GM Financial reviews

It's all about the numbers. Most managers treat people very poorly, and have poor management skills. Pushed to sell insurance.

Reading through some reviews here, I find some points made which have merit and others that do not. Senior leadership is somewhat out of touch with what's going on in the trenches. This much is very true. While there have been some complaints of too many AVPs I believe that is erroneous if you compare the ITS org chart--particularly on the infrastructure side--with other parts of the organization. Due to the IO integration project infrastructure was very busy trying to marry two companies while the rest of the NA centric teams were busy building out their org chart. One big problem is there are not enough VPs. One in particular has so many teams there's no opportunity to spend much time with any in particular. This tends to degrade management in a more general sense. There are also some at the SVP level far too unengaged with lower teams. It's possible for some promotions to be handed out to those who seem less deserving. This can happen in any org, and it's also true that it can seem political, but at the same time it's important to recognize the following: 1. Not everyone can get promoted every year. Some will get left behind, and it won't always seem fair. That's life. It's impossible to make everyone happy. 2. Don't blame the person who was promoted. If you were given that opportunity you would take it, so why shouldn't they? 3. Keep in mind a great engineer or developer doesn't always make a good leader and vice versa. Additionally, it's possible to be so good at your job that management can't afford to move you up. That seems like a travesty and injustice but it can happen in any company. 4. Politics can seem to play a role, but remember good leaders have to have good to great interpersonal skills--and they have to be good communicators. Maybe you're a great engineer but not the best communicator. There's no shame in that. 5. If you have a problem report it to your manager. If he isn't receptive go to his boss and so on. If it's an issue in another team, ignore it and move on. Just do your best to please the person you directly report to and ignore the rest of the politics. 6. Keep in mind that if you work under a manager (instead of reporting directly to an AVP), he/she may not wish to have the AVP above them interacting with engineers directly. Some engineers don't like AVPs looking over their shoulder. So while some may accuse middle management of being aloof, distant, or disconnected, there can be good reasons for that. In my time at GMF, I found an adequate pipeline for lodging complaints or recommending improvements. As I recall they had surveys on occasion to give feedback. There were also opportunities to give feedback to your manager at mid year performance checkins and the formal performance review. Take advantage of these opportunities to voice your concerns. Remember management is more receptive to the problems you present if you also provide a solution or suggestion for improvement. It's easy to complain. It's more productive to be a problem solver.