IBM

It's easy to be a high performer here. Most people slack off and put in the minimum.

Flexible hours, as well as the option to work from home twice a week.

Some office locations have free snacks and drinks. Sometimes. They're usually out of stock.

The O'Reilly subscription is nice.

If you're a fresh grad engineer, I'd stay away from this place for the following reasons:

• Not a great place to grow. I have yet to see any agile practices be utilized. No mentorship. I hardly have anyone to turn to when I get stuck because the number of skilled engineers here are few and far between.

• Watson is overhyped and overrated. I honestly don't even know how they've managed to spin this thing as AI. It's far from it.

• Lack of career guidance, mentorship, and challenging work.

• Future is full of uncertainty and layoffs are typical.

• If you work in the Bay Area or NYC, your compensation will be terrible. San Francisco employees' base salary is only 20% higher than Raleigh employees, yet the COL in SF is 90% higher.

• Leadership sucks. I've met my manager's boss once or twice. I've yet to come across a tech lead, engineering manager, director, or VP. The CEO of IBM came to our office for a "town hall" meeting and only a handful of people were invited.

• Details of your full-time offer will be a toss-up. The location and role will be completely out of your hands. Managers within the organization aren't even allowed to seek you out individually and recruit you. Nor can you seek out them. I was told to "trust the process" after telling them what kind of work I'm interested in.