State Farm Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

Good opportunity for job advancement and solid on the job training. Competitive salaries in certain areas of the business. Good benefit package. Nice people. .

Cons

Salaries in certain areas not commensurate with experience or similar jobs at other companies. For true career advancement, must be flexible to move to other parts of the country.

Advice to Senior Management

Adjust operations bonus structure and salary scales in certain non-core areas of the business to be commensurate with that of other companies.

Pros

Good internal support, both technically and managerially; Solid company with great reputation; Good compensations package if you can make it past the first couple of lean years.

Cons

Must come to the table with a lot of money, or at least the willingness to incur a large amount of personal debt.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to do a better job of marketing State Farm to younger audiences; the TV commercials are pretty pitiful and the online presence is not impressive.

Pros

Job security, career development and growth, diversity, benefits, and values. State Farm is an amazing place to work. I have been here for a short period of time compared to most employees, and I have changed jobs internally 3 times. There are opportunities every where within the company, you just have to be willing to take the initiative to get them.

Cons

Average age of employees/agents are in the mid 50s. The younger generations are slowly coming into the workforce.

Advice to Senior Management

In my department, the senior management is amazing! They truly care about employees and our company's mission. I came from a department that did not exactly exhibit the same values towards their employees.

Pros

Great family atmosphere.Ability to change careers without leaving State Farm and my benefits due its size, different areas to work in and locations all over the country. Singular focus is on the customer. Not a stock company so dont have to worry about the pressures that come with that. Allows us to have a singular focus on the customer. Personally satisfying work in that we help people everyday recover from losess.

Cons

Alot of the same woes that come with being a big Corporation: red tape, layers to go through, etc. Being the biggest insurer in the US, we are the biggest target for the media and lawmakers. Most of what is said is not true and can be disheartening when we are working so hard to help people and get so much positive praise from our customers. Being an 85 year old company our culture is quite thick and hard to change.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Keeping moving in the direction we have been for the past 10 years. Will sustain us into the future. 2. Dont fold under the scrutiny of the media and lawmakers. We know we are doing the right thing for our customers. 3. We could do better in the area of technology and utilizing it to our advantage.

Pros

The Company truly cares about their customers and provides a needed servcie to the community. The products offered can really affect someone's life and well being. Insurance as an industry has taken a beating frmo the general public, but State farm really does try to settle claims in a fast and fair manner.

Cons

Sometimes the promotion opportunites appear to be made on a politcial basis rather than on a truly competitive basis due to merit. There are often clashes between the operations side of the business and the agency side, with the agency side getting more satisfaction and attention and money to solve their problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure that the Department heads embrace the same values that are espoused by the Executive Office.

Pros

Good work environment, where everyone cares about the employees. This company gave me my first professional job and I have loved it ever since. The environment is great, everyone is nice, and the company is very financially stable. People at State Farm are a different breed. I have worked for other companies in consulting capacities and know first hand that the job market is rough and security, courtesy, politeness are generally foreign in many other jobs. That isn't the case for state farm. I love my job and would never leave. If you don't like your job you can always find a new one in the company or transfer to anywhere in the US you want to live.

Cons

For my specific job they don't have a proper pay structure so I get lumped into weird assignments. There are times when I look at the other managers around me and wonder how they got through college. When we run tests to see what the personalities of the others are around us we find that very few of the managers have dominent personalities. Instead most of them have 'compassionate' personalities. Being a persont hat strives for results this becomes very difficult to work with over time. What should take weeks takes months and sometimes years to complete because people don't want to grab the reigns.

Advice to Senior Management

More development of managers outside of the philisophical. A lot of my co-workers don't understand the basics of how the economy works and such. Forcing the management team to learn these concepts would make the company stronger.

Pros

Feels like family, pleasant environment.

Cons

So large, changes happen slowly.

Advice to Senior Management

It's about the customer, not Senior Management's next promotion.