The People Made all the Difference. Well... and the PTO
Pros
- Generous PTO/holiday schedule - Decent benefits - Good 401k plan - Good teams (that I worked with anyway) - Flexible management I may have been very fortunate, but my direct supervisor(s) and team were great. Very reasonable and understanding with regard to work/life balance situations, easy to work with, and genuinely enjoyable to interact with. Upper management was supportive of continuing education opportunities as well. Depending on job grade, you can start for example with 24 PTO days, in addition to the 9 company holidays. Matching 401k up to 6%, no vesting period, and an additional 3% company contribution in place of the frozen pension from a few years ago. I also worked from home for the entirety o my tenure there, which was fantastic. The amount of time you save on getting ready in the morning and driving to/from work, and the work/life balance it allows is just about immeasurable.
Cons
- Rigid compensation structure - Difficult to move up - Below market pay In order to move up, you basically need someone above you to leave the company. This is understandable as AIG hadn't been doing very well in recent years. For reference, I think the combined ratio went from 1.24 to 1.01 or something in one of the recent financial reporting periods. Expense and loss ratios were also unhealthy for a while in the GI segment due to garbage underwriting, so it makes sense that they weren't eager to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars around in pay while unprofitable (unless of course you were hired to the ELT, which they hired plenty of over the last couple years). Definitely rubbed me the wrong way to see six-figure exec after six-figure exec hired, but they were pinching pennies with regard to their grunt workers, particularly those who has saved them tens of thousands of dollars year after year.
