Pros
-For a top performer, unbeatable opportunities in terms of job variety, level of responsibility, location (plenty of international). Top talent can move jobs (laterally or promotions) every 18-24 months. -Truly outstanding education - the GE Corporate Crotonville training center offers some of the best management education you'll find anywhere. GE invests a ton of money in young people identified as the future leaders of the business. -Really solid performance review process from the bottom to the top of the organization. Always keeping an eye on the next batch of leaders. -GE promotes from within - it's extremely rare to find an executive coming in from outside. GE tries to find young leaders and wants to keep them there for life. -Great healthcare insurance benefits
Cons
-I would estimate that compensation is below average. With five years of experience post-undergrad, the only bonuses I ever received were 1-2x per year for $500 in gift cards - no stock options (not that they're worth anything now) or end of year performance-based bonuses. -Annual raises were often not directly tied to performance. Total funds available for an organization to parcel out in raises was capped at a particular amount, and in lean years this led to top performers (myself included - rated top among my peer group of 50-60) getting a measly 4%. There is little financial incentive to remain loyal to teh company, particularly given the dismal stock performance of the last several years. It's common knowledge within the company that you can go somewhere else for more money (and fewer hours). -While I know we had some visionary leaders somewhere in the organization, largely GE is a very short-term oriented organization - namely, trying to make the quarter. Quarter after quarter we jumped through the same hoops to try to make the numbers, always working harder and not much smarter than the quarter before. This combined with short executive tenure (top performers change jobs every 18-24 months) means that individual contributors or middle managers repeat the same frustrating cycles over and over, and life never gets easier. This behavior is what influences me to give a low rating on "respect for employees". It's the individual contributors that have been there 10-25 years who keep it running, and management beats them up every 13 weeks to make the commitment to corporate (and I'm only 27 and worked there for five years with fast promotions - I'm not a bitter veteran). -Hours worked: GE is the type of company that will pay for your home internet access so they can reach you 24/7. It was generally expected that you would log in at night and over the weekends to keep up on email. My manager and 2 levels up often called me on my GE-funded cell phone in the evening and on the weekends. Little respect for a 40-hour work week, or those don't want to work 70-80 hour weeks like the executives.