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Working at General Motors: Company Overview and Reviews
General Motors
4778 reviews
General Motors Ratings
3.9
Average rating of 4778 reviews on Indeed
| 3.7 | Work-Life Balance | |
| 4.0 | Pay & Benefits | |
| 3.3 | Job Security & Advancement | |
| 3.3 | Management | |
| 3.5 | Culture |
Headquarter
Detroit, MI
Employee
10,000+
Revenue
More than $10B (USD)
Industry
Auto
Website
Popular jobs at General Motors
| Average Salary | Salary Range | |
|---|---|---|
Assembler 18 Salaries reported | $18.87 per hour | $8.30-$32.35 |
Production Worker 12 Salaries reported | $19.51 per hour | $7.70-$34.90 |
Release Engineer 14 Salaries reported | $84,429 per year | $36,000-$147,000 |
Validation Engineer 8 Salaries reported | $82,250 per year | $39,000-$136,000 |
Software Engineer 20 Salaries reported | $81,500 per year | $40,000-$123,000 |
Salary Satisfaction
Of the employees are satisfied about their pay
Based on 3201 reviews
Benefits
Health Care
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
401k
Paid Time Off
Stock Options
Discounts
Overall Reviews at General Motors
Electrical Architecture Engineer | Mexico, ME | May 20, 2018
good work enviroment, great people, and excellent benefits
In my current position I am responsible to integrate all electrical systems for vehicles, it means that I develop electrical diagrams to connect all electrical devices (as modules, sensors, switches, BECs, inlines, etc ) that integrate each electrical subsystems such as chassis, infotainment, powertrain, seats, doors, windows, lamps, HVAC, etc by meeting GM, services and supplier requirements.
To make that possible, I lead and coordinate different teams and I am in continuous contact with components DRE´s, BFOs and leads to understanding which function will have each component and ensure a correct electrical connection, At the same time, I follow a process to cover specific task for each phase of the program.
I make use of best practices, EMC and pre-reviews, electrical load analysis, run tools and electrical tests to ensure a robust design for harness and correct electrical content per vehicle and market. Some of these tasks request the participation of all electrical architects and for it is necessary to coordinate a meeting and present the design and takes notes about which re-learnings could be applied to the program. I execute a quality design audit to ensure that the best design is delivered considering the electrical and electronic components and safety requirements.
Another task in my actual role is to understand new specifications for delete/modify/add content to current programs or new model years, and how it will impact the wiring harness. (e.i: impact
Senior Design Manager | Warren, MI | Jan 1, 2019
Paid well to deal with corp politics and bureaucracy
There is little workplace culture and the environment is fairly competitive if you want upward mobility. To get ahead it is more about managing up and developing the 'right' relationships. There is mentorship, but you need to seek it out and literally take control of your own career path. Automotive is still tougher industry for women to succeed. Work/life balance is difficult to achieve in many functions given the competition. They offer decent vacation time, but in all my years at GM I saw few who used the time they earned, especially anyone in a leadership role. I worked with several functions (Design, Marketing, Engineering, Planning, Research, etc.), and for several brands and each one has its own dynamics, politics and culture. Like most big companies, you have lots of toxic leaders, bullies and yes men... but there are also pockets big thinkers who work as team players and not just for their own glory. Raises are usually small unless attached to a true promotion, but you can get decent bonus in Feb if company shows profits.
Key Advice: It can be difficult to jump levels once hired – Make sure you hire in at a level that relates to your experience (5 is beginning, up to level 9 for director and there are A (more exp) and B (less exp) pay distinguishers within each level). Always be your own advocate. Be careful with HR. Find the good leaders and ask them to mentor/coach you. Make relationships, as it is truly how you get things done at GM. Truly learn and understan
ProsMost working level people and managers are solid people, Good pay and decent benefits, Opportunity to treat your career as a jungle gym
ConsPolitics, nepotism and lack of transparency creates trust issues at every level, Little respect for diversity of thinking, No free coffee/lunches/gyms for the millennial crowd who expects these things.
Warehouse Worker | Martinsburg, WV | Jul 18, 2019
Great Company but don't do it!
Those who rate General Motors great have been there for 30 plus years or hasn't been to the Martinsburg location. They will start you out on day shift making you feel welcomed and telling you the greatness of the company, which it is but it won't be for you.
You will later be taught how to drive a gopher, but you won't need to because you will be on your feet running with a cart or fired first. You will walk a total of 10 miles or more a night.
There's only evening shift, everybody on evening shift is fight to get on day. It's a wait and the next ones up have been there for 5 years so good luck with that.
Your job will be walking in aisle picking parts by matching 4 numbers. All night. Over and over again. You pick 2k a night but if miss 2 or more you will be almost on your way out. It's a tedius and very easy job. You will also be pushed to go faster every hour by a supervisor who came from the military with no people or management skills, and it shows.
3-11 will be your shift., but you won't leave at 11. Ever. You will stay till 12 or 1 while the union protected members get to leave. Youre a temp which in GM terms means slave.
You will see 8 dayshift people throughout your training and they will all warn you about the high school gossip on the floor. The coworkers are good people but the protected 30 year plus workers will find ways to get you fired. This is the high school stuff that days don't deal with but will constantly warn you about.
Temps will
ProsGreat Benefits, Good Pay
ConsRead the review
Software Engineer | Austin, TX | Feb 22, 2019
Alright job as a fresh-out-of-college professional. Not good for the long run
Life-Work balance is a hit or miss. It all depends on your manager and project you are put on. My first year and a half I had to work 60+ hour weeks due to lack of technical and communication skills, experience, and just overall poor and inconsistent management. After that a reorganization occurred. I was put into another project with a different manager in which I was able to have a much better life-work balance. Management was good during that portion (about a year), but then another reorganization occurred about a year later, and management then was again not great, but the project leaders did have a good sense of what they were doing, so it kind of balanced itself out during my last year there, with the middle one being the best one (I worked there about 3 yrs). It did bother me that the longer I was there, the more I seemed to get invited to useless meetings, and by the end about half of them were completely unnecessary and a waste of time. Also, even though it's salary, they still require you to be in the office for a minimum fixed schedule. So it does not matter how efficient you are or if you get your work done early, you still need to stay there until the required time. Working remotely from home is also not an option there. Also, a lot of the people there spent a lot of time talking and gossiping instead of focusing on work, which I assume occurs due to that fixed schedule. Overall, as a new college hire, it was overall an ok job to get some experience. But actually
Full Stack Developer | Austin, TX | May 29, 2018
Ambitious but slow
General Motors is very ambitious when it comes to building an IT department from essentially scratch. There are several drawbacks to this attempt however.
General Motors is not very technologically oriented. If GM were to build an IT department from scratch and to be technologically reputable, wouldn't they send people off to conferences to compete with the other big tech companies like Google or Apple? GM does not. Employees stay and are encouraged to magnify their career, but GM makes no help to do that for them.
The management is probably the worst thing at GM. Bureaucracy and inhibition on the management's part is a plague at GM. Things get either caught up in approval processes, or managers do nothing at an employees request for something to happen.
The culture is very lame. There is a weak attempt to change company culture by "Drive to Great". That change is not very focused on in any training meetings, and the managers do not embody those principles. And if the managers claim to embody those principles, they misunderstand them heavily.
A typical day at work is come in, do meetings, code for a couple hours, chat chat chat, and leave early. It isn't a very motivating day.
I've tried to give GM the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think I've learned anything valuable. I've definitely learned a lot of how not to do things, but on how to do things I'm still open to see if anything pops up.
When I first started here, I thought GM was fairly gene
IT Engineer | Baltimore, MD | May 7, 2019
Great Company to work for.
I liked working for GM .
Lots of challenging projects I worked with around the world at GM plants.
General Motors | HP | Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Baltimore, MD 12/2006 – 04/2019
Managed a Technical crew of 10+ engineers for the deployment of the common Change Management and Disaster Recovery Systems “Autosave” at 40 + GM plants globally. Worked with upper management to set priorities and allocate resources. Created weekly status reports for the client and upper management.
● Team had installed 40 to 70 high end IBM, HP clustered and non-clustered servers at 40 GM manufacturing sites in the US and globally. Which includes working on a few sites in Europe, Australia, India, Thailand, Korea, Uzbekistan, Latin America, Canada and Mexico. Made several trips to these GM sites. Trained more than 150 Engineers and electricians in Autosave at these sites.
● Project Manager for deploying IT Manufacturing System at GM Baltimore Powertrain (White Marsh, MD). Coordinate with plant engineers, vendors, and business personnel to gather and define requirements, create project schedules, and effort estimates. Received recognition for getting the projects done ahead of time and below budget.
● Worked on the Hybrid project in a multi-vendor environment, comprising of organizations - HP, IBM, EMC, MDT, SIEMENS, and GM IT, which resulted in production of hybrid transmissions for GM SUV’s.
● Extensive experience in managing and coordinating multiple controls projects that consist
ProsLots of opportunity to work with people around the world.
ConsLong hours at work.
Writer/Editor | Warren, MI | Apr 25, 2018
GM makes sudden major changes in your work manager and job. You have no say about where they transfer you.
If GM decides to make a sudden change in your job and management, you have nothing to say about it. You can be thrown into a new group for which you are a poor fit. Your skills may not be well used and even if you try to explain this to your new Manager, he or she may totally ignore you and force you to do work for which you have never been trained. A supervisor can be named to this position without ever having been a supervisor previously and who has no skills in this position which makes it doubly hard on those beneath him/her. You can go above your supervisor's head to your Manager, but the Supervisor was named by the Manager, so guess where that complaint goes? Even if your Director announces in meetings that he will always stand up for you if you need to come to him over your Manager,, that's baloney. Due to cutthroat politics, especially at the Warren Technical Center, they won't do anything to help you. I know Managers at the GM Tech Ctr who tell me they are scared every day they might lose their jobs and they have been at GM for over 20 years.
Human Resources is at the center of this problem. Managers who are friends of mine told me never to go to HR and express a problem with a superior because they will ALWAYS take the side of management. You have to work out problems with Supervisors and Managers yourself and if you can't and they go to HR, guess who HR believes without ever asking the employee what is happening.
ProsFair pay; primarily really good employees
ConsWhen there are problems with employees, Human Resources needs to ask the employee what is going on, instead of totally ignoring them until it is too late.
Senior Manufacturing Engineer | Pontiac, MI | Mar 13, 2019
Very rewarding job at the completion of a successful Vehicle Launch.
I would attend a morning meeting to review the daily build schedule followed by individual manager meetings to discuss launch build plans and readiness for the current and future Pilot builds. After the build plan meeting I would follow the Pilot build through the assembly process and note any difficulties that were incurred. At the end of the day I would attend a daily wrap-up meeting to review any build issues that were discovered throughout the course of the day. After the wrap-up meeting I would meet with the department managers where build issues were discovered and try to help them resolve those issues prior to the next day's build event.
I learned how the separate production areas (Body Shop, Paint, Chassis, Trim, Final and Maintenance) are integrated and what it takes for them to run as a single unit.
The Launch Process management team was a select group of very knowledgeable individuals versed in all the aspects within the vehicle build assembly process.
The workplace culture was extremely positive as everyone was focused on the tasks at hand and a successful new vehicle launch.
The hardest part of the job was the coordinating of the different department managers schedules to discuss and resolve build issues. This was difficult because the build event occurred simultaneously throughout the plant.
The most enjoyable part of the job was the satisfaction of being an integral part of a successful vehicle launch.
ProsThe interaction with all the different areas associated with the vehicle assembly process.
ConsThe amount of travel involved with the launching of a new vehicle.
Senior Credit Analyst | Brookfield, WI | Aug 24, 2019
I would not work here again
Employee suggestions to management and even on corporate surveys are discarded. People are now so afraid to give honest feedback in fear of being labeled negative. Micromanaging is so bad that half the time your scared to make a decision. When sales are down the answer is to buy bad deals?! Then turn around and scold the employees for buying the bad deals! We all love the belittling emails from management and the best are from the RCM.
The guidelines set forth by GMF try to be fair for all employees. However, the practices are not always carried out by all of the managers. Certain individuals are allowed to work from home or leave early on a regular basis and others are not. Certain employees can take several smoke breaks with no issues, but let’s send out an email on coffee break guidelines?! Because we will pay you to smoke but better come in 15 mins early to get coffee and start your computer!
They promote people to management that have no experience but instead base it on if they kick it with current management staff. Then provide them with no training and then wonder why they fail! Also seems to be refusal to discipline incompetent managers that make critical and repeated mistakes. When any other individual would’ve been terminated. Oh wait they have terminated some...the good ones that are also labeled as “negative” because they speak the truth about the real issues at this branch! Again tell it like it is and you are marked! Because why should we actually li
ProsPay was good
ConsNo work life balance
IT Engineer | Austin, TX | May 16, 2019
Great Benefits, Mediocre Work
Disclaimer: This review is solely for the operations side of the company. The opinions here do not reflect innovation, business, or any other aspect of the company.
Typical work day consists of monitoring the ticket queue for alerts dealing with various systems.
Management is very scattered. Every year, I get at least one new manager, and just when they begin to get to know you, they are replaced with another. There were points where I had two managers, so it is confusing to say the least. It is a little better now, but it is still not very organized.
Workplace culture is very average. There is nothing that stands out as amazing, but nothing that is glaringly bad.
Hardest part of the job is getting management to give you additional projects. Management tends to push the work that is not really wanted on teams that already have a lot going on, and when you ask to take part in another project that will utilize your skill set or help you grow, they tend to reject it. Not because they don't want to see you succeed, but because they need bodies thrown at other issues that higher management wants done.
Most enjoyable part of this job are the people you work with. A lot of us were new college hires and this helped us find friends quick. The work life balance is pretty nice as well. There is ample vacation time and the managers are pretty flexible about employees working from home if they need to.
ProsVacation, flexibility, benefits
ConsMediocre management, internal movement is hard, hard to get valued work
Questions And Answers about General Motors
What is the most stressful part about working at General Motors?
Asked Oct 12, 2016
The harassment you receive from management and co-workers. It's mentally and physically draining. There is a "zero tolerance" policy but when you report any form of harassment you are threatened to loose your job. I can't believe the insanity from physical altercations, verbal threats and property destroyed. This is the worst company I have ever worked at.
Answered Feb 27, 2020
For Mississippi : The feeling of defeat before you even began from cold and unwelcoming coworkers The feeling of knowing your work is being tampered with and not having the ability to stop it!
Answered Feb 24, 2020
How did you get your first interview at General Motors?
Asked Jun 29, 2016
Too a apprenticeship test
Answered Apr 22, 2019
The number to talk to someine about hiring in the gm plant
Answered Jan 16, 2019
How long is the hiring process?
Asked Aug 4, 2016
I was so surprised how fast the hiring process took. I applied in September. I went in for an assessment in October while I was there I did the drug test in the spot. By the time I got home I received an email for my back ground check. & this was all on October 27, 2019 finally I got an offer on December 19th & I will be officially starting January 6th 2020. So happyyyy.
Answered Dec 21, 2019
2 months with the background test
Answered Jun 22, 2019
What advice would you give the CEO of General Motors about how to improve it?
Asked Apr 8, 2018
(For Mississippi )I understand that I can reapply but I will not That's how stressful it was ,But perhaps for future employees during there 90 days have them working in an area with only there trainer , not other workers (fulltime) employees that way there work can less likely be tampered with .
Answered Feb 24, 2020
Learn to treat your hard working and experienced employee with a good track record and top achieving awards with a kid fresh out of college to save the company money. Great way to treat your good employees! General Motors is not the same company I thought it was. Shame on you.
Answered Jun 22, 2019
If you were in charge, what would you do to make General Motors a better place to work?
Asked Jan 15, 2018
I would uphold the Leadership Mentality.
Answered Jul 29, 2019
Cool the plants in the summer the heat causes a lot of electrical down time
Answered Apr 22, 2019