Arena said GM is competing for talent against Ford, Apple and Google, to name a few. So GM uses its work on EV and AV technology to position itself as a tech company on campuses, he said.

“That means we go away from the Midwest to some extent and towards the coasts,” Arena said. “More than half of our overall employees come from outside Michigan. More and more, that’s coming from the coast. It used to be we hired from Michigan and that’s it.”

Many of GM’s interns now come from such prestigious schools as Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, Duke University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan and Michigan State, Arena said.
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