Arrived via acquisition, absorbed and cast aside
Pros
The only pro I can state was when they built Top Golf next door. Made it easy to escape the soul sucking numbness that is IBM. The 401k match used to be great until they changed it to only occur in December instead of with each paycheck. The office is next to the Domain which has some great lunch choices, so you've got that going for you.
Cons
If you arrive via acquisition, things will be great until Transfer of Business occurs. Once you reach that milestone, anything you enjoyed about your old company will be swept away with meaningless corporate double-speak and pointless meetings. My team was about 60 people when we were brought on board, and after three years only 5 remain. The entire point of US based IBM is to fire all senior people, outsource all work overseas, and hire recent graduates for minimal salaries. The entire time I was at IBM, there was zero positive feedback from upper level management, which is ironic since IBM acquired my company because we were beating them left and right in the market. The acquisitions only occur to remove competition. Other teams will absorb your product and fight for the scraps. Once Transfer of Business and Bluewashing are complete, you are expendable. Everything IBM does is to encourage US based employees to quit. Changing the 401k match to only occur once a year was another example of this mentality. Stack ranking employees and firing a set percentage every quarter has occurred at IBM every year for the past decade. Zero perks like coffee or even water, obsolete technology, terrible internal tools like Lotus Notes, complete lack of concern for the team. The only thing that matters is the stock price and delivering dividends to the stockholders. Respect for employees is not even on the list. The benefits are minimal. IBM health insurance charges you per child, up to six kids. If you have a larger family you will be paying massively for poor coverage. 401k match is insulting, the only free perk is water in the water fountains. Even the benefit of working from home is being removed, which makes sense since IBM frowns on any type of 'perk' or 'benefit' for the rank-and-file employees. My advice, don't even consider working here. You will not be appreciated in any way. If you are acquired, leave once your stock vests and don't bother contributing while there. Anything you used to love about your company is meaningless once you were acquired by this place.
