What is the hiring process like at USAA?

The compensation package, while adequate, offers nothing that meaningfully distinguishes the organization from its contemporaries — benefits of this nature have become largely standardized across the industry. The sole differentiator consistently put forth is the intangible honor of serving the military community, a sentiment that, while noble in principle, functions more as a rhetorical substitute for substantive competitive advantages than as a genuine value proposition for its workforce

The recruitment process is characterized by a fundamental misrepresentation of the role — candidates are solicited under the guise of member service, only to find themselves embedded in an aggressive sales culture. Training infrastructure, rather than developing well-rounded insurance professionals, is narrowly engineered to maximize product placement regardless of member suitability or genuine need. This is compounded by pervasive micromanagement that stifles professional growth. Perhaps most egregiously, the organization espouses a set of operational values it demonstrably fails to uphold within its own institutional conduct — a disparity that is both transparent and corrosive to employee trust

Professional and qualified agents on the sales floor.

Hyper corporate mentality. Very little internal advancement. In my experience, new management hires all came from outside the company and were virtual clones of the hiring managers. The company has changed direction in the last three years from a philosophy of doing everything they possibly could for their membership to accompany with production as a priority. Experienced agents have gone from professional advisor roles to reading scripts. Morale on the sales floor is very low as a result. In this veteran and military facing company, there are virtually no vice president or directors with military experience. They have lost their way.

Set schedule, nice campus, cool people, paid license, benefits

TOO MUCH WORK!!!! Unrealistic expectations, "trust the process" from management, overtime is required but not stated in interview process, absolutely no work/life balance that USAA brags about.

Few! One thing is that the friendships you make with some of your co-workers are ones that you'll keep forever!

#1. I wish I'd read the reviews here before I accepted a position with USAA, I'd likely have thought twice about it! (Moral of that lesson: MAKE GLASSDOOR part of your research before saying 'yes'!) #2. Metrics that change so often, you'll never know where you stand. Sales metrics changed from '23, to something completely different in '24 & then again to totally different data points in '25; one week our 'drum-beater' managers would be saying '...you're doing well...', & the next week '...you're on the verge of a PIP!' It's the 'working in quicksand', thing mentioned earlier. #3. Knowing that when you sign on, you'll be paid LESS than the industry standard. Yep, you read that correctly; you will be paid at an hourly rate less than the general going rate relative to other Insurers call center representatives. But during the recruitment process ONLY annual numbers will be cited, which is very misleading & not until actual on-boarding is the truth disclosed. Bonuses, touted heavily are wholly conditioned on Association performance for prior year and were not distributed in '22 & '23. #4. A >60% attrition rate! Of the 16 people who began training with me, by the end of the 1st year only 7 were left. The turn-over is extensive! #5. Benefits: Medical - very poor (Cigna!), positively awful, for just about everything is out-of-pocket/network. #6. Recruitment - miscommunication, -whether unintentional, or not; is commonplace in this organization. I was approached by a recruiter in Sept. 2023 for a Life/Variable Annuity Ins Sales position with the USAA banking unit. By Nov. that recruiter had disappeared Later I learned that in 2023, USAA bid farewell to > 1,000 employees across multiple divisions (-including recruiting) after reporting a 2022 loss of $1.3 billion. Little did I know that the bank unit had just been fined over $140 million by FinCEN and the OCC in March 2022 for Bank Secrecy Act violations. (see "Another round of USAA layoffs spark outrage over holiday timing" Zachary-Taylor Wright Fri, October 31, 2025 at 8:35 AM EDT in My SA) In Dec. my 'file' was picked up by a different (/surviving) member of the recruitment staff & I was then being recruited to join the P&C Insurance side of USAA, where the Association would pay for me to obtain my P&C ins. sales license. I was told by this recruiter that I would be able to transfer back to the Bank after 6 months (-with no further explanation/qualification/quantification elucidated); again, its in the details...after starting one will come to learn: as I did, that you can transfer ONLY after 12 mos in present position + NO written warnings/disciplinary actions, or performance improvement plan (PIP) issuances within that time. Missing sales #'s, even on a monthly basis is grounds for a PIP, which I also came to learn that lesson the hard way after Hurricane Milton in Oct. '24 knocked out my power for 5+ days and I was offline. NO allowance made for that natural disaster by my manager, who was comfortable ruling her little kingdom from her basement in Colorado Springs!??? So the moral of #6 is: you cannot really trust what you're being told; not by the recruiters, not by your trainers and most certainly not by the managers (-who totally speak with forked tongue). #7. Guilt & Shame; I call this 'guilt' because I remember having to plaster a fake smile onto my face every time I walked into the Tampa Commerce Park Building and how depressed & guilty I felt about it. I use 'shame' because, at the onset I had the highest faith in the 'Mission' USAA claims to espouse: serving those (-Military & families) who've served for us! But after spending time on the inside, and seeing the magnitude to which those Members are being dis-served...I personally cancelled my fathers (U.S.N.) USAA home ins. policy here in FL. -Went with another carrier and saved him over $900.00/yr!

Your schedule will be consistent and the office buildings/campus are well-kept. Coworkers are usually nice and managers on the floor seem to mostly be a good group of people.

I spent 6 months with the company at 2 different locations in Tampa, here are some negative aspects of the job I observed in that period of time: - The training was 9 weeks with a two-week onboarding period. In that 9 weeks, they tell you that you shouldn't be missing any training time. I missed 3 days of training within the 9 weeks due to medical issues and 1 day due to scary weather, and thus I was put on what is called a "disciplinary action" before even completing the training. The training mostly consisted of completing online modules and I had zero issues catching up with the training I had missed. The disciplinary action means that you cannot call out or be late or it would escalate. DA also means that you cannot receive a raise or any bonuses for the duration of the DA (which was 90 days for me). - In orientation, you will be told that working from home is a possibility BUT you only get 1 day to work from home each week. You get to choose the day at least. In order to qualify for ONE work from home day per week, you have to be working on the phones for 6 months and maintain all of your metrics in the green for a period of 3 months. Once a month the company does a televised meeting where the CEO answers questions and every time a question is asked about working from home his whole head gets beet red and he is very quick to shut the question down. They need workers to fill the offices in order to get tax breaks and justify owning the buildings. - Regarding the metrics mentioned above, there are 7 metrics they use to determine how good of an employee someone is. Maintaining every metric in the green can be very difficult due to the methods in which the metrics are analyzed. An example: there is a metric which measures how often you need to contact the team we have for issues that a representative cannot figure out. Understandable, however, there are certain processes which can only be completed by that team (thus requiring us to contact them) but it still counts against your metric because you had to contact them. That's one example but all the metrics have some kind of weirdness like that. - Occurrences. That is the term for being late or calling off work. An occurrence is weighed the same regardless of the situation. What I'm saying is, being late and calling off are the same. So if you're going to be more than 7 minutes late, you may as well just take the day off. You'll get 16 hours of PTO per month, use it wisely. - The healthcare... Let's discuss that. I went for the highest level coverages the company had to offer, and it was a nightmare trying to actually use my benefits. The better healthcare plan gives you a debit card with 750 dollars on it to use for medical expenses, and if you try to use it be sure to get an itemized receipt as you'll have to scan it and upload it into an online portal to verify the charge, which they will sometimes kick back for no reason. I don't understand how they can't figure out if a charge is medical. I have also heard stories of coworkers needing MRIs and for some reason the insurance just does not want to cover that at all or its a massive out of pocket cost. My previous employer used a very low-level insurance company with base coverages and my copay at urgent care was 40 dollars, with USAA's insurance the copay went up to 95 dollars at the same office. - Employee satisfaction scores. This is an interesting one. When I was there, the employee satisfaction scores were at 39 percent... out of 100. I found that out in my first week on the phones. The company has their own internal messaging system and within that system there exists a channel specifically for employees to voice their concerns. That was a very busy channel, when I was there it would get locked from posts regularly due to the things employees would say. - The company has their own cafeteria and rooms where you can get snacks etc. The markup on food and snacks is comparable to a gas station honestly. Not sure why they couldn't sell food to the employees at cost or with minimal markup? Oh wait I know why... more money for the company. - The CEO Wayne Peacock gave himself the largest bonus he's ever had last year (8.1 million), which is a 68 percent increase from the previous year. Simple google search can confirm. The company is cutting costs within the bank's processes as well, such as no longer expediting compromised bank cards unless the member asks for expedited shipping. Imagine someone stole your card info, took a bunch of money, and then a representative has to explain that the card will take 7-10 business days and the fraud team will need 10 business days to try to get your money back. This is just one example. They're cutting costs while the CEO is raking in more money than he ever has. I will wrap this up by saying that out of my hiring team of 15 people, there are currently only 7 who are still working for the company. USAA is always hiring and this is not necessarily due to expansion, it is due to the fact that employees are not very happy.

Yes, the PTO‘s time off, me day and pay we’re all fabulous. The company made our military members feel appreciated..

I was hired for Customer Service as an in between agent that would ask questions and get the member to the right agent. I loved my job. I loved my military members I planned on retiring there. About four months into this position, our class was told we had to get a state license to sell property and casually insurance or lose our job. Well, I’m not really a sales person, but I didn’t want to lose my job. The amount of information expected for us to know to pass the state exam was overly excessive. I failed the exam and I was fired with 4 colleagues. I was told that I could obtain my license on my own time and start the interview process all over again. I was rehired. Unfortunately, I developed a disability which required me to take time off. I was approved through medical. My manager was not happy about this. I was a great agent because I have years of experience. All of my surveys were 10. My metrics were where they needed to be, but I refused to sell a VPP policy to a single mom who was trying to save money. Long story short, my manager made my job so toxic, and I was overly micromanaged to the point of her, listening to every single call. Because I refuse to sell a side policy if the member didn’t need it, I was harassed. I was denied any vacation time. I constantly received members calling and asking why they had a VPP policy when they never asked for one. Well, I knew why because other agents were simply adding them without advising them. When I brought this to my manager‘s attention, I was told to worry about myself. I was threatened by my manager, and fired. I felt like the company that I loved so much was shady and stealing from our heroes. Coincidentally as this VPP campaign was being pushed our CEO at the time step down.

My opinion: Few. Very few. USAA is not the employer of choice any longer. Thanks Wayne Peacock.

My opinion: Quality training is nearly non-existent. New employee turnover is very high. Work schedules are often changed within months of hiring new employees in wihtout regard to the promises made to them. Pay is nowhere near as competetive as it used to be. Benefits have been slashed. USAA has contracted with a new health insurer that is known for delys, denials, and is the subject of many lawsuit for benefits denials. Underwriting doesn't appeart to know what it si doing. It continues to insure incredibly high risks, and cancels customers for minor losses. Managers are hired in accordance with DEI principals, not merit, resulting in a level of management that has no idea what it is doing. Middle management, Directors, are under intense pressure anmd turnover is exceptionally high. Lolw level executive management can be downright malicious to imrpess their bosses. Midlevel executive management appears to be just trying to keep their jobs and change directions frequently. High-level executive leaders are almost completely insulated from the employees. They do not address employee concerns. They appear to just be trying toi maximize profits to maximize their bonuses. The Board of Directors is NEVER heard from. An employee may wonder if there even is a Board of Directors. They are just absent from view. Employees have lost trust in USAA leadership. And the USAA's Bopard of Directors just doesn't care.

Decent pay, holiday bonus, 401k, health benefits, get to help service members...the basics were good

-My manager put me on a project, forgot, then got upset I was working on the assigned project...even asked me who assigned me to that project. This example sums up the level of competency I experienced with leaders at USAA. -You really have unqualified leaders hiring more unqualified leaders here. -Processes are fundamentally flawed and will be updated every few months to a new more complex and inefficient process. -When presenting solutions to management, the "leader" was simultaneously writing emails staring at their computer, and couldn't be bothered to pay attention though we had time blocked off. -The leadership in the department are too far removed from the actual work and decisions appear to be drawn out of a hat. -Employee satisfaction scores are pretty terrible, likely due to forced RTO. Working at USAA was like living in a dysfunctional family where no one felt comfortable expressing their minds while faking smiles. -There was constant anxiety over job security and my manager used it to push production. -The work entailed mindlessly filling in templates which required little to no thought. I felt like I didn't really progress during my time here. -Worst of all, no one is willing to listen when solutions are presented. This is a cultural deficiency. -The constant fear of layoffs may impact your mental health. This was just my experience and you may have a better one in a different department. I remember reading these reviews before I accepted the job and thought "it can't be that bad". As a professional, this was probably my worst experience as an employee. If you enjoy explaining your job to your boss while wondering if you will still have your job next month, this may be a great fit for you. I quit to give birth to my son and never looked back. I only regret not quitting sooner.

Quick interview process. Awesome staff

I don't know of any.

Few! One thing is that the friendships you make with some of your co-workers are ones that you'll keep forever!

#1. I wish I'd read the reviews here before I accepted a position with USAA, I'd likely have thought twice about it! (Moral of that lesson: MAKE GLASSDOOR part of your research before saying 'yes'!) #2. Metrics that change so often, you'll never know where you stand. Sales metrics changed from '23, to something completely different in '24 & then again to totally different data points in '25; one week our 'drum-beater' managers would be saying '...you're doing well...', & the next week '...you're on the verge of a PIP!' It's the 'working in quicksand', thing mentioned earlier. #3. Knowing that when you sign on, you'll be paid LESS than the industry standard. Yep, you read that correctly; you will be paid at an hourly rate less than the general going rate relative to other Insurers call center representatives. But during the recruitment process ONLY annual numbers will be cited, which is very misleading & not until actual on-boarding is the truth disclosed. Bonuses, touted heavily are wholly conditioned on Association performance for prior year and were not distributed in '22 & '23. #4. A >60% attrition rate! Of the 16 people who began training with me, by the end of the 1st year only 7 were left. The turn-over is extensive! #5. Benefits: Medical - very poor (Cigna!), positively awful, for just about everything is out-of-pocket/network. #6. Recruitment - miscommunication, -whether unintentional, or not; is commonplace in this organization. I was approached by a recruiter in Sept. 2023 for a Life/Variable Annuity Ins Sales position with the USAA banking unit. By Nov. that recruiter had disappeared Later I learned that in 2023, USAA bid farewell to > 1,000 employees across multiple divisions (-including recruiting) after reporting a 2022 loss of $1.3 billion. Little did I know that the bank unit had just been fined over $140 million by FinCEN and the OCC in March 2022 for Bank Secrecy Act violations. (see "Another round of USAA layoffs spark outrage over holiday timing" Zachary-Taylor Wright Fri, October 31, 2025 at 8:35 AM EDT in My SA) In Dec. my 'file' was picked up by a different (/surviving) member of the recruitment staff & I was then being recruited to join the P&C Insurance side of USAA, where the Association would pay for me to obtain my P&C ins. sales license. I was told by this recruiter that I would be able to transfer back to the Bank after 6 months (-with no further explanation/qualification/quantification elucidated); again, its in the details...after starting one will come to learn: as I did, that you can transfer ONLY after 12 mos in present position + NO written warnings/disciplinary actions, or performance improvement plan (PIP) issuances within that time. Missing sales #'s, even on a monthly basis is grounds for a PIP, which I also came to learn that lesson the hard way after Hurricane Milton in Oct. '24 knocked out my power for 5+ days and I was offline. NO allowance made for that natural disaster by my manager, who was comfortable ruling her little kingdom from her basement in Colorado Springs!??? So the moral of #6 is: you cannot really trust what you're being told; not by the recruiters, not by your trainers and most certainly not by the managers (-who totally speak with forked tongue). #7. Guilt & Shame; I call this 'guilt' because I remember having to plaster a fake smile onto my face every time I walked into the Tampa Commerce Park Building and how depressed & guilty I felt about it. I use 'shame' because, at the onset I had the highest faith in the 'Mission' USAA claims to espouse: serving those (-Military & families) who've served for us! But after spending time on the inside, and seeing the magnitude to which those Members are being dis-served...I personally cancelled my fathers (U.S.N.) USAA home ins. policy here in FL. -Went with another carrier and saved him over $900.00/yr!