From an IMLP Intern: A 2nd Day Field Trip

John (Intern) & Alana (IMLP) at GE's IT ShowcaseAs a new IMLP intern at GE Energy working in Schenectady, NY, I was quite surprised to find I would be going on a field trip my second day at work.

After getting the hang of my Outlook Calendar, I noticed that I would be attending the 2009 IT Showcase at the GE Global Research Center, located nearby in Niskayuna, NY.

GE exposes all of its interns to a variety of opportunities that showcase different aspects of the company, from guided plant tours to this trip to the Global Research Center. The GE GRC is, as they say, where “all the magic happens.”

Imagine stepping foot into the building where some of the world’s greatest inventions were discovered – including LEXAN plastic, laser light, and…the light bulb!

The guest speaker at the showcase was GE's CIO, who discussed the current standing of GE and answered some questions from GE employees in attendance.

A particular question, asked by the IMLP blog contributor and creator, Alana Edmunds, asked an interesting question that stirred up a few conversations after the presentation: “What impact do you think upcoming external social networking technologies will have on GE in the future?”

When asked whether anyone in the room uses Twitter,  Alana, Alvaro (an IMLP alumni), and myself were the only people to raise our hands!

GE presents us with a great opportunity to promote our unique insights, and whenever we can, contribute to the future success of the company.  GE creates a truly unique internship experience by opening its doors to innovative insights, even from a first year intern.

To learn more about what goes on at the GRC, visit the GRC Blog.

Guest Post by John Chilgren, IMLP Intern.

How to Impress an IMLP Recruiter

Potential IMLPs (or anyone else looking to land a job), pay close attention. I'm going to teach you a trick that will make you look like a rockstar at the next job fair you attend. It's called an "elevator pitch."

While I'm pretty sure the elevator pitch wasn't invented by GE, we're definitely big fans of it. Here's the basic idea: pretend you just got in an elevator with a GE recruiter / hiring manager / CEO Jeff Immelt. He or she turns to you and asks "Who are you? Why should I give you a job?" You now have the rest of the 30-second elevator ride to answer those two questions.

Although this exchange may not actually happen in an elevator (or with our CEO), it's still a good idea to have an elevator pitch prepared to answer those two questions. When a recruiter at a job fair or reception asks you what you're looking for, which is the better response?

"Umm, I'm looking for a job."

OR

"Hi, my name is John Smith. I'm a senior in Computer and Information Science here at State University. I'm especially interested in database design and Java programming, and I founded a student organization last year for CIS majors interested in the open source movement. I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about your program and whether I would be a good candidate. Here is a copy of my resume."

Before your next career fair, spend a few minutes jotting something down. Who are you? Why should I give you a job?

GE-SU Leadership @ Work Series

Leadership at Work (L@W) is a partnership between General Electric and Syracuse University that identifies student leaders early in their college careers and primes them for professional success in GE's internship and leadership development programs.

Students who participate in Leadership at Work engage in a variety of skill-building workshops taught by General Electric leadership, including presentational speaking, team-building, project management and even a competitive side project and presentation!

As part of the program, students are exposed to GE's culture of volunteerism. The "Winter Clean-up to Go Green" initiative at the Ronald McDonald House was organized to show students GE's commitment to giving back to the community.

Each year, General Electric employees volunteer more than 1 million hours of community service, enriching the communities in which they live and work.

The 2009 L@W series is being held over two weekends in February, 6-7 and 27-28 in Syracuse, NY. Applications were available online through the career services online registration application, Orangelink.

I will post more regarding this effort after I travel to Syracuse for the second weekend of L@W.

So You Want To Be An IMLP...

Maybe you have a friend who completed an internship with GE, heard about career opportunities from your school's career fair or maybe from a GE presentation in one of your classes.

 If you're interested in applying for an internship or a full-time position with GE after graduation, it all begins with http://www.gecareers.com/

 First, visit the home page and search for either an internship or a full-time position (direct hire or leadership program).

 If you're unsure if your major qualifies you for a specific leadership program, check out the major matrix.

 Next, choose the specific program you are interested in as well as the country, and a new window will pop up asking you to submit a Resume/CV. (The new window will be from "Brassring" - do not be alarmed, this is just what GE uses to collect hiring information).

 Simply upload your resume and paste the text of your cover letter into the text box and continue with the application process.

 After completing the online application, check with your college/university's career center or your career center recruiting website to see if you need to submit your resume and request to interview in any additional systems.

 To check if GE is coming to your campus, visit the GE Campus informational page. (Take Syracuse University, for example)

 After the submission dates have ended for your college/university, recruiters will screen resumes and choose candidates for either a phone screening or an on-campus interview, depending on availability and how recruiting works on your campus.

 Typically, the on-campus process consists of one 45-minute interview per candidate, which is preceded by an information session, usually the evening before. GE uses behavioral based interviewing.

 Candidates selected from the on-campus interviews will be notified within 7 business days. Afterwards, they will be invited to participate in a second round of interviews at a GE Business site. A GE representative from that business will organize the site visit and serve as the students' primary point of contact.

 From us here on the IMLP side, good luck this fall at your campus career fairs! And it's never too early to research career opportunities!

IMLP Internships: Less Coffee, More Responsibility

While researching internships, you will often come across stories of people making coffee for the executives or filing papers away all day. My experience as a GE intern was not like this at all. While interviewing for my internship with GE Money Americas, I kept hearing the phrase "We give you meaningful work to complete". I wondered how a company like GE could give interns the responsibility of leading business critical projects and maintaining business critical applications.

As I found out when I began my internship, GE not only gives interns challenging, but manageable projects, but also provides them with the necessary oversight and support to succeed in their projects. For the summer, each intern has an assignment leader. Depending on the business, the assignment leader is usually a manager, senior manager, or vice president. The assignment leader oversees the work of the intern, provides feedback throughout the summer, and answers questions related to the assignment.


During my internship, I worked on the E-Commerce team for GE Money Americas Retail Consumer Finance Division(Dual Cards and Private Label Credit Cards). This team was responsible for building and maintaining the websites used to view credit card transactions, request credit limit increases, communicate with customer service, as well as many other services.

As part of this team, I was responsible for the secure email application, which allows consumers to communicate with the customer service team through email messages once they are logged in to the e-service site. This responsibility included creating instances for new e-service sites, as well as maintaining the existing secure email instances. During my rotation, I had full access to and full responsibility for the secure email application. Though I had this big responsibility, I was not alone. My assignment leader, who initially built the system, was always there to answer questions or provide guidance.

So when you begin to consider where to intern or work full time, I urge you to find a place where you can take on meaningful work and make a difference. Not only do you prove yourself to your co-workers and managers, but you learn more than you ever would standing around the coffee pot.

Check out the GE Careers website for a list of internship opportunities.