General Electric

After shedding the fintech arm, it's hard to argue that GE is not an overall 'force of good' in the big wide world. When you get a chance, take 10 minutes and Google some of the things GE sells: jet engines, nuclear reactors, automation software, ultrasonic and MRI machines. These are things that unequivocally benefit people. Now, Google top startups and look at some of the stuff they're doing. It's probably yet another "ground-breaking" app that lets you deliver food or schedule grooming for your cat or dog.

This feeling outwardly manifests itself in the culture, where your coworkers (across all departments: engineering, sales, marketing) will be passionate about their work and the business. They will generally be proud of contributing to technology that can be universally appreciated and not just for one niche purpose or clique. This isn't exactly easy to find at tech companies these days (trust me).

You're also likely to get fantastic work-life balance, but this varies from business to business since GE is so large. Managers get legit leadership training, and it no doubt costs the company $$. It is noticeable and does have a positive effect on the perceived and actual work/life balance when your team is well-managed. The longer you stay, the more likely you are to get paid training and covered travel.

The bureaucracy. Hands down. This is a big company. There's a saying: 'The left arm doesn't know what the right arm is doing.' GE is like an octopus where every tentacle is for itself.

They've tried to fix this in recent years by being more "lean," but unfortunately, it's just ingrained in middle and upper-level management to have more process rather than less. This may take decades to fix, if ever.

You WILL be forced to engage in the latest and greatest organizational fad like 'Scrum' (previously Six Sigma, maybe soon to be Microservices), even if it makes absolutely no sense for the project at hand or if it is proving to be overly time-consuming and ineffective.

Not all sub-businesses are created equal at GE, and some are just way worse than others at staying ahead of the curve and not getting bogged down in endless processes. This may not be the best place for the young and brash. Be prepared for moments where you simply cannot be productive because of your environment.

But remember, the environment does hugely depend on the particular sub-businesses, like Energy, Aviation, and Healthcare. Some are far better than others at being efficient.

Keep metrics for average time spent on processes (including, but not limited to, team processes like Agile, workplace training, company-wide and team meetings, yearly HR requirements and performance reviews, marketing and engineering presentations). Aim, year over year, to drive these times lower and justify their contributions to productivity when this is not possible.

Reward teams for delivering promising, tangible results and not just shoddy prototypes, documentation, and PowerPoints.

Keep engineers in direct contact with friendly and willing customers; do not silo them.

Focus training in the new grad programs (EEDP, FMP) not on presentations and competition, but rather on innovation and collaboration.