Back to school with GE Global Research
At the beginning of May I had the opportunity to return to my old university to attend a campus careers fair. A team of us from GE Global Research Europe in Munich headed to Imperial College London to talk to students about the great experiences and opportunities that GE has to offer.
For me, being a relatively recent hire (I joined GE one and a half years ago) the experience was particularly rewarding since I remember very clearly what is was like attending recruiting events and having no idea what type of job I wanted. In fact, I first heard about GE Global Research at the exact same recruitment event we were attending when I was nearing the end of my PhD.
Attending the event was a real pleasure because I was able to say with confidence that I had made the right choice and was very much enjoying my new job. Science and engineering students are faced with very difficult decisions at the end of their studies. Many are torn between continuing with academia or moving into industry. In the UK in particular, science and engineering students are highly sought after by the finance industry where the financial rewards can be great but the work means having to leave the subject of your degree.
When I was nearing the end of my PhD I knew I was interested in two things. The first thing was renewable energy and the second was the process of technology commercialization. During my PhD I was lucky enough to be working on an extremely exciting new technology called an organic solar cell. This is a new type of solar cell made from a special type of electronic plastic. It’s a very exciting technology because it has the potential to reduce the cost of solar energy but unfortunately its not yet ready for large scale deployment. I wanted to gain experience of a wider range of technologies and learn more about what it takes to bring a new technology from the lab and into the marketplace.
Given these two interests, it was a long time before I found exactly what I was looking for in a job. I considered everything from university research to management consulting. A lot of the industry research jobs I could see involved working on a very narrow range of technologies and provided little opportunities for development. When I discovered GE Global Research however, I knew that this was what I had been searching for.
From early on in their careers, scientists at GE Global Research are looked upon to contribute to developing new ideas and projects. As well as having a deep understanding of their field of expertise, people are expected to understand the value of a new technology and the markets in which it may be sold. Working at GE Global Research means being precisely at the intersection between real research and real business.
The unique thing about GE is the breadth of new technologies currently being developed here. Together with my colleagues we are working on or evaluating almost every kind of renewable energy source out there, as well as very exciting technologies across healthcare, energy efficiency and water treatment. What I love about GE Global Research is that whilst it is often the birth place of new ideas, we work alongside GE’s business units which have enormous resources to turn these ideas into reality. So given the two things I was interested in back at university, I can hardly think of a better place end up.
I’m pleased to say that the recruitment event at Imperial a great success and as a result we received a number of applications from some excellent students. Many of the people I spoke to were going through the same indecision that I was a short time ago, and I hope that our presence showed that there are some interesting opportunities out there for people with a passion for technology.
Thanks for your words, which I find very inspiring. I am also a graduate from a top UK university and would like to pursue my career in industry. It appears that GE is the best place on Earth to do so. Cheers mate!