After three long years with IBM excluding the eight months period of internship with them, it’s time to move on for me. Yes, you read it right. I’ll be resigning from my position in IBM and joining HP in Cyberjaya, effective 27th September, 2010, albeit that HP being the business competitor to IBM 
While some responses I got is like I am the biggest betrayer to IBM (which is expected — you know, some of my teammates stop talking to me in this period of resignation), some of my friends was amazed at my ability to withstand IBM for so long. Some of them even asked me..
How come you can be so long with IBM?
Haha. I don’t have much answer for that actually. While some might think that 3 years is a short time, some do thinks that it is a very long time. Depends on each individual perception, everyone will have a different answers. Oh well, let me try to answer some less trivial questions, shall we?:
Reason I’m leaving IBM for HP:
- I got to be based in Cyberjaya, which is much nearer to my current residence in Kajang now. No traffic jam, no tense before reaching the office I hope.
- I got to do DB2 for HP’s internal system, so I still will be doing what I do best — a DBA, a Server Administrator, and will be a DB Developer as well. Oh yeahh!!
- HP offer me a bigger pay. 22% more pay from my current, revised salary; and same benefits as offer by IBM. Surely will help my financial condition.
Did IBM gave me a counter offer? NOPE. And if they did, most probably I won’t stay too due to the first reason (unless it was like 200% or 300% more pay which is of course, ridiculous). Do you know that I have to travel 40km one-way to come to office? Even in the no-traffic-jam road condition, it will still take me one hour to reach office or vice versa.
Multiply the one hour with *at least* two; and that is the average time that I need to be stucked in traffic jam normally when coming or going back to the office. It just not making sense any more to me – financially and timely. And the cost to rent a place nearer to the office also is quite high.
It has been three years and sadly, I do not have any savings that can be liquidated easily (read: cash savings) while with IBM. It all went back some way or the other to IBM. Maybe I can quote Petronas most popular saying:
Energy received, energy returned.
It just… not returning to me in terms of monetary value.
So, with this movement to HP, at least I have fulfilled one of my 2010 resolutions (#3) with an over-achievement. I hope this would ease the resolution #1. Hehehe. Sayang, are you ready? 
(Reading back the 2010 resolutions post, I gotta *pfft* myself. I haven’t started on #4, #5 most prolly won’t get done, and #6 is slowly failing… 
)
Would you recommend people to work at IBM?
Of course I do. It’s a good place to learn, grow, and equip yourself with a lot of knowledge. But as the saying goes, there’s no workplace that is totally heaven. It still have some perks here and there. Here’s what you need to expect:
- Don’t expect people there to spoonfeed you anything. If you want to grow, you got to take your own initiatives. Self-learn, getting technical certificates, and offering to start an initiative or whatnot. That’s the way to success in IBM. Of course, your manager can be your mentor / guidance, but that’s about it.
- Working hard and working late is expected. There will be time when an extra effort is needed to meet your goals or personal business commitment (PBC – something like KPI for IBM). People calls you when you’re just about to pack your bags? Normal.
- Equip yourself with communication skills and people skills. That is the most vital tools for you. If you need to meet 100 peoples around your work, you will find 100 different attitudes. Bonus tips: Equip yourself with body languages skills too. People tend to say accordingly but act differently. Things like “taichee” their tasks, recognition steal, defensive stances, “cover my own ass” attitude is normal. It’s a jungle there. HAHA
- Don’t expect the environment to be happening. Most of the time, most team or department will have the dark, bleak, quiet and boring environment. I kid you not. The most noise that you can hear is the keyboard typing or people calling others in phones. At least this is true to all departments I’ve been in these three years. Bring an earphone and a MP3 player, that will help a lot.
Okay, that’s the expectation. What about things that you can learn?
- Business process. You’ll find that IBM matrix structure is quite clean (even though at times the roles or responsibilities are not). I got to say that their business process is very effective, albeit at times can be quite slow. If you plan to setup your business later, IBM is a good place to learn it’s perks. You will learn to have a business mindset too.
- Vast technical knowledge. IBM has many portals that you can learn all kind of stuffs you want. Take a look at IBM Redbooks for example. You can download one Redbooks, download the installer, and do your own hands-on. Believe me, that’s the best way to learn technical stuffs. While not all portals are equal (sometimes there’s also stuffs that is not available), it’s a good place to get as much knowledge as you can absorb. In the end, you can get a chance to take professional certifications too.
- Globalization. Since IBM is a very big company with a lot of branches all around the world, you will have a chance to work with a lot of people, each with different speciality and comes from different background. You will work with people from US, China, India, Australia.. just to name a few. If you have a solid communication skills, even a base foundational skills; that will helps and you will find that your communication skills grow a lot.
Well, that’s all I have to say about this. Wish me luck in my new career 
, and may some day our lives cross again for the betterment of the world. (Haha, that’s such a wishful thinking)
P/s: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future – John F. Kennedy
