Interviewed with IBM employees at the East Lansing office who have similar developer skills. More than one employee cautioned me against working here, and stated that the East Lansing Michigan Development Center was really an in-house temp agency for IBM, morale was very low, and this is only an option if you have to stay in the Lansing area. I was told that your career is secondary to the goals of the leadership team here, who are only there to serve themselves. There is no one to talk to about your career goals as all that matters is your hourly "utilization rate." A reoccurring comment was that the manager's here are absolutely terrible leaders and could care less about their people. Turnover is very high due to how badly people are treated. The mangers, called a Blue Manager, apparently can blow off all questions or concerns from their direct reports and seemingly only care about how many hours you can work in a week. One person mentioned that he had only met his manager two or three times in three years. He also said this manager does his yearly review but has no clue or idea of what the person worked on all year. There appears to be nothing normal about this office as no one has permanent seating and people are grouped together by skills in an open and very, loud, call center-like area. There is no free coffee or free anything (no perks, period) unless the leadership staff have scraps and leftovers to hand out after a meeting. There are no events or activities like there might be at a normal IBM office. The employee policies are also different than they are for all other IBM employees. Be sure to ask about this as one person flat out lied to me when I brought up the issue. One woman told me how she became very ill and had to take one week off for sick days. Her manager told her that every hour she was out would have to be made up for by working nights and weekends. The minimum hours that can be billed here is 45 per week, not including any administrative tasks your manager might give you, such as mandatory training. These hours are on top of your 45 hours per week. You cannot take a vacation day without giving three to four months notice. There are no advancement opportunities other than what is related to your billable hours nor are there positions to advance to in East Lansing. I have a family friend who is retired from IBM and she said that you can work for one year and then transfer but this also appears to not apply to employees here as no one heard of this and no one knew of anyone who has done it successfully.