Squeeze the company for what you need, because that's when you're most highly valued
Pros
Vast, raw, untapped opportunities abound for your needs for exposure, self-satisfaction, personal validation, professional breadth and depth of expertise and experiences, and conditioning to not only boring-old direct reporting relationships, but REAL and top-quality matrix reporting relationships. You can be happy here in 3 ways: personally, professionally and organizationally, and you can do this if you approach IBM as a place where you best contribution is made by figuring out how to squeeze the most of it.
Cons
Do not come here if you think you're going to be led in to everything you need. Do not come here if you have no idea what you need. Seriously, I'm not kidding, GO TO THERAPY before or shortly after coming to IBM to understand what are your personal needs--like REALLY your personal needs: are you an introvert, an extrovert, a go-getter, a centrist, a self-deceiver, a self-validator, needy, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic, unsure of yourself, oversure of yourself, etc. etc...only come here if you know what you need. If you don't know, don't come here. Second, don't come here if you don't understand what you could possibly build on your resume in the 1st 100 days. I firmly believe that 1 year at IBM is worth 2-4 years anywhere else. If you can't put 2-3 things on your resume in 100 days or less working for IBM, then go back to therapy and see my first point. Lastly, there is no organization to be FOUND at IBM...none. It's flat, with no more than 11%-14% of its employees as people managers. IBM's organization lives IN YOUR HEAD--so get it all up in your head and figure it out. If you are the type of person who needs a very clear organization structure and you freak out without clarity, then please don't come here.
