Interview with GE

I had an interview with GE Aviation today. I arrived a little before 9AM and a few minutes later I was taken to a conference room where I met one of the HR managers. She and I spoke to about 45 minutes, and then I was taken to another conference room where I had a string of four interviews with four Engineering or Technical Managers. The last person was a Technical Manager, and he had worked for the Navy as a civil servant right out of college. His name was Stan and he was familiar with my background and the kinds of things I did on active duty. I spent almost two hours with Stan and had the opportunity to have lunch with him at the GE cafeteria. We were able to share a few stories about working for the Navy. Everyone seemed to like how I presented myself and my answers to their questions. GE Aviation is undergoing a restructuring and I was told that I was being considered for a couple of different positions. One of the interviewers said to me, "Often we will bring a candidate in for an interview and after talking to him or her, we realize that there is a better job for them in another department. There were two other department leads who wanted to talk to you, but were out of town today."

Before I left Stan said to me, "So do you have any questions for me?" I replied, "What is the hiring time line you have for this position?" Stan said, "Anything less than a couple of weeks would be an aggressive time line. The department manager is out of town today, and he will definitely want to speak to you. However, I know that you are interviewing elsewhere, so if you get an offer please let us know. Sometimes we can speed up the process if we know someone is looking at the same talent pool." I told Stan that I had a third interview with another organization on Monday, but in closing I said to him, "I was really impressed with what I saw here, and I think that I could do a great job for GE."

Bottom line: I did not get a job offer today, but all of the people who interviewed me seemed impressed with my background and experience. I will keep you posted as this progresses along.