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      IBM

      Engaged Employer

      IBM reviews

      3.9

      78% would recommend to a friend

      (107,359 total reviews)
      avatar

      Arvind Krishna

      77% approve of CEO

      68% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.2

      Diversity & inclusion

      4.0

      Culture & values

      4.0

      Work/Life balance

      3.7

      Career opportunities

      3.6

      Compensation and benefits

      3.4

      Senior management

      IBM has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 107,359 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The IBM employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      107K reviews
      2.0
      Aug 17, 2012

      Services unit (GBS) is just a body shop

      It architect
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Brand recognition is good. State of the art technology company. Broad range of technologies and opportunities to use them. High business ethics.

      Cons

      Little respect for employees. Written direction that if you take your vacation, you should work extra to make up for it. Documented minimum acceptable work week is 45 hours. Education opportunities are rare, and usually only offered after hours or weekends. Business is managed on an individual utilization model that motivates employees to charge more hours, not to do a better more efficient job for our services customers. Employee year end evaluations are first measured on who has billed the most hours. Little opportunity for internal innovation. IBM just buys innovation in the form of acquisitions. Way too much bureaucracy. Every business opportunity has 6-10 people in charge, client executives, delivery executives, business development executives, practice area executives, sector executives, geography executives, and the list goes on.

      2.0
      Aug 10, 2012

      Work-life balance is out of whack

      Software manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Brand name. Difficult & challenging assignments: great "boot camp" for future opportunities

      Cons

      Workload increases constantly. Most of my peers and coworkers are constantly putting in 60-70 hour weeks just to keep up as well as giving up vacation time. We feel like we are being ground to bits at this pace. What used to be a work-life balance benefit (work from home) has turned into you-are-on-call-20hrs/day. I get the pressures of the current economy, but this is not sustainable.

      4.0
      Aug 7, 2012

      Big company, small perks. but

      Software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The company is very career-centric. This a pro because they will work very hard to make sure you fit into their ecosystem. They will move you around within the company until you find a spot that suits you. They also provide quite good health and retirement plans. There is immanent room for growth and promotion. It is possible to spend an entire life climbing the IBM corporate ladder (and some people obviously do). Additionally, IBM has one of the best learning/training programs I have ever come across. Top industry professionals develop what essentially amount to college-level courses. These courses (available on an enormous range of topics) are available to all employees (though some do require management approval). A self-motivated individual would undoubtedly find IBM to be one of the best places to learn and grow.

      Cons

      The company is very career-centric. This a con because everybody is old. Because IBM is so good at retaining it's employees, departments seem to become very top-heavy (lots of senior employees but relatively few junior employees). This "oldness" is especially apparent within the software group where management seems to be clinging to old-school development practices. Do NOT expect a modern culture like at Google. As a dev we have zero perks. There is no free coffee. The walls are barren. There is no food in the building. The entire experience feels sterile and dated.

      Viewing 589 - 591 of 107,359 Reviews
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