IBM

• There are a lot of excellent and inspiring people who work at IBM. You can learn a lot if you pay attention.
• Better than average pay and benefits.
• For me personally, I felt valued on my team and like most people really cared.
• They make it a point to be ethical in everything they do, from the way tech is designed and the way employees and customers are treated. I always appreciated that.
• You get to be a part of a world-leading tech team.
• Lots of opportunities for growth and career movement.

Probably the same type of stuff as any big tech corporation.

Tons of meetings.

Few choices in what tools to use. You'll be on IBM cloud instead of AWS, which isn't doing your resume any favors.

I wasn't a fan of the new pension plan (new in 2024: IBM no longer contributes to your 401k; they do this pension plan thing instead).

It's nearly impossible for managers to fire non-contributors. The catch is there is an annual round of layoffs. They call it "RA" for resource actions, which always felt like an arbitrary selection of people. I always thought that was stressful because it didn't matter whether you were doing your job or not. Lousy people stayed, and good people got let go every time.

You could be working on a project for six months or more, and executives might decide to scrap the whole thing, and you just get absorbed into a new team.

Uncertain future if you're into remote work. At the time when I left in early 2024, managers were required to come into the office at least three times per week. Maybe everyone is required now? If not, I have a feeling everyone will be required to come into the office at some point.