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IBM Will Slap the Golden Handcuffs on You

Senior Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at IBM for less than 1 year
July 10, 2008
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
2.0
Doesn't RecommendDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

Salary is competitive and often exceeds other local employers.

Time allowed for vacation and personal choice holidays is good (if you can actually afford to lose time from work to take it).

If you do not abuse it, time away from your cube during the workday to take care of personal business is accepted without even a raised eyebrow.

Project assignments can be interesting and challenging.

Cons

Zero investment in professional development.

Unbelievably low investment in providing employees with the tools necessary to do their jobs.

Physical work environment is substandard.

Poor yearly bonus system.

Ever-deteriorating product quality due to insanely short development cycles and offshoring to incompetent workers.

Low-performing employees are tolerated far too much and are often simply passed from one department to another – it's like a government job.

Too many layers of management.

The bureaucracy would make Kafka cry.

Advice to Management

Retire and turn over the reins to someone younger who has made a career based on technological savvy, not political survival savvy.

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