I am an ex-IBMer and I can say IBM India is a mixed bag with my 5+ years of experience. Things differ based on countries, IBM US is not same as IBM India.
There are 2 managers with whom you interact: One is project manager (PM) and one is people manager (PeM). PeM gives you the rating based on feedback from PM and other factors like org contribution etc.
Following what I have seen:
Pros:
1) Very flexible, no time punch counted.
2) You will even get work from home facility provided your PM approves.
2) Lot of onsite opportunities. Only thing is you should be at right place, at right time.
3) Good trainings conducted, again you should be at right place & right time to get it.
Cons:
1) Lot of processes. You need to manage everything by going through the internal site and following. No separate helpline departments, even if it is there is not of much use.
2) Annual salary hikes are too less. May be they count US inflation and not Indian.
3) Appraisal process is not at all transparent. No clear points for goal settings so that at the end of year you can count your appraisal on achieved measures. In process oriented organization you can expect a very detail level goal settings from your PM, PeM.
4) PeM is your god. He is the first approval for all the things. Unless & until you are a very high achiever (patent, department contributor etc) and top people of your department know you, you are safe. Else your career is in PeM’s hand. He decides your rating and % salary hike etc. If your PeM has good relations with his PeM then you are totally helpless, cause maximum you can escalate to your PeM’s PeM in case of issue.
At the time of entry interview, PeM takes PDM round (equivalent to HR round). He can give you salary in certain range, its totally up to him in case you are demanding more whether to send for exceptional approval or not. HR in IBM just does courier boy’s work, that is to tell his decision.
5) No functional HR. Even at the time of exist PeM is your HR. Don’t know whether he really registers the correct reason or not. Separation database exists, but it asks only the end date. Very surprising but it doesn’t ask the reason :)