Good opportunity for experience, but does not support their employees
Pros
Working for a growing, global organization brings lots of opportunities for experience. With most groups in the company, you can get as much experience as you want and in a number of different areas. Most everyone in a non-sales department can have the opportunity to get project management experience in one way or another. Process improvement is also highly regarded. Working with international colleagues & strategic partners is good experience for anyone to have in today's business climate.
Cons
Culture clash is highly evident. The China-side of the business is largely separated from the rest, but when you do interface with them they appear to be very helpful and competent. There is a lot of mixing of IBM, Dell, and "other" (i.e., non-IBM/Dell) management styles which ends up making for a very inefficiently-cooperating collection of teams. As a side effect from the IBM business, the major functional groups tend to be very silo'd; a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Many managers tend to micromanage to the point of suffocation, or being overly strict about enforcing policies. On the other hand, some managers tend to be so far removed from their employees that they don't see each other for months. There is little happy medium in management, so pick your poison. On the whole, they do not value internal talent and have little long-term focus around their people. For several years following the acquisition, teams were whittled down and positions removed while that workload was added to existing employees, with little regard to the effect on those employees. Some of the more talented people I had the pleasure of working with were either laid off or left due to frustration with management & lack of support or advancement. Performance-based raises were almost non-existent, although at least bonuses performed according to your region's fiscal performance & the overall company's fiscal performance. While one's personal experience would vary greatly depending on the quality of their direct management, in the end, the overall poor leadership & utilization of internal talent would disillusion anyone.
