GE Infrastructure Reviews

Pros

There is plenty of opportunity to be highly technical. Engineering is a valued skill at GE and there are many options for career paths. The work is challenging and there are a lot of resources available. The goals of the business are clear and there is a strong emphasis on values and credibility. There is a lot of internal career training opportunities and a large array of business tools the company uses and teaches. It is possible to transfer internally from one division to another and make a major career change while maintaining benefits and years with the company. The company reputation is great for training good people and GE alumni seem to be in demand.

Cons

Changes are made quickly and sometimes without warning. Our business name has changed 3 times in the last 5 years, our CEO has changed 3 times in the last 5 years, and we seem to be constantly going through reorganizations to realign our portfolio for the stockholders. Quarterly profits are the most important metric. There is a culture of fire-fighting mentality and priority is not given to documentation or projects to improve communications and job-specific training. IT and Engineering software tools are often developed in-house on shoestring budgets which is often less reliable than commercial software packages. The company is conservative when it comes to business innovation and cultural change. There is always more to be done than people to accomplish the work. Individuals are often given demanding auxiliary jobs to do on top of their primary focus.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase focus on best-practice sharing across businesses and departments. Increase transparency around business and HR changes. If productivity is a true priority, allocate resources to implement real productivity changes. Stop trying to do more with less time and resources - there are already too few people to accomplish all that needs to get done and we face many complex technical challenges. Refocus IT, IM and GRC tools development groups to serve the customer needs and deliver more valuable and usable tools. Hire quality software engineers. Simplify and reduce bureaucracy. Improve morale.

Pros

Lots of opportunities if you are willing to do the work. Very good people.

Cons

Managers can be "numbers" people. Culture of working very long hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to look at more than the numbers when evaluating middle managers.

Pros

The people at GE Transportation are great to work with -- very supportive and want to help you advance your career. Accessible upper management as well.

Cons

Lots of bureaucracy. Promotions are not always given out on the basis of quality of work.

Advice to Senior Management

The pay, while good for a small town, is not very competitive with other companies. Also, the pay structure for entry level into the Corporate Leadership Program does not account for students graduating with Masters.

Pros

Career development through training and the chance to further your education is excellent. Benefits package are great. They encourage fitness and the fitness center is nice. Ability to put your money to work through a nice investment program.

Cons

Salaries compared to equals are unfair. I found out that a new guy just out of college doing the same work as I with 4 years experience was getting paid 10K more than me. Salaries for engineers at GE Infrastructure are too broad, meaning the bands need to be more disipline specific. Some managers say that health and family come first, but when you ask for time off they can get angry when deadlines are near. Other managers don't take the time to get to know you and tend to have their favorites. Some managers don't have the correct background for their position.

Advice to Senior Management

Give equal salaries, meaning adjust for inflation.

Pros

Hands on with the product and involvement with the customers. You can be as involved as you want to at any level. Management is open to ideas on improving the product for the customer and business. A offhanded suggestion made may be the next multi million dollar project. You as an individual help to shape the future of the company

Cons

very lean.. some positions are 1 deep with lots of deliverables. Company does not backfill jobs until they are empty and this leaves knowledge gaps. Reward system is based more on movement from one role to the next instead of rewarding for building expertise in current role

Advice to Senior Management

Need to look at long term product improvements. Saving a dollar today will cost us many in the long run.
Allow for full design and development cycle

Pros

Great opportunities for learning and development, really excellent benefits package. I've worked for small, medium, and large sized companies in the past, and GE has the best package that I've ever seen. Who else still offers a pension, for example? I've been really impressed with the training opportunities and the chances to become involved in projects beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of the job description. It is also nice to be working with so many bright people -- not since I worked for the government did so many people in my office have advanced degrees. There is always somewhere to turn for advice or information.

Cons

It is HUGE. If you are not comfortable with that, GE infrastructure or anywhere else in GE might not be the place for you. There is a certain "hive mind" mentality -- you need to know the current buzz words, and know how to make your accomplishments fit into that vocabulary. There is a bit of a bureaucracy, but frankly it is considerably less than what I have experienced at smaller companies. Hard to say how hard advancement is in the organization as a whole, but in my particular area, it does not look to be too bad, but you have to put your time in (generally you are restricted from applying for internal positions for the first 18-24 months you are there)

Advice to Senior Management

Too early to say. I think some more transparency about the overall goals of the different divisions would be helpful, but overall I'm pretty satisfied.

Pros

A lot of opportunities if you are a good work politician - also depending on department, direct supervisor, etc. (of course).
Expect to work hard, and compete with top notch talent (and know that "so so" performance will never cut it). Yes, I see this as a plus.

Cons

Dis-organized, too many changes, no direct or clear job responsibilities, nor even a title in some cases.
It has been said many, many times, there is an official policy at GE (for any given solution), and there is also always an underground reality of how things get done. No one will ever speak of the reality on a conference call or in an email or pitch, but you will have to know it to get anything done, you may have to support it and be part of it.
Senior staff at GE sees a scrubbed view of the solutions it employs.

Advice to Senior Management

Get input from the business as well as people "in the trenches" (so to speak) about how solutions are REALLY performing (instead of relying upon trumped up performance metrics).

Pros

Many advancement avenues, availability of professional advancement training, solid financial position. Opportunity to move on, career wise, to other GE business units. International presence gives careers in GE the oportunity to take on work assigments all over the World.

Cons

Bureaucracy, very little training for new hires, sink -or-swim placement. The 6 sigma cost containment methodology is applied far too aggressively to its employees, resulting in a widespread loss of morale that makes keeping talented individuals in GE harder. This is evidenced by few employees that remain more than 1 year at my site, the extensive unfilled positions, and the increase numbers of temporary contractors, that probably cost more to keep than regular employees

Advice to Senior Management

Improve new employee induction and mentoring to speed up learning curve. Revise salary scales to reflect the same market conditions that provoke the current exodus.

Pros

Great growth opportunities in expanding business segments when coming off internal leadership programs
Interesting products and technology- engineers will have a field day
Great perks for top performing teams and senior management
Competitive salary and bonuses
Always attempt to retain top level talent
Good launch pad to another company when working for a limited period of time

Cons

Corporate politics tough for employees not properly trained; must be aggressive to seek promotions
Always driving to metrics affecting the bottom line without properly identifying root cause of problems
Stretch employee headcounts thin to cut costs
Many employees really are simple numbers to senior management
Leadership programs essentially function as internal MBA for GE; however are not viewed in same light elsewhere

Advice to Senior Management

Work vigorously to attempt to show gratitude towards lower-level employees more often

Pros

The company is trying to go from a 4.5 billion dollar industry to a 10 billion dollar industry by 2010 so there are more and more opportunities to shine in that environment.

Cons

It's a get it done or go home type of atmosphere. So you need to make contacts fast so that you can produce on all your goals and more than your manager sets up for you.

Advice to Senior Management

My manager was very hands off and tried to burn me behind my back so my advice would be that if you're not around me ask the people who are about me.