IBM

It has been a fairly stable place to work for the last six years.

The work can be interesting at times.

There is some variety, and lateral movement within a division is generally easy.

It can be a good place to learn, with a lot of resources available (scopes, analyzers, chambers, etc.) that small companies can't afford.

You may come into contact with experts in many fields and research scientists, etc.

There are education benefits that might possibly be better than those at comparable companies.

I can only comment on xSeries, a subdivision of STG.

Depending on the management chain, work/life issues can either be treated well or badly. Like any large company, creative employees can feel stymied by the bureaucracy.

xSeries is/was a large area, with a variety of projects to work on. Many of the hardware projects/jobs are moving to Taiwan, and software to mainland China.

The career path of an engineer seems non-existent. There is nothing to work towards; new hires and senior engineers work on the same stuff. Being a capable senior engineer does not guarantee a lead position or preferential treatment when it comes to layoffs.

Dead wood can survive a very long time. It's easier to dispose of a bad employee by sending them off with a decent review, so the next department gets the problem.

Employee benefits have been steadily eroded for the past 10-15 years, the culmination being the freezing of the pension plan in '08. The guys with more than 30 years as of last year have a nice retirement to look forward to. The rest not so much, and new hires get the worst deal of all.

If you are an executive, take a pay cut, or better yet, quit.

One of the things that is killing this company is executive greed, which is supported by the board and fellow executives.