Help Choosing Between Two FLDP Offers
Hi everyone, long time lurker here who created this profile to ask for some advice.
I will be graduating this December and have been fortunate enough to receive two offers for FLDP programs and am having a hard time deciding between them.
The first one is with GE FMP with the Power business unit. Base salary of $70,000 + $5,000 sign on. GE seems to have an amazing career track, specially for folks that go through the FMP, but I am a bit worried about joining one of the worst performing units, specially considering the recent news of split up coming in the next 2 years. The program consists of 4 rotations of 6 months each.
The second one is with Raytheon Technologies for their FLDP program. Base salary of $70,000 + $5,000 sign on as well. The company seems to be in a very strong position, but what worries me is how slow things move in the A&D industry, and the fact that it takes longer to move up. Other than that, I like the products and the program seems to be respected inside and outside of the company. It would consist of two 1-year long rotations, + 2 6-months long rotations.
Which one should I pick?
Edit: changed username for privacy
I was a GE FMP and had an offer for Raytheon. Also have a friend who is still in Raytheon's program. Would easily pick GE Power unless you want to be in the A&D industry.
A lot of Raytheon's roles kinda lock you into A&D corpfin early on whereas GE FMP roles are applicable to most manufacturing companies, among others (I've seen quite a few different exits from FMP).
Bump
GE exit opps are much better. Regarded highly in multiple industries. Going with Raytheon could pigeon-hole you into defense, similar to post above.
Not sure if it’s true, but I have heard that A&D is a siloed industry to where it may be harder to move in or out of it later. I think the industry itself is interesting and is clearly not going anywhere anytime soon. I also heard pay progression is generally slightly behind until you hit higher levels.
GE would be a solid choice because it is a recognized development brand and could open you to more opportunities down the line.
I have no experience with either company personally but I've worked with 3 people who were part of GE's program, 2 of them were executive suite (outside of GE in the capacity I worked for them) and the other was a VP level, left GE at mid management level. They were all very high performing individuals and spoke great things about that program. One thing to keep in mind is that it's one of the first companies to have such a program like that and it's used in a lot of case studies. I would personally believe that it's probably one of the more robust/developed programs because of that. Additionally, that's going to open up a lot more networking down the road because working for GE doesn't limit your industry options too much like A&D does.
You might have picked already but I'll mention this- I went through Raytheon's FLDP before their merger. It definitely felt like it constrains you to A&D kind of roles- I had to actively seek out rotations that would give me a broader more transferable experience. They push you hard to get experience in program finance roles. Every other company calls the responsibilities in those roles "Cost Accounting" but RTN calls them "finance" to trick people into thinking they get to do analysis.
The biggest thing I've realized since being out of the company for a few years is that they really pushed for innovation and talked like they wanted finance people to come up with new analysis and ideas.. when in reality, defense cost accounting is so heavily regulated that there simply isn't room for new procedures and analysis.
The culture at RTN was also very disjointed. The managers and analysts were very nice, down-to-earth people. But directors and above were not very approachable at all- had that stuffy corporate air to them. Furthermore, I constantly saw directors and VPs retire/leave and get replaced with people outside the company.. whereas at my current company I've only ever seen them promote from within.
I would say go with GE unless you want to be in A&D long term.
In your shoes and today, I'd take GE.
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