Seems like IBM is just where obese boomer chuds go for "better work-life balance" (read: can't hack it) and it's career suicide if you're young.
I came from there and went on to Amazon. But I set that goal, I knew it was a springboard opportunity. I tried to get on interesting projects all for the sake of my portfolio. You can definitely waste your time there and I see a long of young talented people do so only because they get comfortable there and scared to expand.
And yes there are lots of old dinosaurs that don’t even know what good design looks like. Devs are very disgruntled.
Not in my opinion
It’s pretty good on a resume but the pay is bad
Yes. If it's a shitty company, then it would have died years ago but they are still relevant. Still in cloud and ai. IBM research is still prestigious imho.
IBM Research is good in terms of publication and patent portfolio, comparable to research divisions in other companies. Other divisions lag behind, some very severely. I wouldn't say it's career suicide. The culture is not very demanding, so if you choose to be a slacker you'd still be fine. Not everyone does that though. And it's good on your resume, helps get calls from other "hot" companies out there.
In Silicon Valley, they can't pay competitively (for both IC and managers). In other locations, they might do better.
It's been like 20 years since IBM was desirable, maybe more.
“Seems like” Well in that case...