IBM

I started working at IBM as an intern in 2005 and left in 2010. At the time, and I imagine it is still this way, the company was in a transition with a lot of long-time employees and a shift to workers overseas.

My favorite part about working at IBM was the people. While I was the only employee in my group under 30, that did mean that everyone I had worked with was very experienced and took me under their wing. I can't imagine where I would be without my former colleagues. We still meet for a monthly dinner to keep in touch.

Another benefit was that since so much was in transition, I took on a lot of responsibility for my young age. While some may not like that, it's a great opportunity to get your feet wet and try a bunch of different things.

What I didn't like, and the reason I ultimately left, was seeing a lot of people let go and budgets cut for projects I worked on. I worked in Manufacturing Support, so as you could imagine, a lot of that work got marginalized as more moved overseas. I wish those who had served IBM for their entire lives were held with regard and treated with more dignity on their way out.

There was also an apprehension to embrace new technologies (even IBM software!). My skills began to atrophy when compared to my friends from college. I eventually left.

IBM seems to be moving more away from that. We were still using CMVC, software that hadn't been maintained since 2000 when I left.

Too much process! We had 3rd line managers responsible for 'deploying' our application who I had never even met.