Pros
- Because IBM's portfolio is so extensive and spans so many different segments of the technology space, you can gain exposure to new innovative sectors and areas of interest under one roof. - Brand recognition and reputable name in the Enterprise space with long-standing customers that can make breaking into new accounts, scaling, and specific brand, or cross-selling easier vs competitors. - A lot of learning resources and tools are available for free, both from a technical and professional standpoint. Still, they are hidden and not widely talked about, so you have to uncover these programs and courses. - Opportunity to work on complex deals helping to architect and sell really innovative and robust solutions to solve unique and first of it's kind use cases - Lots of room for advancement or pivoting to another brand within the company, but a lot of the vertical integration happens through building connections and networking, which does lead to some favoritism. Ultimately, you can reach out to the Director about a role on their team on Slack to discuss further. - Strong benefits, ESPP, and a yearly performance increase to your base salary that becomes substantial if you are successful, the longer you're with the company.
Cons
- Doesn't know who or what they want to be. Over my time with the company, we rebranded every year, which led to personnel realignments and/or the loss of deals in your pipeline because you no longer covered a specific solution. Also, led to inconsistent messaging to customers, confusion around brands and products, a constant revolving door of people in front of customers, and required several weeks to make the pivot to start the year. - Acquiring, not innovating - a lot of solutions and the training you receive talk about being cutting edge and first to market or solving for xyz problem, which is all great, but not an accurate depiction about half the time, with solutions being rolled out half-baked or missing features or components. Acquisitions are rolled into a suite or under a brand, and the innovation that made the acquisition attractive dies once fully under IBM's flag. Lastly, many offerings in the AI/ML, big data, and automation spaces are not turnkey, out-of-the-box solutions, and to accomplish what others provide in a single solution, IBM has broken out into standalone solutions or modular components. Implementation costs can be very high, making it hard to justify the overall cost/ time-to-value. - You worry about your job security and don't expect your manager or leadership to help or do much because they are doing the same. There were several scenarios in which a team didn't receive their account list or quotas until late March. Then their plan was changed, and during that entire time, under IBM employee guidelines, you can be put on PIP after two bad halves, and in this example, there were no exceptions. - Commission structure is good, but nothing exceptional, and IBM is constantly adjusting in favor of IBM, lowering earning potential yearly - Daily perdium for travel is so minimal that you end up spending a decent amount out of pocket if you travel a lot, and IBM's very strict on what can be expenses - The amount of hours spent on internal calls, meetings, 1x1s, trainings, and so on is absurd, typically averaging around 6-8 hours during primetime selling hours that are then lost and likely require you to make them up somewhere else
