IBM Staff Software Developer reviews

Being the size that it is, political and networking skills are as important ( perhaps even more important ) than technological skills. Do not depend on management to outline a career path, you are on your own. Low-level managers are generally too busy answering to their managers to help employees. Also remember that profit is number one at IBM. This company is about making a dollar first and how to use technology and current trends in the pursuit of that goal. IBM is first and foremost a business. This may be a good company for an MBA, not necessarily for an engineer. Specifically as a staff software engineer, some of the downsides are long hours, little input to the decision making process and little consideration for work/life balance. Remember, it's a privilege to work at IBM ! ( OK, yes, I'm a little bitter. )

The business focus was driven entirely quarterly. Very bad vibe coming from middle-management (who didn't care about their professional employees). The atmosphere felt cold and chronically stressed-out. Upper management was aggressive about rolling back employee compensation (e.g., shifting focus toward younger, shorter-term employees that can work insane amounts and burn out). Easy to become pigeonholed in a bad role/division (managers can block you from seeking different jobs within the company... and do exercise the right during horrible projects or in bad teams -- most of which are). Feedback/ratings were based more on gaming the system than actual employee contribution (i.e. to limit bonuses/raises there can be only one, maybe two, excellently rated employees in your team; the rest have to be average). Most importantly, moving up in terms of leadership is only a doorway into some weird political arena where you are more responsible for gaming the arbitrary metrics defining success than in actual accomplishment -- i.e., you do whatever it takes to affect some meaningless improvement in a spreadsheet. It's an OK place, but don't stay too long or it will rob you of the skills needed to survive outside the company. Lots of people in their late 20's talk about their big ideas outside the company, but get comfortable and never go anywhere. But the company is ruthless now so realize from the day you join your days are numbers (so always keep exit doors open so when the time comes it's for the betterment of your career rather than for the sake of whether your division exceeds or underperforms its quarterly target by one percent).