Pros
There really are opportunities for growth here - I see a lot of reviews stating no one gets raises or promotions. I have been with the company 5 years, and in that time I have risen four pay grades and increased my earnings by 74%. So know that it's definitely possible to get good raises and get ahead, although it is also very challenging. How can you accomplish this? Be professional at work. Don't miss work without a good reason (try saving sick days for when you're REALLY sick). Work hard to make quality and production metrics. Be resourceful, accountable, and approach problems with solutions instead of complaints. Volunteer for extra projects when possible. The incredibly structured and micro-managed atmosphere surrounding metrics actually makes it a true pay for performance environment. Your work speaks for itself. When your yearly review comes around, your supervisor has tangible data they are pulling from, and it's not just based on what they sort of think they remember you did over the last year or how hard you tried to get on their good side. This a Fortune 14 company. UHG is EVERYWHERE. With much of the workforce telecommuting (either working for home or from an office reporting to different sites), a lot of boundaries are broken down, and in theory you have a wide variety of options for career movement that would not exist in most traditional company settings. I have had incredible supervisors who have developed me and promoted my talents and strengths every step of the way. UHG has very high expectations, and working there has prepared me well for so many of the challenges that any workplace could throw at me. WAH opportunities abound for those who are interested.
Cons
It's not all flowery praise. I often question, long term, whether it's really healthy for me to continue to work at a place that causes me as much stress as this company has/can. By far THE WORST health benefits I have had as a working adult in corporate America. We see what is offered in terms of plans. We are not getting a fair deal there, and every single person working there, bottom to top, knows it. UHG has some amazing healthcare plans available - just not for its employees. There are so many departments with different rules, systems, and procedures that communication and issue resolution between internal business partners is a sad, complicated mess. Things are never streamlined. I do think they try, but they don't succeed. Everything is about numbers, and at the end of the day, most people care less about if the numbers reflect accurate data, or if the data has simply been collected in a manner which makes it APPEAR that things are on target. Talent Acquisition is a train wreck. There is up to a six month lag period in some of their systems (which no one will admit to, but is evident). I have been grilled by people on my ability to use MS Outlook (?????) who are just supposed to be validating my responses to the questions I answered online. Look, if I've been exceeding expectations on my performance reviews, I can probably use e-mail. I have had recruiters fail to set up interviews; if there are any issues, often the recruiters do not respond to e-mails, and CC'ing their supervisors doesn't do much either. Well after accepting a new position internally, I was still getting contacted by TA for interviews for positions I had removed myself from, and I was recently contacted to take a survey because they show I am applying for positions currently. (I have not applied for positions in at least five months.)
