IBM

Good salary, interesting customers and work, and exceptional peers (for me, at least).

It will depend where you are. IBM, particularly on the product side, is not one company but a collection of small companies. This is good; it allows that product the flexibility to operate as its own entity.

Highly unstable environment. Every few years, they will, without warning, just axe about 20%—seemingly just to keep everyone on their toes. This is usually sales and tech sales; lab services (where I was) are rarely touched.

Massively bureaucratic. It needs to be; it's a lot of people, but if that's the kind of thing that bothers you, think twice.

They make a big deal about there being amazing growth opportunities, but the reality is that if you are good at a job, you will stay there or get promoted into a management position, where you will stay. If you are not good, it's entirely possible to hide, which isn't great. Almost everyone knows someone who adds no value, shirks responsibility, and just collects a paycheck.

Listen to the voices from the coal face, the people who actually go and work with customers – lab services, CTPs, GBS. These are the people who can tell you how we are perceived and how to improve.

Ensure that across the workforce, everyone is productive. There are too many bad apples hiding in the organization.