IBM

IBM has been around longer than any other IT company, and for good reason -- it hires some of the best and brightest people in the industry, and the senior management isn't completely dumb.

Benefits of working at IBM include:

• Great flexibility (results-oriented environment)
• Liberal view of technologies (you can bring your own Mac or smartphone to use at work, and no websites are ever blocked)
• A decent benefits package including automatic 401k contribution, 100% match up to 6%, and free access to financial planners.

The senior management hasn't completely screwed up -- the company is turning a healthy profit, and those who haven't been laid off have not seen a salary cut.

This isn't your father's IBM. There's no paternal feeling anymore, where the company would take care of employees from cradle to grave. The pension is gone. Salary is middle-of-the-road. Promotions, for young people, are hard to come by due to lack of attrition by older workers. To be a rock star, you really have to have a "sponsor" and be in the right place at the right time.

Pinning people down in the lower bands is going to bite management in the rear once the job market starts recovering.