WPI: A Recruiting Story

On July 7^th I officially joined the General Electric family under the Information Management Leadership Program and I couldn’t be happier. It’s hard to believe that a year ago I had never heard of ‘IMLP’.

Back in September 2008, during my senior year, a fellow CS major, co-worker and friend of mind invited me to a GE carrier information session that was being held later that night. At this point I was not very focused on looking for a full-time job but was putting most of my energies toward organizing my senior project in London (pictures here!). But my friend convinced me to go by saying the words that can motivate any college student - “they’ll have free food” – so I decided to tag along.

My initial thoughts were that the information session was going to be geared toward Mechanical Engineers (since a number of ME’s from WPI have ended up at GE Aviation). But they were talking about something called “IMLP” – what it was, types of projects you work on and the general life style of a person in this program. As soon as I heard the words “rotations”, “technology-focused projects”, “leadership” and “rapid growth” I was sold! After the event I collected some business cards and forwarded my resume off to the campus recruiters that very night,

Countless all-nighters doing homework, three non-GE internships, one international project, three in-person and 2 phone interviews and one Junior bootcamp later…I was working on my first exciting project as part of GE Capital out of Danbury, CT.

It’s still kind of funny when I think about it - I came for the free food but stayed for the opportunity to grow and learn.

...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!]