IBM reviews

IBM, from all reports, used to be something special: but no more: it is just another company. In the name of shareholder value -- their only benchmark for policy -- they have reduced education to a set of crummy online classes, all but eliminated salary increases, and slashed staffing levels to the detriment of their clients. Local managers have little control over employee ratings or salary increases: they are dictated by bean counters far removed from the employees. Hence, ratings and raises barely reflect an employee's performance. All travel and discretionary spending has been eliminated. Perks like Christmas Parties or Company Picnics are done. On my project, we had potluck events in which the managers had to pay out of pocket for the meat/BBQ for the staff. Morale at IBM is very low, and there is a huge brain drain. In my 10-year stint, most of the long-term IBMers (15+ years and more) jumped ship. Communication, usually in the form of glowing profit reports, comes down from on high, as if the news meant anything to rank and file. Upper management continues to cut everything while crowing about how wonderfully the company is performing. Almost every employee regards this brainless cheerleading as a joke. The company is either clueless or heedless: take your pick. All work now -- from application development to project management to administration -- is distributed into separate towers that are physically remote, and often offshored to BRIC countries. Anyone in a job classification not requiring "face time" with clients is a likely target for layoffs, which occur, at minimum, yearly. Opportunity is limited, and in my sector -- government -- IBM's business model, which operates on the idea of premium pricing for premium services, rings hollow to cash-strapped governments. IBM's take is to offshore almost all the work or bid at normal rates and lose. Not a very long horizon for most people, especially in the technical realm. Almost everyone I know at my former project is trying to leave the company. I got out just in time.

IBM management looks solely at utilization rate when determining things like promotions and raises. Competency in your actual job is not considered. If you would like a job where you're graded solely on how many hours you bill the client, then IBM is the place to work.