General Electric information session promises leadership opportunities

GE Day introduced students to internship and leadership opportunities at General Electrics Friday.

Engineering, business, economic and math majors gathered in the Student Union accompanied by a crew of GE employees to learn about the company and opportunities for them.

To kick off GE Day, GE executive IT compliance leader Richard Agostino gave a seminar explaining every aspect of GE. Noting that GE has the 6th largest revenue in the world, he explained the many departments of GE.

“We want to educate the students on what GE does and what it’s about,” noted GE’s commercial risk leader Tom Butler. He explained that by educating students, it leads to more talented workers for GE.

“The thing about big companies is you can solve the world’s biggest problems,” stated Agostino.

After learning about the departments at GE, Agostino talked about the many leadership programs GE offers the undergraduates. Many of the two year programs included fields of engineering, operations management, financial management, and investment analyst.

“The programs give you leadership experience,” explained Kailey Stockenbojer, from the GE financial management program. “The program has accelerated my knowledge of financial programs. You also see a lot of leadership styles.” GE’s leadership programs are ranked No. 1 in the world.

After the seminar and a quick question and answer session, students broke off into breakout groups. These small groups, led by GE workers from the specific departments, went into further detail about programs, departments, and jobs specific to the student’s majors.

“I came because I’m looking for a full-time job, and I wanted to see my full options,” said Steve Catalina, 7th semester Management Information Systems major. “there’s a lot of opportunities in GE, a lot of opportunities to advance, and they love UConn people.”

With UConn only 80 miles from Fairfield’s GE plant, GE is out to recruit specifically UConn students. “I’m from Connecticut, and I love Connecticut, and I love to support our state,” Agostino said.

“I want to hire more UConn undergraduates in the company,” explained Butler, “UConn is important because it produces a lot of talent.” Both Butler and Agostino are UConn alumni.

GE not only produces household appliances it was founded on, it also provides leases and loans to small business, produces over a quarter of the world’s power, and is the world’s leading producer of small and large jet engines for commercial and military aircraft, as explained by Agostino.

GE also prides itself on “ecomagination,” and “healthymagination.” Ecomagination is its commitment to finding cleaner energy, and Heamthymagination is the commitment to lowering health care costs, provide localized health care to places that cannot receive it, and provide quality healthcare.

GE also has a team for setting up volunteering programs with groups such as Habitat for Humanity. Volunteering is a way GE instills integrity in the company. “A company that looks up to people,” explained Agostino. Noting that GE maintains an honest, healthy code of operations in all aspects of the company.