General Motors Reviews

Current Employee – been working at General Motors full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - If you are an engineer developing future products, your work will literally affect thousands if not millions of vehicles, which can give you a sense of accomplishment / satisfaction.
- If you are an engineer and you work somewhat hard and show that you are be capable and proactive (self starter), you can move up the pay scale quickly. And you will get the support you need to in order to make the changes you envision.
- The company is very flexible in helping you deal with life events that come up.
- In my time there I have not observed anything "evil" about the company - they are in it for the long haul, they want to do the right thing and not cut corners just because customers might not notice. GM seems to have a strong corporate conscience, even if it means we have to sacrifice profits in the short term.
- The work culture is overall good - the managers are trained to resolve disputes and to conduct themselves fairly. They care about your career, prod you to try to define where you want to go, then they help you to get there.

Cons – - The weather in Michigan isn't for everyone.
- It often feels like there are many "silos" within GM, and engineering work / findings are not shared readily and transparently among the engineering teams. Frequently redundant work is done simply because team B wasn't aware that team A had already done that work. Information is not organized, shared, and made searchable.

Advice to Senior Management – Join the 21st century by bringing IT up to par: rather than silo'ing information off and only granting access to folks on a case by case, need to know basis, open up access and allow all the engineers to share a lot more of their information with each other - it will accelerate product development.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at General Motors full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – GM still pays better than many companies around Detroit as well as nationally. If you are lucky to be in a good group, you get to do interesting work. For a Mechanical Engineer, cars are among the most interesting things to work on. Detroit suburbs are boring but have many good schools, affordable housing and the state of Michigan is home to good universities.

Cons – GM is a company to become a "one trick pony." Most employees end up doing the same stuff year after year. It is important to be placed in an important product development group. Otherwise, career can quickly become meaningless. There are many bad managers. Promotions are generally reserved for people involved in cost cutting. Detroit is not a fun city either.

Advice to Senior Management – Employees need to be empowered and rewarded. It is important to get rid of old boys clubs within the companies.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at General Motors full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good benefits and support for employees

Cons – Management is distant and needs to be more involved

Advice to Senior Management – Get more involved in things.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at General Motors full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good opportunities to work in areas of interest to you as an engineer
Has profit sharing system and effective goals management system
Good executive and senior management/leadership teams.
Generally a work/life balance enjoying culture.

Cons – Product engineering and supplier relation management suffers due too many divided roles, e.g. Buyer, design release engineer, manufacturing engineer, materials engineer, and technical specialist. Less buyer involvement and too many engineers involved in technology and parts delivery.
Low degree of diversity inclusiveness at the lowest ranks of engineering since communication between teams is a challenge.
Very large and inefficient in management.
Low opportunities to grow in engineering or management.

Advice to Senior Management – None.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at General Motors full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Engineering oriented company: technical inclined engineers should love to work there, since you get to do and try a lot of things.

Cons – A lot of people do not know how to work as a team.

Advice to Senior Management – * Recruit the best people in the industry or outside, bring in great leaders and allow them to make changes to its work culture and attitudes.
* More focus on the products by improving its quality and styling.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at General Motors full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Mature project management processes and very good PMO. Many opportunities for advancement and growth. Incredible training is available, they put a large emphasis in keeping your skills current.

Cons – Difficult projects solving difficult issues, but with the right team the projects can be very rewarding.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue improving the culture, you are almost there

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at General Motors full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Stable and OK to be there

Cons – Unless you are lucky have a good father, whether good or excellent, it is really hard to be promoted

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at General Motors

Pros – everything, this place is really nice. The headquarters downtown is awesome, and the environmental is nice.

Cons – not too many cons,
the parking is not always fun, and there are the occasional maintainer employees that are disrespectful/

Current Employee – been working at General Motors full-time

Pros – Very flexible work arrangements, great technical expertise, good colleagues. Company treats employees well and recognizes success.

Cons – Can be stressful. Very fast-paced environment. Global nature of business requires early morning and sometimes late night meetings/conference calls.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at General Motors

Pros – GM can be a great place to work with unique opportunities, creative design problems, wonderful people, and a good balance of work to life. Most mid level management are good people to work for in your functional area. Salary is typically good to better than most, and the benefits are top notch as they have always been.

Cons – The bureaucracy in product development rivals the government. The rigidness to standards and procedures can be overwhelming. The manufacturing side of engineering whines more than a motor with a bad bearing. Most manufacturing/assembly personnel are very unwilling to try anything new or push the envelope. Most of upper level management is out of touch with what is really going on in the new programs. There is little to no opportunity for advancement unless you find it yourself - and even the HR and management will tell you that as well.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote those who deserve it, not those who kiss ass and ask for it.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company