General Motors

Honestly, I don't think you can get much better as a college hire to work here from what I have seen so far. I was hired out of college and have been here a year and a half so far, and I don't have anything to complain about it at all. Compared to my fellow students who worked at consulting firms mostly, it really seems like GM cares way more about people and has more perks.

I work in software dev, but it has been great. Some of the perks:

• Raise every 6 months for the first 3 years as a new college hire. This is huge; no one else gets raises like this, and they have competitive starting rates compared to other companies for sure.

• Very good health insurance. It's $30 a month, but it's the kind where you don't need a referral to see a specialist. There's a $1500 deductible, but the company gives you a $1500 health savings account every year to use towards it when you do a physical, so basically no deductible. I'm not sure how it would be for families, though.

• Everyone on Earth knows GM, a huge resume booster. When you tell people you work here, you always hear "Ooohhh, cool" and stuff like that. It's a really respectable thing to say you work here.

• 401k matching, up to 8%. They give you 4% right off the bat of your salary every month, then they match up to 4% on top of that. So if I put in 10% into 401k and they put in 8%, it would be as if I'm saving 18% of my salary each month. The 401k vests in 3 years, so you need to stay for 3 years in order for the money to become officially yours once you work there.

• Able to rotate. You can rotate jobs every 1 year if you want as a college hire. In a company this big, you can pretty much do any job you want once you are in. I know they are big on training people, so I think you can go into any other vertical too if they need people.

• Very willing to teach and help you learn more, like sending you to training events and the likes.

• Bonus every year based on company performance. The bonuses are pretty decent as a college hire, then they will put money on top of that if company performance is good. It really depends on company performance, though, but so far this year has been a record-breaking year, so we did pretty good on bonuses.

• Multiple innovation centers to work at. They have people in Austin, TX; Chandler, AZ; Warren, MI; Detroit, MI; and Atlanta, GA.

• If you have a Master's degree, DO IT. You get a higher starting salary than other college hires, and you are locked into the raises every 6 months. Once you stay at the company for 3 years, you get promoted into the next level, and that also comes with its own raise. Also, make sure to do an internship or have some kind of experience related to your job before starting; they will start you at a higher salary as well for experience that you've had. My starting salary matched my friends who I went to school with, but they didn't have raises like this.

• If you have a Bachelor's, you can start working towards your Master's degree, and they will pay for it right when you start. They give you enough to cover 1 or 2 classes per semester, which is honestly enough because working full-time and doing the degree can be really intense, especially in a graduate degree.

• If you move from another state, they will give you money to relocate, which is honestly way more than you need as a single person.

• Of course, really good experience and really building a strong skillset. I would probably consider working here for a very long time. Many people I work with have been working with the company for 10+ years, which shows how good it is.

• This is one I didn't think about, but free parking. It seems like many of my friends who don't work here actually have to pay to park to work at their companies. GM has garages that they cover you on, which is nice.

• The whole company in general is really big on helping its people. Many automotive folks have worked here for years and years and retire here, so I think the old union focus is still here. As opposed to trying to trim down the bottom line for everyone and only care about boosting profits, I really feel like they try to help people out with their benefits compared to other companies I've been to.

Honestly, I've had no cons from my experience. I think it really would depend on what team you are on. The management and where you sit make your experience. I've only heard good things from other coworkers. But if you don't like your team, you do have the option of moving around as I said before.

Thanks!