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I cannot imagine why a new engineer or CS grad would want to go to work for IBM. Their reputation is that of a company that was great before you were born but f

I cannot imagine why a new engineer or CS grad would want to go to work for IBM. Their reputation is that of a company that was great before you were born but forgot how to innovate long ago, except for a brief foray into AI that made them famous on a game show but was useless for everything else. Then they bought a Linux company but it's been subjected to the same capricious layoffs as the rest of the company so there's no job security. Most of their revenue seems to come from sending C-grade "consultants" to other big low-tech businesses to keep their computers running, which makes the customer's CIO happy but screws up the computers for everybody who actually works there. I don't get it.

quadrifoliate 3y ago
> I cannot imagine why a new engineer or CS grad would want to go to work for IBM. I might have submitted a resume to IBM back in the day, when you still used paper ones at college career fairs (maybe you still do?). In retrospect, I'm glad I never heard back from them; but people need money to pay off bills and loans, and so did I. It had nothing to do with me sharing IBM's vision or strategy for "innovation" in any way.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  Yea, If you are actually choosing where you work, you are one of the lucky few. Probably 99% of us don’t get a dozen offers to choose our passion from when job hunting. We get one offer after a lot of searching and take it because we like to have a roof over our heads. Sure, we vaguely “choose” where we work by deciding where to send our resumes, but a vanishingly small number wake up and say “my passion is to work at Apple” and then walk through the front door.
somenameforme 3y ago
While this is somewhat dated knowledge, I expect it carries over at least somewhat. IBM recruited hyper-aggressively at my university for internships. And at the internship you had minimal obligations and a quite comfortable salary which carried over into full-time employment. Why they were grabbing every warm body just to have them sit around is probably just the left hand not knowing what the right was doing, but it created a pretty nice opportunity for people whose main motivation was freedom. Of course I expect those departments/divisions may well have eventually been "slimmed down", so everything comes full circle.
Barrin92 3y ago
>I don't get it. Because reputation and reality are two different things. IBM still produces significant amounts of research, for example in semiconductors. It's usually the top or among the top companies in terms of patents per year, which is a decent measure. It's the same with Oracle. Has a bad reputation among the hipster internet crowd, but researchers or engineers generally earn good salaries and have significant freedom and problems to work on for probably any domain of CS you're interested in.
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
At least IBM has a reputation. The overwhelming majority of CS graduates will go to work at companies that have no reputation outside their fields because no one's heard of them. This is just how work is for most people.
remeq 3y ago
They can resurrect themselves with Quantum computing. Big, fat,extremely specialized, room-sized machines was always something IBM was good at.
- wmf 3y ago
  Quantum computing isn't real though.
  - _zoltan_ 3y ago
    Sure... Like the earth is flat you mean? ;) Quantum computing is very real.
  - arp242 3y ago
    Quantum computers are a bit like fusion power plants: they already exist today and are very real, but they're also not very practical and it's an open question if they ever will be practical.
dangwhy 3y ago
They seem to be getting on the AI bandwagon with their watson stuff again.
jonfw 3y ago
I enjoy working for IBM, I’ve been there my whole (relatively short) career and it’s been a great mix of interesting work, opportunity to advance my career, mentorship, and work life balance. It’s a big company and every team is different so YMMV.
paxys 3y ago
Not every new CS grad has offers from Google and Meta waiting for them when they graduate. If you exclusively follow online discussion about the tech space you'd think that all engineers naturally go to the FAANGs or some well-funded startup, but in reality 99% are employed by consulting companies, small regional shops, BPOs, IT divisions of non-tech companies and others who are way worse than "old tech" employers like IBM.
_zoltan_ 3y ago
I immensely enjoy my work at IBM Research and have been here 10+ years. Most of the people I interact with are top notch experts in their respective fields.
jzb 3y ago
Maybe they didn’t get an offer from one of their first choices? Maybe they could live where they want working for IBM instead of having to live in SV for a FAANG? (Less of a thing now, but seems to be making a comeback…) Maybe they did get an offer from a FAANG or something but didn’t like the culture. Lots of reasons people want to work for IBM or at least feel like it’s better than alternatives. I’ve known lots of folks who worked for IBM who enjoyed it. (And plenty who didn’t, or did and then didn’t…)

quadrifoliate 3y ago

> I cannot imagine why a new engineer or CS grad would want to go to work for IBM. I might have submitted a resume to IBM back in the day, when you still used paper ones at college career fairs (maybe you still do?). In retrospect, I'm glad I never heard back from them; but people need money to pay off bills and loans, and so did I. It had nothing to do with me sharing IBM's vision or strategy for "innovation" in any way.

ryandrake 3y ago
Yea, If you are actually choosing where you work, you are one of the lucky few. Probably 99% of us don’t get a dozen offers to choose our passion from when job hunting. We get one offer after a lot of searching and take it because we like to have a roof over our heads. Sure, we vaguely “choose” where we work by deciding where to send our resumes, but a vanishingly small number wake up and say “my passion is to work at Apple” and then walk through the front door.

somenameforme 3y ago

While this is somewhat dated knowledge, I expect it carries over at least somewhat. IBM recruited hyper-aggressively at my university for internships. And at the internship you had minimal obligations and a quite comfortable salary which carried over into full-time employment. Why they were grabbing every warm body just to have them sit around is probably just the left hand not knowing what the right was doing, but it created a pretty nice opportunity for people whose main motivation was freedom. Of course I expect those departments/divisions may well have eventually been "slimmed down", so everything comes full circle.

Barrin92 3y ago

>I don't get it. Because reputation and reality are two different things. IBM still produces significant amounts of research, for example in semiconductors. It's usually the top or among the top companies in terms of patents per year, which is a decent measure. It's the same with Oracle. Has a bad reputation among the hipster internet crowd, but researchers or engineers generally earn good salaries and have significant freedom and problems to work on for probably any domain of CS you're interested in.

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago

At least IBM has a reputation. The overwhelming majority of CS graduates will go to work at companies that have no reputation outside their fields because no one's heard of them. This is just how work is for most people.

remeq 3y ago

They can resurrect themselves with Quantum computing. Big, fat,extremely specialized, room-sized machines was always something IBM was good at.

wmf 3y ago
Quantum computing isn't real though.
- _zoltan_ 3y ago
  Sure... Like the earth is flat you mean? ;) Quantum computing is very real.
- arp242 3y ago
  Quantum computers are a bit like fusion power plants: they already exist today and are very real, but they're also not very practical and it's an open question if they ever will be practical.

dangwhy 3y ago

They seem to be getting on the AI bandwagon with their watson stuff again.

jonfw 3y ago

I enjoy working for IBM, I’ve been there my whole (relatively short) career and it’s been a great mix of interesting work, opportunity to advance my career, mentorship, and work life balance. It’s a big company and every team is different so YMMV.

paxys 3y ago

Not every new CS grad has offers from Google and Meta waiting for them when they graduate. If you exclusively follow online discussion about the tech space you'd think that all engineers naturally go to the FAANGs or some well-funded startup, but in reality 99% are employed by consulting companies, small regional shops, BPOs, IT divisions of non-tech companies and others who are way worse than "old tech" employers like IBM.

_zoltan_ 3y ago

I immensely enjoy my work at IBM Research and have been here 10+ years. Most of the people I interact with are top notch experts in their respective fields.

jzb 3y ago

Maybe they didn’t get an offer from one of their first choices? Maybe they could live where they want working for IBM instead of having to live in SV for a FAANG? (Less of a thing now, but seems to be making a comeback…) Maybe they did get an offer from a FAANG or something but didn’t like the culture. Lots of reasons people want to work for IBM or at least feel like it’s better than alternatives. I’ve known lots of folks who worked for IBM who enjoyed it. (And plenty who didn’t, or did and then didn’t…)