Life at GE : Careers : GE
I've been at GE nine years. I assumed my current role about a year and a half ago. From day one, I have been motivated by the diversity and challenges of the role. I'm able to help GE's businesses grow, and every day I get to work with GE's global, world-class talent, as well as watch the successful development of my own team.
GE has a rich history, with a long-standing commitment to excellence, customer focus, and development of their employees. It's inspiring that throughout my GE career I've seen the Company and my co-workers continue to exhibit those same, fundamental principles that are still important today.
I began my career as an officer in the U.S. Army, an experience that has been invaluable in developing my leadership skills. The military taught me to value a strong work ethic, how to motivate myself and others, and the importance of maximizing every team member's contributions.
In 2001, I joined GE as a project leader providing network connectivity to energy power plants around the world. Later as a program manager, I evolved our services and began providing infrastructure solutions for sites all over the world. These two roles taught me the importance of being collaborative and customer-centric. The basic network access that office workers were taking for granted became lifelines for our remote work force: people operating on offshore oil platforms, climbing wind turbines, or working in the most remote parts of the world!
Growing as an individual requires taking on challenging projects, and my career at GE has provided many excellent opportunities for growth. I joined the GE Transportation team as the Information Management (IM) Master Black Belt, focusing on cycle time reduction, performance and availability, as well as infusing standard work practices across the team. It helped me fully understand the role of IT in enabling business process excellence.
One of the most challenging programs I undertook was as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, improving the performance and availability of GE Transportation's software portfolio. I had to quickly understand the full technology stack, as well as prioritize the improvement efforts that would yield the best, and yet leanest results.
I take pride in my organizational, tracking and communication skills. The amount of information we work with on a daily basis has expanded immensely, and being able to effectively work on simultaneous programs allows me to ensure the business is moving forward. When I led the Global Site Connectivity team, we executed more than 500 projects per year!
Be adaptable and curious. The most successful technical people I work with in GE are not tied to a specific technology brand, but instead display a passion for expanding their knowledge of systems, processes and applications. The most successful people are continually trying to simplify how we operate, and they take pride in the solutions they deliver.
Finally, my advice is to use your curiosity to take on the exciting, challenging and complex issues our business is facing - you will build your reputation as well as develop yourself as an individual.