ginny can see what's happened. Sam P was good for shareholders but a disaster for employees and customers - he had a WIN-LOSE-LOSE mentality. Does Ginny have a WIN-WIN-WIN mentality? She seems to be making the right noises but it's too late for me, I won't be around in 2015 to find out.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend