IBM reviews

The business focus was driven entirely quarterly. Very bad vibe coming from middle-management (who didn't care about their professional employees). The atmosphere felt cold and chronically stressed-out. Upper management was aggressive about rolling back employee compensation (e.g., shifting focus toward younger, shorter-term employees that can work insane amounts and burn out). Easy to become pigeonholed in a bad role/division (managers can block you from seeking different jobs within the company... and do exercise the right during horrible projects or in bad teams -- most of which are). Feedback/ratings were based more on gaming the system than actual employee contribution (i.e. to limit bonuses/raises there can be only one, maybe two, excellently rated employees in your team; the rest have to be average). Most importantly, moving up in terms of leadership is only a doorway into some weird political arena where you are more responsible for gaming the arbitrary metrics defining success than in actual accomplishment -- i.e., you do whatever it takes to affect some meaningless improvement in a spreadsheet. It's an OK place, but don't stay too long or it will rob you of the skills needed to survive outside the company. Lots of people in their late 20's talk about their big ideas outside the company, but get comfortable and never go anywhere. But the company is ruthless now so realize from the day you join your days are numbers (so always keep exit doors open so when the time comes it's for the betterment of your career rather than for the sake of whether your division exceeds or underperforms its quarterly target by one percent).

Despite what the recruiters/interviewers tell you, IBM is NOT a management consulting company. Yes, we do talk to C-Suite, but only the CIO, and when we do, it's because we're either selling or implementing IBM products/solutions, not because we're trying to help you figure out why your company's profits are declining. Given the sales-driven and margin-driven nature of the company, here are some cons if you don't do your research thoroughly... - MENIAL, MINDLESS WORK: as a CbDer, you're hired in to do PMO, testing, and note taking. People have this misconception that CbDers are their assistants, and will treat you as such, making you schedule meetings, book conference rooms, upload a document onto Box. There's no analytical or critical thinking required whatsoever, and definitely don't expect to be challenged. - LONG DURATION OF PROJECTS: IBM projects run longer than typical consulting firms, usually ranging from 6-9 months. Again, because they are mostly implementation-type work, you'll be doing the same thing (e.g. testing) the whole time. Don't expect that much exposure to different industries or types of projects. Your first project pretty much pigeon-holes you to do the same thing for the rest of your career, unless you really fight HARD to get onto something you want. - LACK OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: in the CbD program, you have 3 mandatory trainings. They're a lot of fun, because you get to hang out with people in your start class. However, the stuff you learn is absolutely useless for your job. They hire a third party vendor to conduct these sessions. They teach you things like how to present better, but it's useless because you'll never be given an opportunity to present to anyone. - CONSTANT REORG: there's been I think 3 (?) reorgs during the 2 years that I've worked here, both GBS-wide and CbD-specific. Despite IBM being an established corporation, the consulting arm is still relatively young (acquired from PwC a few years ago), so it almost feels as if we're going through the growing pains of a young company... just a general lack of clear direction and constantly shifting corporate strategy. - LAYOFFS: during my time here, I've seen maybe 3 rounds of layoffs, which has affected people that were on my team, as well as people in my start class (yeah, THAT young). If you think you're immune from layoffs because you're a fresh college grad, think again. No one's safe here, and everyone's always on edge. - OUTDATED INTERNAL TECHNOLOGIES: it's embarrassing how bad IBM internal technologies are being that we boast we're at the forefront of technology. Most tools employees use (expense system, travel booking system, lotus notes) SUCK. They haven't been refreshed since the 1990's and are extremely cumbersome to use.