Pros
As such a large corporation, there are a lot of different areas in which to work. I believe that the greatest factor in your experience will be your manager. Some are terrific, and very supportive of your career (even if it means a loss to their own team). Some are, shall we say, not so great to work with. But loyalty is rewarded, and you may find yourself following your manager as he or she takes on new responsibilities. If you're more focused on the success of the team than you are on making yourself look good, you'll likely be an outstanding employee and very happy with being there. There are also a lot of truly brilliant people working for this company. As there are often projects that are broad in scope and not necessarily well-defined, there are many opportunities to shine, especially if you're willing to learn new skill sets. Work-life balance is encouraged; though again, your manager will be the one who most strongly influences your ability to be successful in this. In many positions, the company offers telecommuting options, which can be very positive as long as you have the personality for it (i.e., can work without supervision and won't be distracted by things at home). As the MN weather can be challenging in Winter, even the non-telecommuting jobs will generally allow employees to work from home when needed. The paid time off policy is quite generous in comparison with other places where I have worked; depending on your position and length of time with the company, you can get up to 26 days off per year. This includes sick time; but as indicated above, if your job allows you to telecommute, sick time isn't nearly as much of an issue as it would be at most other companies.
Cons
First: Salary. Have an interview with a manager? Does that manager discuss a salary with you? Do you agree on a reasonable amount? Well, guess what - it doesn't mean a thing. The HR department (known as "Human Capital") has a de facto stranglehold on the amount of your initial salary. Then, as you progress with the company, there are also rules limiting the amount of increases which you can receive at annual reviews (it's based on a percentage of salary). If you change from one position to another at the same grade level, the likelihood is that you will have no increase in pay, even if the new position has a much higher responsibility level. In other words, the people who make the final decision about your pay don't know you - they only know what's on paper. And neither you, nor your manager, nor their manager will ever be able to change anything about that. And it's a *great* shame, because I believe that the compensation overall is fair against the marketplace; but their complete inflexibility means that you will likely be dissatisfied with the experience no matter what you are paid. Second: Insurance. I have *never* worked for a company with an insurance division (UHC) that offers such poor medical insurance choices to employees. As I speak to friends who work for other companies in the same geographic area, they are shocked to discover the terrible plan design of our health insurance. Not only that, but they only offer three plans; and all three plans are EXACTLY the same, with the exception of the deductible amount and the cost of insurance. I have the best plan available, and I have a $1700 annual deductible for in-network... and *everything* goes toward that deductible, including prescriptions. You can get an HSA, but make sure you have a boatload of cash if you need treatment early in the calendar year. Every year, UHG takes a survey of what is good and bad; and every year, employees complain about the insurance; and every year, corporate says that we should save the amount we aren't paying in insurance premiums so that we can pay our medical bills. They're missing the point; employees are looking for options. We're not idiots, we know that high insurance plans have lower premiums than traditional insurance. We just want to have at least SOME of the same choices that other employers offer. For me, these two factors (which could be easily addressed) weigh so heavily against the positives that I do not recommend that people seek employment with the company. Why? Because these are over the direct control of the upper-upper management. All of your positive experiences will be at the local level; but where the corporation has the opportunity to prove itself as caring about its employees, it fails. That said, I work here, and I will continue to do so; but I do my very best to disregard our annual survey. Repeating the same requests over and over again with no results leads to nothing but frustration. If you're going to ask your employees what can be improved, you must maintain an open mind and allow for the possibilities that their concerns are valid. If not, don't bother sending out the surveys.
