Pros
The best benefit to working at BCBSA is overall work/life balance. Depending on starting pay grade you receive 20 or 25 paid time off (PTO) days plus 10+ paid holidays. The official work day is 7.5 hours. Insurance and other benefits are very good. My experience is that management is very undersanding and willing to provide work life balance including flex time, generous work from home arrangements, and overall treatment of employees as people with lives outside of work. After work life balance, there's a sense of pride working for a brand that insures 100 million lives (1/3 of the country). There are a lot of very bright and talented people employed there.
Cons
The average employee age is 55+ and a lot of employees have been with the company a long time. As a result change is slow. Many managers seem more interested in making their time to retirement as comfortable for them than improving the organization. Politics often get in the way of work and recognition. Otherwise excellent performance can be discredited due to personal agendas and power struggles. Policies are unevenly applied. The plusses listed above are because of the strengths of my management. Employees in different departments are not as lucky. Pay is average. The company's compensation policy is benchmarked at the median for similar jobs in similar industries. They sometimes ahve trouble attracting the needed talent because of compensation policies. Talented and aggressive employees can quickly become frustrated. Less talented and complacent employees are challenged. If you're looking to quickly advance or cash is more important than benefits look elsewhere. At times it feels like working for a government agency.
