Pros
I am located in the U.S.A. and work for the Healthcare business unit, & some of my comments may be specific to my geography. This is my first post about my current employer in the 12+ years I have worked here, but will attempt to be direct & to-the-point: -World-class company, generally, from GE to GE Healthcare, and most of the other business units in GE -World-class mindset on quality, compliance, regulatory, ethics. legal, etc...taken seriously I believe by most all -Career-wise, opportunities to move within business unit to different functions, across business units, and within many geographic locations if willing or desire to re-locate -Long term investments in R&D technology, commercial teams, etc -Many processes (financial, team & talent mgmt, compliance, customer feedback & employee feedback then actions to improve) which are strong individually -There are more but maybe this is getting too long to keep your attention... ;)
Cons
-Many processes (see Pro's) that when put on top of each other becomes a very, very large set of processes to either: lead, participate in, or be effected by (directly/indirectly) sometimes in very negative ways. e.g. consuming valuable time that might otherwise be spent doing real, value-added work. -Highly, highly matrixed organization with multiple "dotted" and direct reporting; this is by design and drives needs to collaborate (not always a "con") but the lack of direct, vertical reporting very often adds cycle time to decisions and operationally does not allow all transparency, nor does it allow for true accountability of running a business unit. -Lack of job security driving nervous & cautious Culture; this is my feedback over the last 3-5 years for sure, not my entire time here; there have been many, many reductions in force and very unfortunately was not driven by employee performance. -Retention of key talent...some drivers are middle-of-road compensation...we have many, many good people who have left and as/if the economy strengthens it will increase at a larger rate (see previous job security comments)...no loyalty to GE for the sake of being loyal. -Short-sited view of business success; measured only by quarter, and only by top line performance vs. an Operating Plan target (you may grow your business year over year by 10% but miss your 2012 Q2 target and it is the Q2 target that trumps all else when it comes to your personal, team, and business level evaluation of performance). -Way too big to feel entrepreneurial (in every aspect...e.g. your individual job role being very specific (no opp's to "wear a couple of hats"), the way the teams interact, the way decisions are made, the lack of speed and leadership in key business operations, etc, etc...if you don't mind a VERY "big brother" feel to everything you do, then this "con" won't bother you. (A smaller company is inherently different in terms of it's operations and management compared to GE which is very regimented and SLOW in many of it's decisions, processes, etc.) -There are more but maybe this is getting too long to keep your attention... ;)