GE offers engineering development program for CS grads

GE is not just a manufacturing or finance company. “It’s a software company where one can have a solid, long-lasting career as a software professional.”
– Ben Verschueren, GE

The Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) is now available for CS grads, says Ben Verschueren, manager of EEDP at GE’s Global Research Center (Albany, NY).

EEDP provides an opportunity for top college students in engineering fields to not only find the right career niche, but also begin preparing for leadership roles within the company. The program has been in existence for a number of years, but this year EEDP will begin a new program geared toward careers in software engineering.

“This new program will be run exactly the same as every other field in EEDP,” Verschueren says. “The difference is that we’re reaching out to an entirely new technical discipline.”

Across GE, he continues, there’s a renewed interest in software. “So we’re trying to build a pipeline for software engineers, similar to what we’ve done very successfully for decades with more traditional engineers, like mechanical and electrical.”

Developing leaders
EEDP is a corporate-wide leadership program. “It’s our talent track for engineering,” explains Verschueren. Participants do a minimum of three rotations in different technical projects, with each rotation lasting six to twelve months.

The engineers are involved in professional development programs. There is also a technical training segment where participants take courses taught by GE experts to help with the transition from academia to applied engineering. Most of the classes can later count towards a masters degree.

“We hire mostly at a bachelors level,” explains Verschueren, “and GE will pay for them to get a masters. The one exception is hiring at the research center, where hiring is at the masters level. But this is an entry-level program.”

Looking for software competency
During the third quarter of 2009, engineering leaders throughout the company realized that they had a growing need for software competency and that GE would be better served with stronger company-wide software proficiency.

“All the businesses have some software that they are doing now,” says Verschueren. “We wanted a pipeline to that talent in house.”

EEDP was the logical way to develop that pipeline for software engineers. “It will be the same structure,” says Verschueren, “a rotational program with the same overall requirements. The only difference is that the technical training will be software based and the rotations will be on software-related projects.”

The inaugural class
The software program will launch in 2010. In fact, over the past winter, GE businesses visited schools to recruit and hire talent to bring in for the inaugural program, Verschueren explains.

“People will probably come into the program in June of this year,” he says. Business entities within GE that are hiring software engineers include the Global Research Center, Energy, Aviation and Healthcare.

New graduate hires brought into the program will have a BS or MS in computer science, software engineering or an equivalent degree. At least a 3.0 GPA is required, and candidates will need unrestricted authorization to work in the U.S.

“Beyond those basic requirements, we’ll look at how many internships they’ve had, what they’ve done over the summers, what other experiences they’ve had, what projects they’ve worked on or if they’ve specialized in a particular area,” says Verschueren. “We’ll also look at what they want to do. For example, do they want to do avionic software or are they into research? Knowing what they are after is always a plus.”

Exploring options
Of course, not knowing exactly what career path to follow is okay as well. The software program, like EEDP, allows for exploration. Within his business area, for example, Verschueren says there are a number of different labs involved in a number of different projects.

“Participants in the program can hop from lab to lab and experience different things, and when your program is done, you can figure out where you want to focus during your GE career.”

Diversity focus
For the inaugural group in 2010, Verschueren expects to hire thirty to fifty new grads across the company, a number that will likely grow as the program develops. GE will give particular focus to hiring a diverse group for the software program. Recruiters will participate in career fairs and conferences like NSBE, SWE, and SHPE and will target schools where they’re likely to find diverse candidates.

“The Edison population is more diverse than the population as a whole,” says Verschueren. “We’re in upstate New York, which isn’t a particularly diverse area. EEDP is a way we can attract diverse talent to the area. We tend to be pretty successful with engineers.

“I expect it to be the same for software. This will be a diverse pipeline for the Research Center, and I believe that’s true for all the business areas across the company.”

A new view of GE
With EEDP and the new software program, GE has recognized the need for a legitimate career path for diverse people with technical skills. Adding software as a new component to EEDP allows potential employees to see GE in a new light: not just as a manufacturing or finance company, but as a software company where one can have a solid, long-lasting career as a software professional.

Verschueren, whose background is in computer science, says that people don’t typically look at GE as a software company, but when he began surveying others around the corporation, he found that it is not only a software company, but an incredibly large one. “It’s amazing how much software GE develops for its products,” he notes. “We need to figure out how to get that message out.”

Finding a path
One of the big drivers of the program, and what Verschueren considers its big selling point, is that it’s an opportunity for new grads to figure out what they really want to do. “Most people have an idea when they come in the door,” Verschueren says, “but until you experience a project and become really hands on with a technical application, it’s hard to really know what you want to do. Having the opportunity for those rotations gives you the freedom to try out a few different areas and either round yourself out or dive deeper into a particular area.”

Sue Marquette Poremba is an engineering and construction writer in State College, PA.