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Out of touch workforce and out-of-control legacy products. Struggling to change, years too late

Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at IBM for 2 years
August 28, 2014
Hursley, England
1.0
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

Good opportunities to get out and about, if you are in the correct role and have funding (almost impossible currently).

Surrounded by plenty of smart people.

Ridiculously good-looking locations.

IBM still looks good on a CV.

Plenty of opportunities to move around the portfolio and also change job role.

Shows hope of changing for the better.

Cons

Disappointing IBM-wide culture; few willing to adapt to changes in the industry.

Some employees respond to stack ranking by undermining others.

New products are behind, out of touch, and still do not focus on the end user.

Massively out-of-touch marketing efforts scare developers from IBM's latest products.

Disappointing and insulting graduate and intern hiring schemes.

Poor or no on-boarding process for new hires.

Incorrect and disgraceful processes in places. Employees are frequently prevented from working by individuals on irrelevant, box-ticking power trips.

Auditability over usability. If you care about working at pace with good tools, go elsewhere.

Lots of IBM skills are useless outside of IBM; many find it hard to jump out of the company.

Death by PowerPoint/conference call is frequent.

Advice to Management

Don't just talk about change; the culture needs to change.

Focus improvements on the workforce, making radical changes if required.

IBM is nothing without its employees. Put them first and give them what they need.

No more half measures with new products.

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