Pros
Sharing information on the account. You will learn how to manage the account from your peers mainly because they are so busy that they need to get you quickly up to speed. The only negative is sometimes they can be so busy that the training can be slow in coming.
Cons
I am sorry to add that many of the posts here are true. I to was an IBM contractor, which by the way is short for “IBM outsource victim” who was also supporting an account only to have it outsourced to India a few months later and then I was promptly laid off. IBM is really playing an unfair game because when you first come into IBM they have these meetings telling everyone that if you work hard keeping your client happy then IBM will be a success and you will be rewarded with gainful employment only to find that the whole “scam” is set up so that once you get the account rolling, ironing out all the bugs only to then train the India team. And training the India team is no picnic because they take over the account on a silver platter. Even though you may have had to struggle supporting the account, by the time India gets it everything is documented step by step and even then you get millions of questions that you have to research and answer for them. And of course after that you are out of a job and they continue to support the account. I don’t want this post to seem like I am blaming India – I am not! They are offered the job and of course they take. It is the American executive who makes the decisions to outsource that are to blame! It wouldn’t be so bad if they told you up front that your account will soon be outsourced! But of course if they did that they wouldn’t be able to get motivated workers. I really wish for this post to be a warning to future IBM contractors. I would strongly advise to take any other job that you can before working at IBM. I realize that times are tough especially for IT personal (mainly due to outsourcing) and any job is better than no job. That being said if you do accept an IBM contracting job, go into it with the mentality that it is only temporary and will end (sooner than later). Do not think of it as a career because it’s not! Always keep looking for another job because IBM will lay you off in heartbeat – no warning - on the same day --- its over! In closing I realize the outsourcing game is not only played by IBM, many corporations do it. What a struggle it has now become for the American IT professional as well as many other professions. In the long run (short run?) it is our country that will ultimately suffer.
