IBM reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(107,299 total reviews)
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Arvind Krishna

77% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

IBM has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 107,299 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The IBM employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

107K reviews
5.0
Jan 29, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

IBM is open and fair and pays well. I worked there for 9 years in Europe and they are extremely flexible to their employees, no managers breathe down your neck for petty things like vacation time, where you are working every day, free time, etc. They focus on where it matters - your job performance. Business goals are captured and measured twice a year in an online system. The collaboration between employees is exceptional because of the real-time collaboration tools. Most employees are able to manage their own time, work where and how they like, as long as of course they meet their business goals. The approach is fairly hands-off, which increases the self-imposed pressure to perform and meet your goals.

Cons

They are so big that sometimes you can get lost in the crowd. If you are like me you may want to move fast and find quick ways to close a complex global deal, for example, but you will have to work with many entrenched bureaucrats in their multiple fiefdoms to do anything in a non-standard creative way. Sometimes you have to deal with employees who realize that they can do the minimum effort, come to the office everyday, and basically rot away until they retire. Most of these fortunately are beginning to retire, but you still have some lifer-types who would need two months to work themselves out of a paper bag.

5.0
Jan 28, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I like the flextime scheduling. I can come into work at any time of the day usually as long as I get my 40+ hours in the week. I also love the location. Vermont is a beautiful state with great schools and many outdoor activities.

Cons

They just cut the funding for continuing education (their ALAP program). So there is no opportunity to go back to school part time.

4.0
Jan 27, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The quality of co-workers is great. The internal organizations can be great resources for growth both through formal education as well as through collaboration with colleagues. The frequent flier points are nice :) In most cases all employees are treated as adults and their is little micromanaging. You know what you have to get done and as long as you do it nobody cares when. This is particularly great when working from home or when you are on a non-traveling assignment. IBM is a leader in managing remote teams and its management is comfortable with remote teams and never 'seeing' employees.

Cons

At IBM you either travel or your job will get outsourced. You are often quickly type cast and if you have one set of skills it is very difficult to get onto projects where you can utilize skills you are trying to develop and need hands on experience. Personnel managers are often clueless and simply pushing papers as most have too many employees under them to truly be effective in their roles. Annual reviews often limit managers to only rewarding 1-2 employees outstanding ratings and everyone else is average. This is due to employee reviews being tied directly to bonuses and the limited bonus pool. You often never meet your managers in person.

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Glassdoor has 131,762 IBM reviews submitted anonymously by IBM employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if IBM is right for you.