Bret Lineberry ’11 found success in the post-graduate job search largely thanks to a valuable connection with a Hamilton alumnus. A May graduate with a degree in economics and world politics, she’ll soon begin working in finance for General Electric in Atlanta.
Lineberry is in GE’s Financial Management Program (FMP) which, according to GE’s website, “grooms recent college grads for GE leadership roles.” FMP is an intensive, two-year program broken into four different six-month rotational periods. During each six-month period, Lineberry will be working out of a different city doing a different specialized job. At this point, she has only been made aware of the details of her first six months—she’ll be working in Atlanta at a controllership position within GE’s power generation services. During this time Lineberry will also take an accounting class.
According to Lineberry, the basic philosophy behind GE’s Financial Management Program is that recent graduates are granted entry-level positions then explore the day-to-day job experience in several different departments within GE. The hope is that they will want to return to the company to pursue a career after the two-year program has ended. There is no business school required, because GE grooms and teaches young employees itself so that they can become productive long-term contributors to the company.
Lineberry says that a lot of the credit for her finding this job goes to Director the Career Center Kino Ruth, who put her in touch with Hamilton alumnus Brendan Ferretti ’01, who entered into the FMP after he graduated and is still working with GE today. “Kino was really important in helping me to foster a good relationship with Brendan,” Lineberry explained. “As an alum and GE employee, Brendan was extremely helpful in guiding me through the interview process.”
The Career Center had been instrumental earlier on for Lineberry as well, when they connected her with Brian Thornfeldt ’03, for whom she worked in the summer of 2010 at CSN Stores, an e-commerce company based out of Boston.
Lineberry says that the various summer jobs she worked during her time at Hamilton really helped her to realize what she did and did not want to do with her future. Many economics majors at Hamilton go on to work for banking firms after graduation, but an internship in wealth management with UBS after her sophomore year made her realize that she did not want to go into straight Wall Street finance; she says she’s more interested in the business side—seeing how she can work behind the scenes to increase a company’s profits. Although she graduated from Hamilton with two majors, economics has always been her favorite, and this job with GE is sort of the culmination of her academic passions and previous internships.
Lineberry has not made any concrete plans for the distant future, but she says she can easily see herself work for GE for more than just two years, assuming her experience with the FMP goes smoothly.
At Hamilton, Lineberry was a four-year varsity hockey player, a tour guide and senior intern at the Admissions office, and a tutor in the Oral Communication Center. She was a Levitt Scholar during her senior year and traveled in 2010 to Germany, Austria and Czech Republic on a Class of 1979 Student Travel Award.
Lineberry is a graduate of St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.
