IBM

1. Great people. I enjoy talking to my coworkers and all IBMers. I have been able to get guidance and help from anyone I ask, and it’s great.

2. The benefits are decent as well. It depends on what you’re looking for; they could be better on the health insurance side and the profit-sharing bonus side.

3. Flexibility. You can move to a new team, organization, or role if you don’t feel like a fit in your current place, but find a new place that is better.

4. Most teams seem to allow for a good work/life balance (although it is variable by team; my first team was pretty bad in this regard).

1. Management is hit or miss.

I have had three managers so far. The first one was a nice guy, but I didn’t feel like he was interested in managing. He was more technical and only met with us once per quarter, the minimum times, sometimes even missing that deadline.

The other two managers have been great and really seem interested in me as a person as well as an employee, making me feel like I have a chance to grow in the company.

1. There aren’t many day-to-day soft benefits at our location. What I mean is there aren’t typical tech company comforts like free coffee or snacks and such.

This isn’t a huge problem, but other companies in the industry do more in this space.

1. Variability in how things are run from team to team and organization to organization.

If you’re not on a great team or in the wrong organization at the wrong time, that might be the reason why you have stress in your job, like bad work/life balance, bad management, or constant fear of layoffs.