IBM

Great benefits package, good diversity, great location (RTP, NC).

Strong IT infrastructure and intranet, good fitness center, potential for lateral movement to new jobs, and good growth in software and services.

Hardware design is fading fast. Far too many layers of technically incompetent management, too many floaters in the system that aren't contributing to the company, poor effort to retain top technical talent in hardware, increasing outsourcing, and stockholders arguably get better treatment than employees.

Don't expect hardware to make boatloads of money all by itself. Use it to leverage the software and services cash cows. Remember that your hardware technical staff are partially responsible for the windfall and market differentiation.

Promote from within and get more technical talent into the management chain. You need more technically strong people making decisions about the products—less of the MBAs and calendar pushers that just dress nice, talk loudly, and forward email.