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[The world's tough but manageable.]
[[Jeff Immelt - Chairman & CEO, GE]]
[GE is going to win, as will many companies. We're going to do fine.]
[[Service Academy Career Conference - Washington, D.C. - May 8, 2009]]
[We need leaders to be better.]
[And so that comes to why I'm here today and why you're here today.]
[I would say that in our world of GE, veterans have had a very good fit with the company.]
[We've got 11,000 veterans that are a part of GE.]
[They're at every corner of the company in leadership posts throughout the company,]
[One of the programs that you'll see in the job fair today]
[that has been very successful for us is the Junior Officer Leadership Program.]
[One of the things we've done over time is]
[a lot of our programs give people a chance to see different parts of the company]
[and different functions of the company,]
[and we think that allows you to transition, see the breadth of the company,]
[and find ways to build an appropriate career for yourself.]
[The JOLP program has been very effective for us over time]
[as a transition and training and as a way to move the company.]
[The word we use a lot in GE which is not going to be unfamiliar to you]
[It kind of doesn't matter where you're from.]
[We do this process every year that is--]
[Everybody in the company gets an appraisal,]
[and it gets reviewed and approved inside the company in a very formal way,]
[and then I probably review personally the internal resumes of maybe 2,000 people]
[in the company at different levels and different businesses myself.]
[And I can honestly say as I go through these appraisals]
[I never look at where somebody went to school,]
[I never look at how long they've worked for GE,]
[I never look at anything except how they're doing.]
[Are they achieving? Are they leaders? Are they learning?]
[Are they doing the things the way they're supposed to be doing them?]
[It's really a company that's based on merit.]
[So the JOLP program is really important, and we try to make it an effective program]
[There's a way you've learned to do things that's worked for you in the military,]
[and there's a way you can do things that works at GE or in business.]
[They are actually quite similar.]
[It's the journey between the two that's sometimes hard for you.]
[In other words, how do you do the recruiting, how do you pick the company,]
[how do you get from that first job in the door to the one you really want to do?]
[A and C are actually very similar; it's B that's different.]
[And that's sometimes I think what we've tried to do with our teams]
[is help them make that journey and show them where they need to go.]
[So I think the way that we've recruited in the Junior Officer Leadership Program]
[is the way I would leave you today, ]
[which is to say by virtue of the fact you're in this room,]
[You've done extraordinary things in your lifetime.]
[That is fantastic, and congratulations for that.]
[What we've tried to do is match an extraordinary company]
[and extraordinary job experience with a set of leaders that have that capability.]
[And in this incredibly changed world,]
[where companies not only have to be profitable for their investors,]
[be a good place to work for their employees,]
[have to deliver value for their customers,]
[have to solve public problems,]
[but also have to fight to rebuild their reputation,]
[that is a pretty good background for a lot of people here]
[to leave the military and flourish in the careers that you pick.]
