IBM

Many great, intelligent, and helpful people. Competitive benefits and offices all over the world.

A great place to build skills working on mainframe systems, so you could easily learn here and then walk onto any job with a company using IBM mainframes.

If your interests lie outside of that forum, though, look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, this list is growing. Multiple large layoffs have crippled the company, and the loss of that experience is not recoverable.

The current philosophy to "constantly reinvent yourself" from the CEO breeds a deep and constant sense of confusion and lack of cohesive direction.

All of that, and it seems (in my experience) as if it is the developers versus the management.

The culture is an aging, IBM-pension-promised set of grumbling and disillusioned people. I am sure there are plenty of good managers here, but it should not be part of the job description to seek out the few good teams on which to work.

Three of my four colleagues who started with me are no longer here (1 laid off, 2 quit).

Show some appreciation to the people in the trenches and get your heads out of your behinds. Of the half dozen managers with whom I have dealt, not a single one was supportive or helpful. Those aren't good odds.