Life at GE : Careers : GE
In my current job, I get to see the massive positive impact that technology change can have on the business and on its ability to grow and adapt.
GE is a company that inspires its employees to strive to be the best. In a recent meeting, a senior executive said, "GE never goes for the passing grade...always the A+." In that environment, imagination and creativity are always welcome if applied constructively. Also, the sheer scale of GE means that there is always someone new to learn from or share knowledge with. The quality of the leadership and their focus on being good leaders is truly exceptional and is something that always reminds me to be a better leader.
Consulting helps instill a 60-hour week work ethic, and multi-country/regional roles help prepare you for frequent travel. Nothing, even being in a Big 5 bank or Consultancy, prepares you for the scale of thinking or the ability to mobilize to solve a problem (like the financial crisis).
The ex-GE Money, ex-Global Banking business has been through many transformations, both organizationally and strategically in the last two years. Building and sustaining a virtual team/community of highly skilled technology professionals across 12 countries through these transitions has been very rewarding and certainly has a high long-term impact to GE.
Architecture - whether infrastructural or application - is about compromise, making trade-offs. Every feature of every system comes at a cost. The ability to express this cost and benefit to business and technical professionals and guide the thinking about how to make the call is what being a technology leader is about. Architectural thinking and the experience/mentorship I received from some great architects makes me a better business leader.
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Know what energizes you and go in that direction.
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