IBM

IBM is like any other large company. The people you meet there span a large spectrum, from the brilliant to the downright inept. The best part about working at IBM is the flexibility in work schedule. In my experience, as long as you maintain a good relationship with your manager and get work done, nobody really cares when you come in and when you leave, as long as there are a few hours of overlap in your schedule with the rest of your team. Another perk is the fact that IBM doesn't officially track vacations. There are times when I've taken a few extra vacation days here and there throughout the year, and no one seems to complain.

IBM, being such a large company, has its hands in many areas of technology, both software and hardware. So if you get tired of doing one thing, you can always just move on to something else within IBM.

With any large company, there is an unbelievable amount of bureaucracy. Results will vary from team to team, but there are teams where the processes are so complex and over the top that developers find more than half their time is spent on processes.

Finding clear direction from upper management is also a problem. Rarely do developers working in the trenches have any idea of the broad direction of their project and how their contribution fits in.

Over the past few years, it seems the correlation between performance and compensation has grown looser and looser. The message upper management seems to send is that you are lucky to have a job and should be content with your 3% bonus pay.

Don't be douchebags and show that you actually care about your employees, even if you have to fake it.