IBM

1. Good people -- I have worked with a lot of wonderful colleagues over the years, mostly my peers, but there were some outstanding managers.

2. Company-supplied laptop and software -- I had a fast and capacious laptop. I was usually able to order any type of software for which I could make a reasonable case. Once IBM bought Rational, there was so much good software engineering tools available for download.

3. Competitive salary -- I feel that I was justly compensated.

1. Sweatshop -- I saw this word in the title for another review, and I would agree. There is always way too much work to do for the time allotted; your manager expects you to do it all.

2. Churn -- Projects come and go. So many projects on which we worked hard did not actually ship :-( (e.g., TKS, ORION, ...). It hurts my mind to think about how much money IBM must have thrown away.

3. Manager of the day -- This is related to "churn." In over 30 years, it was rare to have the same manager for more than 1 year. Amazing in retrospect.

Keep stocking up on patents. IBM's patent portfolio must be worth an awesome amount of money. It is the main reason that I am bullish on IBM stock.