Career development

A guide for new hires
An early start at career success begins with Your IBM, our new-hire training program. You'll learn how IBM works, how to maximize your contribution to the company, how to successfully navigate within IBM and connect with your colleagues — and have fun in the process!

Planning your career
To help you identify opportunities, construct a skills road map and mark your progress, IBM offers easy-to-navigate career Web sites and tools:

• Individual development plan — You might prefer to deepen your knowledge in your field of expertise or you might decide to make lateral moves to broaden your range of skills. Either way, you create an individual development plan, each year, to help you to continue to grow.
  
  If management is your goal, IBM has an award-winning management development program.
• Job role and technical training — In addition to top-notch professional skills, IBM focuses on in-depth industry and technical training to keep you up to date on emerging technologies and skills valued in the marketplace.
• Academic learning assistance program — IBM provides assistance for external education in addition to our internal training offerings to help you keep your skills aligned with our business goals.
• Learning@IBM Explorer — Whether you're looking for online or classroom courses offered by IBM's professional communities, or personalized career guidance, you'll find this information on the Learning@IBM Explorer Web site. Universal access to thousands of internal e-learning modules is included, so you can take the courses you need at your convenience. Through Learning@IBM Explorer, you can also reference leading business and technical publications.

Tuition Refund
IBM will reimburse 100 percent of each employee's tuition and other eligible fees for accredited education programs outside regular working hours. We require three things:

• Your curriculum must meet IBM business needs.
• It must be approved by your IBM manager.
• You must satisfactorily complete the preapproved courses.

Educational leave of absence
Subject to management approval, if your course of study mutually benefits you and IBM, we can grant an unpaid educational leave of absence.

Values
We define our guiding beliefs for how we relate to each other, to our clients, our partners and our stakeholders. As a company, we value:

• Dedication to every client's success
• Innovation that matters — for our company and for the world
• Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships

These shared values influence how we make decisions and work together, setting the stage for what employees — and the world — can expect from IBMers.

Valuing our people and their development
The expertise of our workforce is as critical to our success as the effectiveness of our technology. We invest more than US$750 million annually to help make sure that our employees have leading-edge skills and ongoing development opportunities.

"People development is about enabling the capability of our employees, managers and teams to drive business performance. It focuses on providing our workforce with the tools, resources and guidance needed to broaden our knowledge base and develop skills most valued by our industry. It also allows employees the opportunity for career progression."
— Randy MacDonald, IBM senior vice president of Human Resources

IBM Foundational Competencies
We identify core competencies that provide the foundation for employee professional growth at IBM. These include:

• Adaptability
• Client focus
• Taking ownership
• Communication
• Drive to achieve
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Creative problem solving
• Passion for the business
• Trustworthiness

IBM's commitment to people development sets us apart from other employers. From Web applications to mentors to global e-learning to classroom training, IBM's learning environment enables you to take charge of your skills and knowledge from day one, empowering you to expand your expertise throughout your career.