IBM reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(107,100 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 107,100 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 Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

107K reviews
3.0
Jun 17, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people I work with are great - I've made some of my best friends here. The company is also amenable with working remotely, which is great, considering the gas prices. The benfits are pretty good, compared to family/friends working elsewhere. My manager is good with the work/life balance, and he generally fights for his employees (though many other mgrs don't). There are smart people that I work with who are usually available to help out with problems, to get your work done.

Cons

As in other reviews, there is a lot of bureaucracy to get through. Very process oriented, which is both good and bad, but many times hinders your ability to do your work. A lot of times you don't see the reasoning/logic behind executive decisions. Budgets are so tight, it's hard to get things you need to do your job. I spend countless hours trying to fix my laptop, and because it's not my time yet, I can't get a new one that wouldn't crash as often. Morale is pretty low, and has been for a while - you work really hard, but don't really get any recognition. Sadly, it doesn't seem like there's any real effort to help that, and as such, I see a lot of turnover. At the start of my career, I was able to take classes and learn, but now, classes are all but extinct, and the few that are there are only available as online courses. It also seems that lately there's a lot of turf wars - people aren't as willing to help you or let you help with a project for fear of being replaced or something. So the focus on education and knowledge sharing has definitely lessened. The pay raises have also been pretty meager - we're told that the company has done awesome, and yet the raises are less than the year before. It doesn't even cover inflation. It's also not as easy to explore other areas within the company, if you're not sure you're headed in the right direction.

4.0
Jun 17, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Being able to work remotely, ability to work on a lot of different account and with excellent people

Cons

IBM's focus on more Global deployment by removing US resources, too much bureaucracy

5.0
Jun 17, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexibility, work-life balance, strong technical community, ability for an individual to make a difference (for a large organization!) Good salary and benefits (grass isn't greener when you check out other companies). Also, you can have a long, interesting career at IBM by moving around to different divisions, specializing in industries, etc. if you want change (I've been here 10+ years and never thought I would last that long).

Cons

A VERY large organization that can be overwhelming when you are new. Some of the senior management seems clueless and you have to wonder how they got to where they are (must be related to someone at the top!) I think IBM does a good job of recognizing top performers. Average performers are usually the ones that make the most noise, at least in my division.

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