I worked in IBM for more than 5 years and hence will be able to give you an objective analysis of the kind of things you can expect. 1. IBM management: Firstly being an MNC cost centre, most of the things are not controlled by IBM India but by IBM Geo (mainly US).
Hence the IBM India management is more of a dummy comprising mainly of people who have no vision (except to pass their time till they attain the retirement age of 58). You will actually find a lot of people in IBM who are in their 50’s and are simply waiting for retirement. You will be shocked to know, but IBM does not actually have a full fledged HR department like other companies do. Hence you cannot raise your genuine concerns with anyone except for someone called people manager who is a pseudo-HR person, a concept you will find in no other IT company.
In short expect a hopeless top management with no strategy or vision. 2. Quality of work: Honestly speaking, this has nothing to do with the organization itself but more to do with the project that you are in to. I have myself worked for projects where you actually get everything (on-site opportunity, learning opportunity, good project management, good client etc.) to projects where you get nothing (no on-site opportunity, useless client, political environment in the project, no learning etc.).
It purely depends upon your luck what project you might get in to. Hence do not have any pre-conceived notions about the work quality as this is project dependent. 3. Overall growth: As far as your salary and career growth is concerned, let me put it this way. In IBM growth does not depend on your performance. It depends on what settings/relations do you have with your people manager (not necessarily your project manager). A people manager is a person who is your ’GOD’ in IBM because he decides everything including your performance appraisal, salary hike, promotion and variable pay.
Believe me it may sound shocking but the fact is that every people manager gets a budget from the HR for everything and it is his sole discretion as to how he/she want to distribute to within the sub-ordinates. Say he receives Rs. 100/- as salary hike budget to be allocated to 6 sub-ordinates, he may choose to give Rs. 40/- each to two of this favourites, Rs. 10/- each to two of this not so favourites and zero (yes a big zero) to the remaining two sub-ordinates with whom he may not share a good relation and these two guys can do nothing about it.
He even has access to confidential information such as your salary. I have seen cases where people have been given hikes to the tune of 27-28% while other in the same team have received no hikes. There have been numerous cases where a person was not given hike just because his salary could actually have come close to his people manager’s salary after the hike and this is something the people manager could not digest. In fact you will see two extremes in IBM, people whose salaries have not increased (or hardly increased) in 5 years and then there are people whose salary has doubled (with an assured 15% hike annual hike) in 5 years. Ditto for promotions.
I have seen people who had 4 band changes in 7 years and you also have people whose band has not undergone any change for 6 years. The concept of people manager is promoting dirty politics at even the lowest level because most employees believe that the only way you can grow in IBM is by having the necessary "jugad" with your people manager. Hence more people are focusing on this rather than on improving work quality. Hence overall quality of work has deteriorated. In short if you are the kind of person who can bootlick your manager (in crude hindi "apne manager ko chaat sakte ho") and can build good network then you are can growth unbelievably fast in IBM.
- Salary structure: I have brought up this point because I have heard a lot of people saying that IBM pays less and salary structure is complex. This has more to do with ignorance than facts. Coming to the salary itself IBM pays market average salary. Obviously if you are joining IBM, you will be paid slightly higer to get you in. But afer a few years you may fall below the average.
As in every case you always have exceptions. Hence you will find people earing 50% above market average while some earning 50% below market average. But in general there are no hidden components in the salary. The variable component is about 8% of which you can expect 50-60% payout. Salary structure is actually simple comprising of the usual components i.e. basic, flexible/basket of allowances, PF, gratuity etc. In short expect market average salary with no hidden components and simpe salary structure.
- Work policies: This is a 5 star by any yarstick. You have complete flexibility in your work. There is no swipe in/out concept and hence no concept of average work hours. You have complete flexible timing and can work from home without any restrictions. In fact you will see a lot of people in IBM who come to office only twice a week. Many women professionals who have kids work from home and come to office only say twice a month. You have 22 previlege leaves and additionally sick leaves and casual leaves.
Hence effectively no loss of pay. I know a few people who have been able to start side businesses when in IBM due to this flexible timing and work from home policy. There could be some project specifc restrictions but in general the 5 star rating will apply. In short if you have some personal issues to take care of or if you have started thinking about retirement or you are already earning a good salary and not bothered about hikes/promotions. then do not think twice. IBM is the place to be in.
- Other parameters: In addition to the above you have other parameters such as infrastructure, job security, company policies etc. Honestly speaking infrastructure does not matter much if you rarely come to office. They have all their offices in leased buildings so do not expect any great campus/facilities. Of course the necessary infrastructure to make you work conveniently will be in place.
Coming to job security, being the largest IT company in the world and with huge projects both operational and in pipeline, you can expect that even during recession you will not be thrown out. Finally the overall company policies are good in terms of making your life easy such as easy reimbursement policy, access to internet without restrictions, policy help desk, shift allowances etc.
With the above information, you will be able to make an objective judgement without any bias.