Posted On: July 1, 2009, 11:05 am CDT

Posted By: Louisiana

Louisiana I once worked at State Farm in Louisiana for 18 months. I had a college degree with a high gpa. I was hired on as a claim expiditer (one position below a rep). The company hired me on making $23k a year, but promised to give me the first claim rep position that came available. Three rep positions came open within a year. I was allowed to try out for two of them. I got neither position. My coworkers were mostly great and knowledgeable, but they had been there for years. From what I could tell by talking to other coworkers, the company would have strung me along forever. So, I quit and took a job somewhere else making double the money. So far as "job security" goes. SF will be happy to work you to death, and makes a big deal out of "never having a massive period of layoffs" or something to that effect. However, they will give you options like "you can move to a different state and take a huge pay cut or quit". Those are the types of choices they give you. In other words, they strive to never lay anyone off, but they will give you options that let you stay with the company...but many times those options really suck and make employees prefer to quit, so SF avoids laying off (and therefore giving unemployment benefits). However, they are telling the "truth" when they claim to rarely lay anyone off. Also, promotions do seem completely related to who you know. SF will also do whatever they can to avoid giving you a raise. One manager actually pulled my phone records for the last six months to see if I can called my home phone from work. I hadn't, which stunned him. This was a total "suprise" during the review period, but would have been an excuse to not give me a raise otherwise. Mananagement was friendly, but in typical dilbert style, they always sat together and whispered among each other at lunch, rarely bothering to speak with regular employees or reps outside of the office. ...the office was well kept, and they company did try to give us perks in whatever fashion they could. (car wash service while you're at work, oil changes while you're at work, etc, but you had to pay for all those services). Overall, I'd say SF met my expectations for a bloated corporation who will eventually be eaten alive by smaller competition. Management would hand down a new way of doing things every few months, which might work well in some states, but would make work more difficult in other states (due to varying state laws on traffic and insurance regulations).

If you can get in good with the company (esp in management), making decent money, then it might not be so bad. If you're single and work on the CATastrophe team, there is some serious money to be made. If you're married and your spouse works on the CAT team with you, even better. However, most non-CAT team personel weren't overly happy with their jobs or chances for promotion.

I don't hate SF, but I would avoid trying to work for them again.