rating for International Business Machines Corporation

7 years old: OS/2 team posted on February 15, 2007

I worked on the OS/2 team in the 1990s. While some of upper-management's decisions weren't on the mark, lower management and the upper-ranked technical people went to bad for the lower-level coders much more often than not. What was then called the Software Group wasn't the place to be if you liked small, innovative projects, but it was a great place to learn all there was to know about running a large product like an operating system.

IBM has many divisions. Whatever you want in your career, there is probably a division or department with your name on it. Get in any way you can, prove your worth, then scout the internal jobs database. About the only thing IBM doesn't offer is entrepreneurial opportunities. However, a good number of IBM alumni start their own businesses. Some of them wind up back at IBM after a buyout.

A word for mid-career people:
I don't know if it's still practice, but in the 1990s, the Software Group rarely hired experienced people unless they needed to fill a specific position quickly and couldn't find a good internal candidate. If you are mid-career you may be better off taking some college courses or earning a masters degree and working through a campus recruiter. Another alternative is to work through a contracting outfit. In the 1990s, IBM subcontracted some low-level tasks to manpower firms. Subcontract "employees" could work with their "IBM managers" to bypass the normal HR weed-out process and get hired as a "real" employee.

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