Travelled to China from Ireland to work with a Chinese software company. Dragged in to work for GE, ended up across a lot of their divisions from 2005 for a few years. Worked out of Atlanta for some time
They did not have a software culture at the time, everything was outsourced. Project managers did not have any clue of how to manage a software project professionally, they struck me as more financial / admin types. India and China were like wolves and GE threw projects to them expecting the lowest cost to emerge as the winner.
Office was always dead on Friday, there was a culture to often work from home but not actually work.
From my understanding at the time they used to cut 10% of the worst performing staff every year, I believe they were one of the worlds largest employers at the time. My biggest peeve was their culture of having meetings just to have meetings....I think this issue can be found in most large enterprises.
My cousin now works for GE in Australia and says 'they are trying to become a startup'. I'm not convinced, it's pretty cool to be called a startup but true startups will only thrive in GE if they are left alone by management and allowed to utilise large resources. It can work, small teams can make great inroads for these types of organisations.
They did not have a software culture at the time, everything was outsourced. Project managers did not have any clue of how to manage a software project professionally, they struck me as more financial / admin types. India and China were like wolves and GE threw projects to them expecting the lowest cost to emerge as the winner.
Office was always dead on Friday, there was a culture to often work from home but not actually work.
From my understanding at the time they used to cut 10% of the worst performing staff every year, I believe they were one of the worlds largest employers at the time. My biggest peeve was their culture of having meetings just to have meetings....I think this issue can be found in most large enterprises.
My cousin now works for GE in Australia and says 'they are trying to become a startup'. I'm not convinced, it's pretty cool to be called a startup but true startups will only thrive in GE if they are left alone by management and allowed to utilise large resources. It can work, small teams can make great inroads for these types of organisations.