IBM reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(107,222 total reviews)
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Arvind Krishna

76% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

IBM has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 107,222 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).

Reviews by job title

107K reviews
1.0
Dec 23, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They are paying Crazy money for people to come back.or start Band 9 160K+ They may put Manager or Senior something or other in your "title"

Cons

They have gotten rid of and still are getting rid of employees with complete disregard of skill, education, or contribution to the business. Promotions are not based on tangible metric, or contribution to the business Bonus's are not based on tangible metric, or contribution to the business There are hardly any Bonuses in comparison to other companies Someone in your org has to be a 3 (low rating) even if you have only 1 person (and they are a wizard) under you, There are so many once "managers" now in place of technical staff and workers all they have are "IDEAS" and there is nobody left to do the work. Hiring, It is so hard to find the individuals that are needed to do the work because candidates have either worked there before and wont come back, or have heard the horror stories and wont come in. What you are hired to do likely wont be what you are doing when you get there. IBM is still trying to "DECIMATE" its own ranks to boost falling stock prices if you go into IBM now you may be caught up in the reorg Management has no idea what is going on and there has been no business planning done. If you invent something that has nothing to do with IBM in your off time say highway road divots It becomes IBM property because you work for IBM the other 8 hours 5 Days a week and you will git nothing other than a 50$ best buy card.

1.0
Sep 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Joined IBM in the mid 90s when Gerstner was turning the company around. Management was focused and respected, and IBMers were engaged to solve clients' problems. Compensation was rewarding and motivating. Career opportunity was vast and global. Stock split twice. Morale and camaraderie made work exciting and fun. This trend ended in 2005 with IBM's first "2010 Earnings Roadmap" when Finance began enriching IBM's CEO and senior leadership with huge restricted stock rewards, earned by outsourcing in Brazil, India, etc. and on the backs of tens of thousands of terminated IBMers. All the while, IBM could not grow topline revenue and instead spent more than $100 billion on stock buybacks to manufacture earnings.

Cons

Today IBM is in a death spiral. IBM's second "2010 Earnings Roadmap" and constant workforce rebalancing (layoffs) have left IBMers afraid and disengaged. IBM promotes its values and corporate character as a "great company," but tens of thousands of IBMers, mostly in the U.S. have been resourced regardless of performance to make up for management's inability to grow top line revenue. IBM does an annual IBMer Engagement census survey but doesn't share the results with employees as year over year scores continue to plummet. IBM dispicably practices age discrimination and no longer provides data on resource actions for fear of litigation. If you're over 50, you're on a list and sooner or later your number will come up. IBM's poor reputation as an employer means it can no longer attract or retain top talent.

3.0
Feb 8, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Exciting opportunity to collaborate with world-class researchers covering a broad array of disciplines, focused on solving real-world problems. * Expectations include publishing papers in high-quality venues, allowing one to maintain good contact (and possibly even collaborations) with academic community

Cons

* Employee evaluations based on a quota system that other companies like Microsoft have now abandoned because it has been proven to hurt employee morale; employees can receive low evaluations for excellent work, and incentives can thwart collaboration among employees * High-level corporate strategy of cutting way to growth seems wrong-headed and unsustainable, and has negative impact on Research including tight budgets and shortened time horizons for Research * High-level corporate budget-tightening has in some cases translated to less freedom in Research, with some managers treating their teams like military command-and-control organizations

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IBM Response
10y
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. Given IBM's transformation and what we've heard from many IBMers, we’ve kicked off a brand new approach to performance management for 2016 and beyond. It's called Checkpoint, and it was co-created by IBMers for IBMers to reflect the way all of us work. What's the focus? Continuous feedback; a nimble, real-time approach to setting goals; and year-end evaluation on not just what we accomplished but how we accomplished it. And, perhaps best of all, we're no longer defined by a single rating.
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