Making the Most Out of an 8 Hour Workday

Week four of my first rotation and things have really been picking up. It takes a few weeks to get to know the project, the team, the deliverables and where you "fit in."

To give you some insight into my daily work, I've uploaded a screenshot of my schedule.

Looking at my schedule, you may say, "Maurice, you're crazy!" But I'm okay with it. The way things work on IMLP is that you are given a project with accelerated deadlines- which does account for more meetings in a day, but you also accomplish more in a shorter period of time.

Do I see this as a bad thing? Absolutely not. Most of these meetings are requirements gathering which involve 12+ people on a call deeply involved in some pretty intense discussion. This just shows the high level of involvement I have from the beginning of my six-month rotation.

The Hammer, The Nail and The Crowbar

Before you read the post below, understand that the next two posts are from the last two weeks of bootcamp This is due to the recent transition from WordPress to Squarespace. This post in particular was written about the start of the 3rd week of bootcamp (around July 27th) Enjoy!

How many IMLP’s does it take to build a fence? Well first we take a look at the As - is process flow map. After carefully analyzing it we proceed to LEAN out any unnecessary processes and increase productivity then using the Valley Stream Maps……

With the second week of IMLP bootcamp over it meant it was time for the involuntary, volunteer community service scheduled for every 6 months for bootcamp. A trip to Green Chimneys (a school for special needs children) was in order to help build a fence, paint, do some gardening and digging, and of course spread the IMLP love.

Well, a short bus ride, and a long wait in traffic brought us to our location where we met with the founder of Green Chimneys for a brief introduction and history of the school. After that Green Chimneys didn’t waste any time putting us to work.  

We were split into three groups: One for the fencing, one for some gardening and digging, and one to some painting. Despite the splinters, rashes, cuts, bruises and tetanus shots, it was actually a lot of fun. Put around 60 Type-A technology personalities into a manual labor situation and some interesting things happen.

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Hitting the Ground Running at Junior Bootcamp

After a week of orientation at GE Capital, it was time to start the next adventure: Junior Bootcamp in Danbury, CT with the other IMLP’s from all GE businesses. A total of 64 new IMLP’s from six GE businesses and across six countries all gathered in a Danbury Hotel.

As expected, we had no time to waste. The group arrived to the hotel on Saturday and bootcamp started the very next day (Sunday) at 9:30am. Here we were welcomed by Greg Druckman, who presented with the four-week schedule that we’ll be following though out the length of our intensive training along with a few stories of bootcamps past.

But while our heads were still spinning, they hit us with a week full of self-development and improvement courses, such as honing out presentation and public speaking skills, proper project management techniques and how to properly handle a project budget. All of this while forming various groups and mixed in with a handful of guest speakers and some homework.

You must be saying…“But how could you do all of this in just one week?”

The answer is with a lot of enthusiasm! As you may have noticed at this point, bootcamp is a pretty rigorous four-week training.

But not everything at bookcamp is about working hard; it’s also about playing hard (and sleeping a lot!).

In the evening, there are a few social activities that take place – from going out, watching movies,  late night trips to McDonalds and even just sitting around sharing stories of our past.

The matter of the fact is that while we are working hard, we're also learning a lot and having fun making new friends - and I don’t think any of us would want it any other way.

Guest Post by Maurice Williams, IMLP

...Life After Graduation (from an '09 College Grad)

Hi! I'm Maurice Williams, a 2009 graduate with a degree Computer Science from WPI .  My post-college plans are to work with GE Capital (commercial finance) out of Danbury, CT as an IMLP.

I stumbled (or googled) across the IMLP blog as well as other fellow IMLP's and GE employees on Twitter while doing some background research on the program. This helped me get a feel for what to expect from working at a large and diverse company like GE.

Unlike most IMLP's, I will not have to relocate until my second rotation; this is because I am currently living in Norwalk, CT which is about 22 miles south the GE's Danbury office.

The time is drawing short, and my first day of orientation is getting near. As the days pass by, a storm of mixed emotions is taking place inside of me.

On one hand, I'm a little sad to be done with school and been able to spend as much time with my friends as we used to, but on the other I'm excited to venture on to a new journey while growing and achieve my goals and as watching my friends achieve theirs.

I am also looking forward to making new friends during bootcamp and contributing the other side-projects while on my rotations.

 There is no doubt that this is a very exciting yet uncertain point of every recent college graduate's life, but as I move on and welcome everything the future has instored for me, I keep the following quote in mind: “Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.”

Guest Blogger: 1st Rotation IMLP Maurice Williams

[Editor's Note: You may be seeing more of Maurice in our blog as time passes, as he's interested in joining our team!]

A Month in Danbury.

January 2009 Junior Bootcampers in NYCBeing one of the two Healthcare representatives in a class of 26, I remained determined to get as much out of my time in Danbury as the classes before us.

This bootcamp was one with many firsts.

We were the first class without binders, and were instead given all of the materials electronically.

Although our backs were saved the toils of lugging the tome to class each day, the use of computers inevitably lead some minds to wander.  Through a few late nights for us, as well as our technical instructors: Dan and Adam Jensen, we succeeded in creating six distinctly different solutions to the business problem we were assigned.

Finally, we were the first class to have a ping-pong table. Trivial as that may sound, it quickly became the central meeting location for a majority of the downtime spent outside the classroom.

These past four weeks, we made the Danbury plaza our home away from home. The 26 of us spent all of our days together in the same room, cultivating strong friendships, a diverse network, and many memories. We celebrated the Chinese New Year and gained a bit of culture.

We watched the Superbowl in strong American fashion and even got Greg Druckman, the IMLP bootcamp program manager, involved in a game of football that made its way through much of the hotel's lobby. We traveled when we could, sending groups to Boston, New York City, the Catskill Mountains, and even Atlantic City. Everyone had a story and pictures to be shared when they got back.

This was truly an experience that not only prepared us for our careers at GE, but also prepared us to be world citizens and expanded our borders beyond our individual countries and businesses.

In an ever-shrinking world, it's a comfort to know that we're never more than an email or Sametime message away. Although some of us may not see each other over the next year, I know we're all anticipating an awesome reunion at senior bootcamp.