My day at IBM isn't the 9-to-5 experience MBAs sometimes seek in order to avoid the grind of investment banking or consulting. Nor does it involve 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. marathons to get a pitch or a presentation out the door: It's somewhere in between.

It turns out the sun really does set, which I don't recall noticing when I was a banker before B-school. People are expected to give their all and make sacrifices for the good of IBM clients, but not to the total exclusion of a personal life. Our senior executives tell us, and personally demonstrate, that if you don't have a work-life balance you can't tap your full management potential. I've never known another company that believes that to its core.

TYPICAL WORKDAY: 
7:30 a.m. -- I'm out the door and on the light rail to work in San Jose, Calif., probably using my cell phone to check voice mail along the way given that headquarters is three hours ahead in New York.

8:15 a.m. -- Ah, the morning "replicate" (synchronizing my laptop with the e-mail server). A few dozen e-mails, no doubt, lots of information to assimilate about new products, venture funding, new tools for the sales force. The e-mails that require responses usually need a bit more time, but before you know it, it's...

9:00 a.m. -- Time for the day's first conference call. Today the goal is to get the product-development team to agree on when to release a document about one of our products to the world. Our calendar [of such announcements] is so full, I want to be sure we can make a splash.

11:00 a.m. -- Lunch at the desk, and early. Picked up the habit as an investment banker in Atlanta, which is an early-lunch town. (Maybe it's that Coke they drink in the morning).

11:30 a.m. -- Finishing up those detailed e-mails, but so many more have arrived. Or, I might be working on a presentation, slide show, or document, the usual means of communication inside or outside the company.

12:00 p.m. -- Better start walking over to the customer briefing center for my 12:30 pitch. Never know when you'll be needed earlier than the agenda says. I've got an hour today to describe two products -- a bit tight. It's big crowd, with eight clients, about half of whom are from the client's CIO office and half from the more technical side.

1:30 p.m. -- Presentation is still going. Looks like I'll miss talking to my colleagues on the East Coast today. Will have to leave messages.

2:45 p.m. -- The briefing is still going. Lots of questions on our products, features, and future plans.

3:30 p.m. -- Back at the office, lots of detailed questions about new initiatives need answering, and I still need to get my "day job" work done. Have to finish that report about the number of downloads (source codes, detailed reference documents, protocol specifications, etc.) that people visiting our site have made for the week.

4:30 p.m. -- I'm going to wrap things up a bit early. I want to catch the swing dancing class at the company gym down the hall.

5:45 p.m. -- My swing dancing skills are another reason to stick to the day job. During class, though, I had an idea for a new marketing tactic that I need to put in that marketing strategy presentation before I forget.

6:15 p.m -- Stroll back to the light rail station and go home, laptop on my back.

9:00 p.m. -- One more e-mail check tonight, that's it. And double-check when the first appointment is tomorrow morning. And of course, I back up my files every night. Don't you?

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