IBM

Great people. Most everyone is willing to help you come up to speed.

Ample time to learn and build your skills, particularly when coming out of college.

It's easy to move up if you're willing to take some risks and work hard, at least in the software group it is.

As a team lead, processes are more important than ever for releasing a product. You count yourself as a full-time developer, yet with meetings and helping new hires (because IBM pretty much only hires those out of college), you find yourself struggling to find time to write code.

There are many people who are happy putting in less than 40 hours, which in some ways stagnates the group as a whole. No one is learning anything new; thus, only a few key folks end up knowing much, and they don't grow because the group is not educating themselves as a whole. I get it; it's not a Silicon Valley company to have that drive, but why shouldn't those who work there want to learn and grow themselves?

Stop fostering the non-performers and send the message they will be replaced with others. Although this is not IBM's way, the only way you get fired is when IBM forces layoffs.

Have your employees move around more. Don't allow anyone to be tied to a product for more than 3 years. Too much of the product is invested in one person to be able to leave. This is bad for everyone: employee, product, manager, and IBM.