General Motors

Strong exposure to large-scale vehicle programs and technical challenges.

• Great coworkers — many engineers are skilled, dedicated, and collaborative.
• Pay and benefits are solid for the automotive industry.

• Unfortunately, many managers are completely out of touch with the technical work. They make decisions without understanding the details, then blame engineers when things go wrong.

• Promotions often go to those who “manage up” rather than those who actually deliver results.

• Leadership focuses on politics and metrics instead of solving root problems.

• Endless layers of reviews and status meetings slow everything down.

• Poor cross-functional communication — departments operate in silos and point fingers when issues arise.

• Workload can be overwhelming because of constant rework caused by poor direction.

Invest in competent leadership.

Promote people who understand the product and empower the team, not those who only care about PowerPoints and optics.

Listen to your engineers — the talent is there, but it’s wasted under weak and reactive management.