Pros
Interesting projects - cutting-edge business issues and technology at large complex clients Colleagues are professional, cordial and intelligent --- many have a good sense of humor Fills a hole on your resume while you look for another job with more potential Surprising breadth and depth of expertise available within IBM Access to rich intellectual capital and self-study courses with varying levels of usefulness Variety of work / life balance programs are available. Many internal jobs are structured as 'work from home' . Client facing personnel can work from home when they are not at client locations. This means your family will at least know what you look like even if they are rarely speak to you.
Cons
Low compensation - this includes both salary and bonus. Salary increases are limited to top performers. Cost of living increases do not exist. Promotions are extremely rare. Management usually blocks lateral transfers out of the group Benefits are comparable to other large companies, but are steadily decreased every year. Employee healthcare expenses (monthly contributions, deductibles, etc) increase rapidly every year. Actual access to work / life programs is at management discretion - many times requests are declined Quarterly layoffs - IBM has a stated strategy to move jobs to Brazil, China and India If you are laid off, you are often expected to train your replacement. Billing targets for consultants are very high and don't allow for time off for vacation, holidays, education or other non-billable professional activities. Not meeting your target in any given quarter makes you a lay-off candidate. Management has no problem laying off in one quarter and hiring in the next to make quarterly numbers. Education is at management's discretion. Most face-to-face classes are canceled due to lack of enrollment. Interaction with other IBMers, including your boss, is almost always via phone, email or instant messaging. Workload can be crushing. Travel policies make the consulting lifestyle much harder than it has to be. Saving IBM money is much more important than saving a consultant stress or travel time. Performance measurements cause divisions to compete against each other for clients. Upper level management says it wants this to stop - but every year reinforces this behavior with the the performance system.
