I worked at IBM for a year out of college before getting laid off as apart of a round of mass layoffs that the company regularly does. Joining the company definitely felt cool, especially as a new grad. The history alone was pretty neat and I was super happy to be a part of something that had had such a big impact on the world. After spending some time at the company though, the biggest thing that struck me was the quality of the people and the mindset of management. IBM pays poorly, raises are nonexistent and so are bonuses. My coworkers were not particularly smart nor passionate. I honestly believe that a major factor in the decline of IBM is the refusal to invest in their people. Most engineers and designers are just cogs for the many layers of management to shuffle around and use, and the managers are more interested in playing the office politics game and micromanaging than actually building cool stuff. It's a very top-down sort of place but the people at the top and the bottom are not very smart.