IBM

There is a lot to learn at IBM, and a ton of work to choose from. The people are very smart and usually helpful with just about anything. Depending on which division you work at, you may have lots of flexibility over your work schedule.

It took me a couple of years to realize that promotions are largely influenced not by the quality or quantity of your work, but rather by the number of years you've spent at your current band level. Yet, if you get on the "fast track," meaning you have corporate sponsorship, promotions become almost instant.

Management needs to invest more into its resources, as they promise in their corporate announcements. You can't just announce you will be spending more money on your people and then, the very next year, announce massive layoffs and hand out extremely low bonuses. I know times can be tough, but a company that reports record profits year after year can surely afford to spend a little more on its main resource: its people.

IBM is currently a dinosaur of the industry that can only grow by acquiring profitable companies and destroying everything that made them successful in the first place. There is no need to keep making ridiculous purchases of companies we can actually compete with if only given a chance.