IBM Program Director reviews

You will work yourself to death at IBM - thanks to the ability to work remotely and the global nature of IBM, the expectation is that everyone in any kind of leadership position works 24x7, responding to customer issues, questions from the field, questions from people in other countries, etc. at all hours of the day, every day of the week. Everyone does this if they hope to even "keep up" let alone get ahead. The only folks that do not do this are the lowest performers or individual contributors that are "in a rut" and basically just coasting along.

Aging, stodgy, painfully slow promotion schedule, endless career ladder, and almost everyone's a lifer. This makes the environment incredibly myopic, political, and people are expected to stay well within their tightly defined roles and position on the totem pole. Workloads and expectations are high, and it's the kind of place where it's ok (and expected) for managers to regularly ream their hardworking staff the slightest typo, shortcoming, oversight, etc. As a result, people often fear their managers, who fear their managers, and so on.