IBM Software Developer reviews

The review system does NOT promote teamwork. It is cut-throat. Also, IBM never does anything new or creative. You use old tools to work on last years technology. IBM buys new companies, it doesn't invent or create anything. Its heyday is long behind us. This is sad. Also, the stress level is unbelievable. I've seen people crying at their desks far too many times.

We are given much direction about the sorts of goals that we should be seeking; however, we must meet those goals on top of completing grossly understaffed projects. For example, near the beginning of every year, we're told what our organization's strategy is going to be. Higher-ups give presentations that span the entire strategy, while senior staffers present on substrategies meant to ensure the success of the larger one. Every year, the strategies seem to encompass more than they did in the previous year. Yet, we have many fundamental problems in our processes that lead to poor quality in what we produce. The yearly blasts of strategy never address these problems, instead tending to aggravate them because they ensure that we will continue to look elsewhere for our self-respect and job satisfaction than in producing quality products and decreasing the aggravation that leads customers to call our support line. Moreover, the goal of our management team seems to be to push more features into our products more quickly, and not take time to address a growing accretion of defects, shortcomings, and other insufficencies.