Symetra reviews

4.0

73% would recommend to a friend

(482 total reviews)

Margaret Meister

88% approve of CEO

82% positive business outlook

Symetra has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 482 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Symetra employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Insurance industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

482 reviews
4.0
Feb 4, 2010

Symetra Culture

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Symetra culture valued and respected individuals. It also was good culture for women in management and leadership positions.

Cons

Advancement sometimes is limited due to low attrition in management positions.

2.0
Nov 24, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you're looking for an IT job where no overtime is required, and an employer who is flexible with schedules, Symetra is a good choice. The people are generally very nice to work with - it's a friendly place.

Cons

The structure of IT and the business has fostered quite a bit of silo-building. Most of upper IT management has a mainframe background, and has not kept current on technology. As a result, most managers have an unusually low level of knowledge about what they manage, and seem unable to determine who their best performers are. (The dead wood in management has fostered the retention of dead wood among their staff.) This group of IT managers who seem out of touch with technology also translates to problems with the formation of a coherent IT strategy. Symetra has an unhealthy level of reliance on outside contractors to build critical applications that Symetra employees probably will not be able to maintain.

3.0
Nov 24, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a very new company (split from Safeco in 2005), so the focus (at least for the C-level executives) is fairly entrepreneureal. The CEO has expressed numerous times that he's interested in changing how we do business and looking outside of the box for ways to take our company forward. As of late 2008 we are launching into some areas (such as social media) that are new to us and this makes it a very exciting time to work here. At the same time, the company is privately owned by Birkshire Hathaway (among others), thus the company is very secure financially.

Cons

While the most senior executives at the company may be focused on changing how we do business, this mindset is not shared by all executives. Employees in general are frustrated with the compensation and the handling of promotions. Additionally, there are some serious communications issues within management.

Viewing 475 - 477 of 482 Reviews

Glassdoor has 556 Symetra reviews submitted anonymously by Symetra employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Symetra is right for you.