Pros
The company doesn't lay off. When they do consolidate, leadership makes attempts to integrate safety nets for employees. People ar egiven every opportunity to find jobs in other functions. The pay is also higher than industry average for insurance functional areas like underwriting and claims.
Cons
Leaders are very poor overall at making objective and performance based decisions about promotions. They are not trained in behavioral interviewing and selection and don't feel that is necessary because HR provides a bank of interview questions for leaders to use. A lot of leeway is given to promote based on personal bias. While an undergrad degree is required to be considered for any professional/technical position, advanced academic education has very low value at State Farm. An employee with a masters degree and a strong record of achieving superior results has less opportunity for advancement than an employee with average performance and an industry designation. Some top managers have said they don't agree with company policy to offer tuition reimbursement for masters degrees because "people will just leave after they get the degree." Some have said they question the company's policy on tuition reimbursement for undergrad degrees because they "question whether it makes people smarter or better employees." A higher value is placed on industry designations. People are promoted very frequently based on how many insurance designations they have. Even top performers are excluded from interviews and promotional consideration if they don't have an industry designation. But this still isn't a guaranty that an employee will advance. Since no "written" policies are in place, managers often send mixed messages regarding what it takes to be promoted, leaving employees confused as to what development is appropriate. Be aware that you will not be entering a performance based work environment if you are hired at State Farm. If your personal performance standards are high, you may be disappointed. If you are someone who just works for a paycheck, State Farm does offer a higher degree of job security than most companies,..and really good benefits. In this economy, that carries a lot of weight.