IBM

The company is changing a lot. Employees are getting new MacBooks, HR is changing, and even the tools are all changing. We have adopted Workday, Travis, GitHub, JFrog, etc.

New employees receive a decent market salary.

It's flexible and laid-back, unless you're on a hot project.

If you work in emerging technologies with teams using the latest tech, then IBM is definitely a fun place to work at. Our leader is very flexible and allows us to build things from the ground up and use any technology necessary for our solutions. I often get to develop tools and products from end to end. (Disclaimer: I've only experienced this with my current manager/director and team. Most people at IBM aren't as lucky to have a leader like mine).

The company is trying hard to attract new talent who are passionate and talented, but it's hard to keep them with the package they offer, especially the salary.

If you are a new parent or are expecting, IBM would be perfect to work at. Like I said, it's very flexible and laid-back. Most people work from home on Fridays and leave early whenever they need to.

IBM is also great for new hires. Most new hires last 2-3 years.

• Annual Bonus is nothing ($500 - $600 after tax) • No stock options unless you are executive • No annual increases even with excellent annual reviews (top performer) • Hard to get a promotion unless you have a good manager who is respected and fights for you • Some employees are really old school and outdated; they make it hard to innovate and work on new ideas. They are really outdated; some can't even code and aren't technical. It's really surprising that a senior "technical" worker is not technical. Stay away from employees who have been at IBM for more than 6 years. A 10-year IBM employee is a huge red flag. • Most employees lack drive and passion. They do the minimum (hard to innovate). • Not enough resources to kick off awesome projects. • POLITICS (especially from people who aren't technical and are all talk). • I often feel like we develop demos and prototypes too often to make our managers, VPs, and overall upper management happy and feel like we are doing awesome, rather than focusing on building really good products. As long as the UI is beautiful, they don't seem to care. • Managers and senior people always play the game. It's like they have a playbook. They don't try.

Cut the politics; more doing, less talking. Focus on making great products, help your people grow, motivate, innovate, and reward your employees. Change the old culture. If you focus on leading by example with passion, good ethics, and drive, the rest will follow.