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Unrealistic sales-driven deadlines, ridiculous bureaucracy, and general disinterest from management

Advisory Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at IBM for 9 years
June 25, 2017
Chicago, Illinois
2.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros
  • In the past, there has been a liberal work-from-home policy. I'm not sure how much longer that will last.
  • The company 401(k) matching contribution is good and is fully vested from the start.
Cons
  • Multiple (one or more) layoffs per year, every year I was at the company (almost 10 years).
  • Terrible or non-existent bonuses.
  • Management is mostly concerned with how to preserve and progress their careers and has little interest in progressing staff careers.
  • The software engineering organization is driven by rigid, sales-motivated deadlines with little consideration for sound software development practices. This creates substandard, unmaintainable software services. But Sales doesn't care, and the engineering management team is too afraid to push back.
  • Bluemix is an awful mess, and any product or service that has to integrate with it will be made worse by having to integrate and adhere to the terrible bureaucracy that exists within it.
Advice to Management

Reduce the red tape! It is strangling this company.

Stop ignoring the careers of your engineers until it's too late. For 10 years, I was told that a promotion/raise was just around the corner. The only time I was offered any compensation and banding bump was the day that I gave my two-week notice. I was told to name my price, and I thought: If I was so indispensable, why didn't you care to reward me until I had both feet out the door?

TBH, I stuck around as long as I did because I worked remotely for almost the entire duration of my stay at IBM, which was a tremendous perk. But even that perk appears that it might be going away.

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