Introduction
In the summer of 2006, I completed an internship at General Electric in Stamford, CT. This internship was part of GE’s Information Management Leadership Program. I worked within GE Corporate, at GE Asset Management. My work composed primarily of project management, business analysis, and quality assurance.
About General Electric
General Electric is composed of six businessess (Consumer Finance, Commercial Finance, Industrial, Infrastructure, Healthcare, and NBC Universal). GE Corporate oversees corporate initiatives for the entire company and is headquartered in Fairfield, CT. With 116 years of operation, GE has grown into one of the largest and most respected companies in the world. GE has been named “America’s Most Admired Company” and “Global Most Admired Company” by FORTUNE Magazine. For more information about GE, please visit their website.
GE Asset Management (GEAM) has over 70 years of experience and currently manages over $185 billion in assets. For more information about GEAM, please visit their website.
Projects
At GEAM, I worked on three primary projects:
1. Internal Application Development - Project Manager
- Oversaw the development of an internal application that would be used by GEAM’s sales team to respond to Request for Proposals.
- Managed a GDC (Global Distribution Center) development team offshore during the planning and execution phases of the project
- Managed the company onboarding process for the development team
- Worked with the GEAM database team to optimize the application’s database
- Gave status updates and feature presentations to the business users
- Reviewed development documentation and prototype development
2. Print Automation Project - Project Manager
- Determined a solution for moving a manual document production process away from the business’ sales team to a dedicated print production center
- Automated the print job submission process for the sales team by researching print management software
- Worked with IT, sales, and print production groups to obtain buy-in
- Completed technical and sales review with the print management software vendor
3. Reporting Improvement Project - Liason between business and development team
- Analyzed business reporting requirements for the GEAM sales team
- Determined proper report format and contents to best suit the needs of the business
- Worked with IT and the Business Objects team to create the forms
- Presented results to the business
Skills Used and Developed
1) Project Management
All of my projects at GEAM required strong project management skills. I either created or supervised the progress of Microsoft Project plans for two of my projects. Serving as project manager at GEAM allowed me to develop my ability to manage the time, scope, and cost of projects and to interact with both the business and IT.
2) Business Analysis
Each of the projects I worked on required analyzing the business’ needs and requirements. I became highly aware of the fact that the most feature-rich technical solutions were not necessarily the best for the business, and that technical solutions must reflect the needs of users and overall business strategy.
3) Business Process Improvement
In the Print Automation Project, I was able to take a manual process and transform it into an automated solution. The process for document production became more efficient as a result, and allowed for increased capabilities and customization. This project cut time and costs for the business.
4) Time Management and Organization
In order to effectively manage three main projects at once, I had to utilize and develop both time management and organizatoin skills. This included prioritizing projects and holding effective meetings.
5) Leadership
GE’s IMLP internship program prides itself on helping its interns develop their leadership skills. As project manager for several of my projects, I became accountable for the actions taken by these projects. I also developed many leadership skills such as decisiveness, commitment, and maintaining both a task-oriented and person-oriented approach.
Conclusion
My internship at GEAM was very rewarding. It gave me the opportunity to experience an internship that wasn’t highly technical and relied more on project management and business analysis skills. I was able to understand more about how to interact across cross-functional teams and to manage a wide variety of people. I was also fortunate to learn more about one of the largest companies in the world.
