lead engineer

intern

software engineer

engineer

senior engineer

GE Aerospace

I worked at GE Aerospace for approximately 45 days in early 2024 after graduating from A&P school. This was supposed to be my entry into the aviation industry. Instead, it became a clear example of how an environment can push out new hires despite claiming to support them.

The hiring process alone is a full-day commitment (around 8 hours) with multiple assessments. Naturally, this creates the expectation that the company is selective, structured, and invested in developing the people they bring in. During my interview, I was very clear: I had just graduated, and I had no prior hands-on aviation experience. I made that known, specifically because I was relocating from Florida and did not want to be placed in a position where expectations didn’t match my experience level. I was reassured that this was not an issue and that the company was open to training entry-level candidates.

That was not my experience once I started.

New hires are assigned to teams without input. From the beginning, it was clear that team dynamics play a major role in your success or failure. In my case, the environment felt closed-off and clique-oriented. As someone new, asking questions or trying to integrate did not feel encouraged; it felt judged.

The company heavily emphasizes “daily feedback,” which in theory should help employees grow. In practice, I experienced it as a constant stream of negative documentation, often for minor or subjective issues. Positive feedback existed, but it was rare and inconsistent. Over time, it became clear that this system can be used to build a narrative about an employee rather than to develop them.

One of the most concerning moments during my time there was being placed into a formal “intervention” process. I was brought in front of the entire team, sat in the center of the room, and required to read a report outlining issues with my performance. In that report, I was accused of “deliberately affecting operations.” As someone brand new to the field, this was a serious and extreme characterization of what were, in reality, learning mistakes. I challenged the wording because intent matters there is a difference between inexperience and deliberate behavior but this was interpreted as deflection rather than clarification. I was then required to sign the document acknowledging the claims.

Situations like this did not feel like coaching or development they felt like escalation.

There were also instances where claims made against me were accepted without proper verification. For example, I was accused of not properly checking in tools, despite completing the process and signing the required documentation. The individual who made the accusation was not present when I performed the task, yet their statement was accepted over mine. When I raised this concern, it was made clear that their seniority carried more weight. That moment made it clear that perception within the team could outweigh actual events.

I fully take accountability for my mistakes. As someone new, I did make errors while learning different engine components and procedures. However, none of the same mistakes were repeated. Despite this, my errors were grouped together under the assumption that I was not following manuals or procedures, reinforcing the narrative already being built through daily feedback.

There were also inconsistencies in how policies were enforced. I was documented for being late on two occasions by less than 10 minutes. While I accept responsibility for that, I observed other team members arriving later without similar consequences. The difference appeared to come down to tenure, not consistency.

I was ultimately terminated at my 45-day review.

This was unexpected, not because I believed I was perfect, but because the 45-day review was presented during onboarding as a checkpoint, not a final decision point. The expectation set was that employees would have the full 90-day probationary period to learn, improve, and adapt. In my case, that opportunity was never given.

Looking back, this did not feel like a structured environment designed to develop new technicians. It felt like a system where early impressions, team dynamics, and internal narratives can determine outcomes very quickly, regardless of growth or effort.

For experienced individuals who already understand the systems and expectations, this may not be an issue. But for entry-level candidates, especially those relocating or entering the field for the first time, I would strongly recommend asking detailed questions about training, evaluation standards, and how feedback is applied in practice.

My experience was not defined by a lack of willingness to learn, but by a lack of consistent support, objectivity, and alignment between what was promised and what was delivered.

The hours for embedded software engineer were flexible allowing for working remotely w/ manager pre-approval (prior to the coronavirus local government imposed lock downs).  Working weekends occasionally mandatory if project milestone is at risk of not being met. 

You contribute to coming up w/ the cost and schedule or have some say in the final approval before you start working depending on your role in the project.  Most interactions are w/ the various level of project leads and not your personal department manager.

Once the works starts for a project the reporting may vary depending the type of software release and the end customer. It could be  a meeting and update of a shared spreadsheet on percent complete and hour used once a week, or an AGILE project.

The workplace culture was supportive of young new hires, with many opportunities for growth and branching out to different departments or job roles.  This is not the case for the experienced engineers or older employees transitioning to aviation from previously non-aviation roles.
With the increase of outsourcing to sites in Mexico filled w/ inexperienced engineers that work for 25% of the pay of a US engineer, the opportunity for "experience by doing" was greatly reduced.  This coupled w/ the product maturity and the increased re-use library of software components make this company a bad choice for engineers that want hands on low-level design experience.  Yet the company had to settle for inexperienced engineers due to the difficulty of getting experienced aviation software engineers to the grand rapids site.  For this reason, intern to new hire retention was always subpar during my time at the company.
Pay was another reason they had difficulty keeping experienced engineers, I saw 2 or 3 occurrances of promotions to higher job title required for pay increase only coming when an employee threatened to quit or after they actually attempted to quit.  The pay was lower than similar roles at other companies.

One of the best and most difficult part of the job is the challenging nature of the job.  If you are willing to spend your time to learn a product line or dig into a specific specialty, and can make yourself visible to various layers of management you can be rewarded w/ the best projects and job advancement.  If you are not ambitious and just want to put in your hours for the current task, you will find little advancement.  if you want to advance or become visible to managers through the organization then some goal setting and ambition is required; otherwise, you could be stuck in a dead end role for life (some people are okay w/ that) or end up where a manager needs you to be (not necessarily where you want to be).

This company is sink or swim. They don't train new employees properly, even after requesting work and training, you can be chosen for a layoff. The company does not realize how detrimental this could be to new engineers and their respective career choice. Better training for new hires and restructuring is needed. 

In my situation, I was begging for work and training, but never received it and was consequently chosen to be laid off. I can assume because my skills weren't up to their standard, but how can you judge someone based off no industry experience ? They hired me knowing i had minimal experience...

When layoffs come, you will be ranked based off performance, working with others, skill sets etc. Based on your score, you can be selected for layoff. The company culture is also something I have heard and experienced that has diminished or gone down. When in an all hands meeting prior to the recent layoff, the HR executive classified us as "assets" as though we are not human and just a number.

To the company:
 
Make it a point to enrich, teach and setup training programs for new hires coming out of school. Because we all know how complex these engines are, and it is up to the company to train their employees and set them up for success. Take surveys of how people are feeling in their respective roles and people leaders. Communicate with new employees coming in, and check in. Don't leave them to hang and swim, try to comprehend what may be going wrong, and be more involved. This communication can be done with the immediate HR rep and a simple email.

To the potential new employee: 

If you are between job offers, take hint that you may be offered a nice salary here, but may regret it later. Take a look at how many layoffs this company has done in the past 10 years and see how the instability may be an issue. Look into the company finances and how their stock price is so low for a multi billion dollar company. Do your research and make an educated decision. If you're struggling for a job, it still may not be wise to take this one, especially if you're moving from out of state. Don't make the same mistake I did. Pay attention to the big picture and then make an educated decision. The company as a whole has struggled a lot recently since they are still liquidating and trying to stay afloat.

I left a permanent job after 17 years to work at GE on a temp to hire contract. I was told before I put my notice in to leave my long term position that  I would be evaluated for full time employment after three months.I was confident in myself and assumed I would have no problem getting hired as I am a very hard worker.Boy was I wrong,I busted my hump as Temp for an entire year, did my best to learn every job to show them I was a value to their company,I was moved to different departments, cross trained and excelled at every job they put me in.I was told constantly I was an excellent worker,all of my co workers wanted to see me get hired.I was given an interview for a full time position after 10 months of employment giving me a false sense of security that I may be given a chance at a full time position.Instead after successfully passing their selection process I was told I would be placed in a "hiring pool" where there is a very long line of people waiting.I was then after all my hard work and waiting  to seek other employment. After my 12 months was up they cut me loose, I found myself standing in the unemployment line,ended up in financial ruin for a few months and have since accepted a full time job with benefits elsewhere.After I began my new full time position at my new company,I was propositioned by same the Temp agency to return again to GE and start the process all over again,in which I refused.I was under the impression that I was in a hiring pool,which must also not be accurate.I honestly loved the work environment at GE,the people were all fantastic,the perks and bennies are great for those who are full time.In general I think they treat their own employees great,but as a Temp I felt as though I never existed,nor mattered.I was cheap labor,and pretty much a casualty.The only seem to call family members of employees back to full time employment.I have given up all hope that I will ever get a call from them with an offer of a full time position,even though I would have been one of their hardest,dedicated workers.

To start, they move at an absolutely *glacial* pace regarding pretty much everything. Which can be incredibly frustrating when you're hoping for anything even remotely quick. But you have to take it for what it is; a large corporation that is going to do absolutely everything that it can to protect itself.

If you want day shift, good luck! You will, more often than not, start on 2nd shift. But you might get lucky and start on 3rd shift. Most of the "old timers" push newer employees off the day shift when it comes time for a shift balance. If you're coming into the company in a "professional" role, then you'll be on day shift.

As a machine operator, your best hope is to have a good trainer. The supervisors (Team Coaches) are generally not good at picking the best people to train the new hires. It really seems like they pick people at random on who is going to be the trainer. And quite often, they really don't want to train new people, because that isn't their job. They're there to run machines, and produce parts. 

Management is *very* hit or miss when it comes to their ability or desire to support their teams. This is definitely an area that I have seen improve over my years of working with the company though. It's a work in progress with plenty of room for improvement.

The culture wasn't great when I started, and often had the "good enough" attitude towards quality. That culture is still really prevalent, but is maybe starting to trend away from that as our work force is starting to get younger. Not saying that it is all of the "old timers" but they're usually the ones with that mindset.

Overall, its not a terrible place to work. But don't expect a lot. You'll make decent pay for a relatively easy job. You'll get insurance that's not great, but not bad. You start with 10 days of vacation time, 2 (maybe 3?) days of personal time, and then the new "sick and safe" time which I think is something like 72 hours. You get an extra week of vacation at 5 years, 15 years, and 25 years. They don't offer any sort of retirement, which sucks. But they do offer 401k match; they automatically put in 3% of your income, and then match 50% of what you contribute up to 8%. So, they'll put in a max of 7% if you're putting in 8%.

Thankfully, the have a good Production Union. While I was there, management had such a poor track record with employee treatment that the Corporate Office had to visit several times to sort out the record number of complaints, and get rid of some of the Management staff.  Work flow continued to steadily decrease during the 5 years I was there, partially due to poor planning. In order to “save money”, they outsourced most of the circuit board production to a sister company in Florida. Consequently, Quality suffered greatly, which ended up costing them a lot more money than they “saved”.  We often had to wait 2-4 weeks for replacement components to be sent up from Florida to rework defective boards.  On several occasions, they had to send a brand new batches of boards back to Florida to have THEM fix the multitude of mistakes on every single board.  Also, the Production Engineering support was hit and miss.  For the entire time I was there, I had two buggy, intermittent automated test stations that they NEVER figured out how to fix.  I often had to run the test program 4-5 times to get a product to pass all the way through the test.  Everyone knew this, but very little was done to address the problems.  Every once in awhile they would throw a few dozen man-hours at it.  Sometimes they would fix a problem, only to have a couple more problems pop up.  Then other priorities would take over, and it would be forgotten about for several months at a time.  Also, there was not enough work to go around for all technicians, and cross training was a joke. By the time I left, I typically only had enough work to last a couple hours per day (I was bored out of my mind!).  I literally used to BEG my supervisor for work constantly.  I was told, by the “old-timers” that this was once a great company to work for.  But nowadays, I have no idea how they manage to stay in business.  I predict that in a few years, this site will have only R&D Engineering/Software Development, and Office support staff.



What is the best part of working at the company?
Being able to join the company with little or no prior experience with jet engines. Decent compensation, company supports and invests in teaming environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
New hire success currently depends more on the "luck of the draw" regarding team assignment than on a standardized protocol. After the extensive investment required for interviews and assessments including travel expenses for flights, rental cars, and lodging, it is a failure of resource management to allow a single, unmonitored team to determine the trajectory of a new hire.

There is a significant lack of standardization in the onboarding experience, with training quality and team culture varying wildly between teams. While some teams prioritize mentorship and integration, others adopt a "prove your worth" mentality that discourages inquiry and Instead of conducting a root cause analysis, the focus often placed on blaming the trainee for an error that the trainer had already signed off. Simply my team did not have my back, team would benefit from more supportive infrastructure on way of training for new members. Currently the 'earn your seat' culture is creating a disconnect during the onboarding phase. There is a lack of monitoring by leadership regarding team level performance in these critical early stages including quality of training and feedback system.

Furthermore, company categorizing training as "Non-Production Time" creates a counterproductive incentive, senior technicians often view essential mentorship and training as a liability to their efficiency metrics as production rates increased. This is exacerbated by a workforce of "topped out" technicians who have no further motivation and no interest in training. To protect the company's initial investment, management could tracking the Successful Onboarding Rate and the Quality of Training for each team, ensuring that high level recruitment is met with high level integration.

So I started my first day at the job, was so excited, it was a dream come true. Got all of my welding certifications within a week or two, then started out on days for training. Well all was good and until the guy that was training me left for vacation for a week. So with my 3 days of training to run a robot welder they let me loose. I was so scared and I didn't  want to mess up. Well my trainer came back just to go back on vacation for another few days. So with little to no training I was holding my own. Well finally was able to go to the shift I was hired in for with no training. Well thank God second shift showed me the ropes or I thought they were. Come to find out the guy on second shift was just using me as an excuse to get out of work. Well they wind up moving this guy to a different location and again I was left with no training. Well the 3rd and final guy took the time and showed me the right process to doing things. Well I came up on my 90 days. I had a 90 day audit, passed it with flying colors. Then the plant was doing yearly reviews that following week. I didn't think I was getting called into the office because I haven't been there a whole year yet. Well I sat down in front of my team coach and the head team coach and they told me that I was producing noncomforming parts, that I couldn't make production which was 4 parts a night that they have to let me go. I asked for a list of all the bad parts I suppose I made, and they never gave me a legitimate reason. As a rookie welder, all my parts have to be checked or stamped off on. So I didn't understand how I could be making all these bad parts if I have to be checked thoroughly.  I'm still at a loss for words.

For the most part, I assemble complex electronic assemblies for use in military aircraft. The work itself is not exceedingly difficult for someone with my skills, and intricate enough to keep me engaged with it, particularly because of the responsibility involved.

When I first joined the company, the workplace itself was tolerable enough. Over time, however, the atmosphere corroded, until coworkers were increasingly emboldened to engage in blatant racist comments and outright religious proselytization on the premises.

Repeated attempts to convince the management to address these problems have fallen on deaf ears, the human resources department more focused on outing those making anonymous concerns, like myself, than actually doing anything about the increasingly caustic workplace.

On top of this, the management believes that the work we do is only worth fast food wages, this from a company that paid employees who built home appliances twice as much. I suppose that is what happens when you let your unions get too cozy with management.

And now, the management thinks all of the company's problems can be solved by monitoring the amount of time each employee spends in the restroom. Not by, you know, fixing chronic part and supply shortages, or the massive attrition caused by the above situations.

So no, I wouldn't recommend anyone work here.

(WE ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS OUR MANAGEMENT) is what Six Sigma says and it's true.
Most important asset is the people not the numbers, if you respect your employees the numbers will come easily.
As in many facilities, there is a huge disconnect between hourly and salary/management. I have been on both sides and a great solution that worked at a previous employer was. Salary/management personnel tucked their ego in their pocket and got on the work floor, to work side be side with hourly employees on All shifts. From the top on down. At GE Hooksett NH, Management give the impression of caring by involving hourly employees but going ahead in doing as they please. Running lean and 5S includes getting your best hourly employees involved to bridge the gap between salary and hourly plus LISTENING followed by action. I honestly don't believe Resume's are read at GE. If resume's were read, GE would know I myself have lead 2 5S events for 2 companies to reach World Class titles with an award to prove it. Instead GE has me in a corner end finishing. If you happen to be good friends with salary/management ,one may have a chance to get in with the elite club. I was recently called back from the covid-19 lay off and after 2 weeks and 1 angry employee meeting I'm considering looking for other work. Cell managers or production managers have the personality of a rock, numbers numbers numbers all business very little personal interaction. So I hope this helps others looking for work. Keep in mind lots of angry people. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Lead engineer 25 salaries reported	$122,508 per year
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