IBM reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(107,250 total reviews)
avatar

Arvind Krishna

77% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

IBM has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 107,250 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
Mar 20, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

IBM looks good on resume

Cons

Terrible pay, constant lies to employees, only stock holders matter, terrible raise if you even get one, favoritism for employees that kiss butt regardless of actual skill, CEO making 1000% more than average employees, corporate level bonuses from laying off good workers while the rest of us get pay-cuts and are expected to work even harder since those that were not RA'd yet. now the rest of the people are jumping ship finding higher paying jobs, respect and doing less work . now customers are affected since head count is so low and moral is all but gone. In short if you want to work for IBM think again, if you are still working for IBM get out ASAP. you cannot advance, you cannot make more money and you can be let go today, tomorrow no matter how good you are at your job. Your actual skill means nothing to management, the only thing that matters is numbers, made up fictional, political numbers, PBC is a complete joke. They are not a US company anymore and need to loose their tax break rights.

3.0
Nov 23, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1) Flexibility - Most managers will let you work from home if you are sick or if you are back in your hometown for a few days 2) 401K match is pretty solid - Dollar for dollar up to a 6% match, 100% vested after the first year 3) Health benefits are pretty good 4) The "IBM" name on your resume goes a long way 5) If you're a top performer they'll pay 100% of your tuition costs (MBA, grad degrees, etc)

Cons

1) Compensation - Base salary is downright pathetic. I counter-offered out of college and it was turned down, but decided to work for them anyway. Annual raises only go to employees with PBC 1 and 2+ ratings (roughly 2% a year). Bonuses are offered to only PBC 1 (top performers) and are about 4-5% of base salary. They COE will offer "retention bonuses" to their top performing employees ($10K in two installments of $5K over two years. Each year you are committed to stay with the company for one year. If you leave you must pay the bonus back). All of these "incentives" are a slap in the face because your base salary never really grows. 2) Growth Opportunity - From day 1 you are sold that the opportunities are endless within IBM, but in reality they are not unless you want to settle for jobs that never give you face to face exposure with middle management or senior leaders. They constantly try to sell you that the prize is going out to Somers, NY to work with the finance teams out there, but they'll give you $60k to move out there.....to NY, which is just laughable. Once you get out there you will work 60-70 hours a week, and it might take you 5 years to get to a level of income where you're just breaking even due to the market prices out there. 3) Environment - Rochester absolutely sucks and becomes depressing after the first year. If you like small towns you might object to that statement. Your first year might seem cool working with other twenty-somethings out of college, but after a few years you'll realize that an environment where people wear shorts to work and play foosball all day is not a place where you can further your career. Also, you will share an office with another co-worker that will be from 1970 and include a phone that is also from 1970. You'll get a work laptop, but you have to buy your own monitor if you want something bigger than a 13'' screen. (No joke). 4) Cost Cutting - IBM manages their expenses very closely which means you do not get the leisure of having them pay for work outings, business cards, or other sensible acts of corporate kindness when you're working on Saturday's and Sunday's. After I left the company, I was told that the Rochester COE would no longer be getting their offices cleaned or their trash taken out (employees have to take their own trash out!). So it looks like not only are you a financial analyst now, but you're a part-time janitor as well. The above might make it seem like I hate IBM, but I really do not. It's a great company....for shareholders. If you can commit three years of your life here you will become very marketable and make a decent sum of money if you opt to work elsewhere.

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