IBM reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(107,261 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 107,261 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
Jun 19, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Let me first say I have worked for IBM Global Business Services for a relatively long time (8 years). Pros include a fairly good benefits package and decent salary. IBM brand recognition also helps your resume a little, but the brand recognition is for software and servers, not consulting. There is a decent number of fairly intelligent peers you work, although the numbers are declining. It's a good place to go for a year or so to gain technical skills then leave.

Cons

IBM GBS has morphed into one of the poorest run entities in business. Communication is silent within the organization. This is because there is nothing but bad news for employees. Revenue and earnings are growing astronomically while employee raises and bonuses have been trending the opposite direction just as fast. This same pattern has gone on since 2002. This year IBM has decided to skip promotions to save money yet raise what is known as the skill level for promotion qualified employees so they can bill them for more. IBM and its senior management are extremely money hungry and employees are treated like chumps (and you are a chump if you continue to work for such a firm). Its very sad, but you're not a consultant just a person you provides IBM with a source of income. Expect nothing in return. In fact, top rated employees with the highest evaluation rating were recently laid off after being "on the bench" for two weeks.

2.0
Apr 2, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mostly good people and bright co-workers. IBM is good about letting people work from home (which is nice, because it's much easier to tolerate working with an obnoxious management team when you're in a remote location).

Cons

Executive management team likes to micro-manage the business, which causes LOTS of extra and unnecessary workload. You spend a very large percentage of your time preparing for and giving status updates to senior management (often with technical details beyond their ability to understand). There are some very good technical people at IBM , but the management system is so oppressive and smothering that few creative ideas ever see the light of day. IBM works very, very hard at creating the ILLUSION of being a good employer, but it's actions show otherwise. Lots of companies have had to do lay-offs, but at least most of them have had the guts to publicly acknowledge the actions they are taking. IBM on the other hand prefers to surreptitiously do its lay-offs and off-shoring of jobs while keeping its employees in the dark.

Viewing 280 - 282 of 107,261 Reviews

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