Pros
-Work hours and schedule was quite flexible. As long as I got my work done, I was allowed to work from home (or anywhere else) 3-4 days a week and set my own schedule. -The projects are pretty interesting if you are a naturally curious person that always wants to keep learning. -Tons of smart, interesting people to meet and learn from; get to make connections and working relationships with people all over the world. -Free online courses or e-learning sessions that you can add to your resume. Always new stuff to learn, and an endless supply of subject matter experts to learn from. -Got to use company computer for personal use, like checking Twitter and Facebook, since using social media was part of my job. However, managers will come down on you if you abuse that privilege.
Cons
-The work was extremely challenging, and there was an ENDLESS amount of work to be done, especially with layoffs. Company would lay off a person, but still expect the same amount of work to be completed- so you have 1 person being held responsible for the workloads of 2-3 people. -Everyone is expected to work insanely long hours, all of the time. -Disheartening - I never felt "caught up" or accomplished at the end of the day, never left the office feeling like I had done a good job and I was prepared to come back the next morning. Even if I did make a lot of progress one day, I knew that everything could change overnight and I could wake up to a huge sh1tst0rm in my inbox. -Everyone's inbox at IBM is a nightmarish hell. Time management, productivity, and efficiency are major problems. -Bizarre work hours due to the I in IBM - International. Some weeks I had to work from home in my pajamas and sign on at 8pm and work until 6am, then sleep all day, so that I could have phone calls with China and Israel.
