General Motors

Great benefits (401k, decent health care, 16 holidays, and 3 weeks PTO).

Opportunity to shape IT processes.

Nice diverse talent with an even mix of young, mid-career, and senior staff.

Company is making an effort to turn itself around since restructuring after bankruptcy.

While you have a chance to shape IT process, it doesn't exist or has so much red tape it is a headache to overcome.

The company sells itself as being agile with a lot of opportunity to create new innovation. The reality is that much of the work in the immediate term and next 5 years will be cleaning up the mess of decades of contractors and poor coding standards.

Some managers and departments are blatantly abusing college hires. When hired, these employees are put into a special bucket with decent raises for the first three years. In some instances, these employees are given lead responsibilities (or the whole role) and expected to perform at that level. For those that can handle the additional work, it is a great opportunity. Unfortunately, they receive the same wage and raises as their non-lead college hire counterparts. HR does not allow these employees who take on higher role work and excel at it to be reclassified and given proper compensation.

Try to cut down on the red tape and push for the innovation you strive for.

Stop taking advantage of college hires. These kids talk, and word spreads. You don't want to be known as "that" company to avoid. After three years, these rookie draft picks who took on extra responsibilities and proved their worth will leave for the competition to get paid!