Lauren Gilmartin ⋅ New York, NY The Mission Continues ⋅ 4 years experience

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your service in the Navy and for posting a question to the ACP AdvisorNet Community. I hope that you have found the insight from both Steven and Michael to be helpful.

Additionally, if you click on the "Community" tab on AdvisorNet, you can sort Advisors by company and find more GE employees to reach out to directly. There are Advisors, such as Steven, who are in the Junior Officer Leadership Program, as well as employees from different businesses within GE.

By doing a quick search, I identified two additional Advisors you may want to reach out to who have listed their employment information as being in the Program:

https://acp-advisornet.org/community/wt65zn/david-clark
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/cd626z/adam-franco

I encourage you to send private messages to any Advisors who may have relevant experience, and please do not hesitate to send me a message if you have any further questions about some of the most useful features on ACP AdvisorNet.

Best,
Lauren

Steven Weldon ⋅ Grand Rapids, MI General Electric ⋅ 7 years experience

Steven,

I am currently in the GE Aviation JOLP program, but as Michael mentioned, each business is different and runs the program differently. I have witnessed some moves while in the JOLP program but think that is the exception, not the rule. The travel/moving really depends on the business though, but is something that is open for discussion.

I have no additional comments to add regarding the MBA, Michael has it correct.

The goal of the program is to generate leaders, so you will receive a position commensurate with your performance throughout the program. It is difficult to qualify this as each graduate is considered individually.

All told, I would recommend this program to others (and have) and I would apply again if I had to do it over. The leadership exposure and training opportunities far exceed what a regular new hire will get and the rotational experience is a great way to learn the business.

Be sure to reach out to GE folks via LinkedIn once you decide on a business/industry or location you want to work.

Michael McCarren ⋅ South Lebanon, OH GE Aviation ⋅ 14 years experience

I'm not not an expert on JOLP program, but I do work at GE. Each GE business has it's own JOLP program, and like all GE leadership programs, they have similar basic frameworks but may also have some business specific differences, so be sure to ask questions about those specifics if you are speaking with a recruiter or interviewing.

Regarding travel, most businesses have 6-9 month assignments, and they will try to give you broad exposure to different functions in the business supply chain, HR, engineering, commercial, operations, IT etc. (depending on your specific background). Most businesses have 1 main headquarters where you could do the majority of rotations, but you might have to move at some point to work in a manufacturing or test facility. Depending on your personal situation, you probably have some say in this, for instance I was able to arrange my "field assignment" to be at HQ because my personal situation wasn't good for a move back when I was on Edison Engineering Development Program. Once again, this is something you'll want to ask about with the specific GE business you're pursuing.

Regarding MBA reimbursement programs, there is no "time off" given for pursuing of MBA. Coursework is done in addition to your job function (i.e. night courses), you are reimbursed for tuition & books up to a certain point upon satisfactory course completion. This typically also requires you to sign a retention agreement for some term (3-4 yrs I think) where if you wanted to leave the company prior to that, you'd be responsible for re-paying the reimbursed amounts. I have known several people who have successfully completed the MBA program on reimbursement like this. Do some research, and let me know what GE business interests you most, and I'll try to put you in touch with someone.