Fortune 5 Pan Shop - Software Engineer Optum Employee Review

1.0
Mar 2, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are a lot of things you can work on and learn, based on the team you're in. This is a rare lottery though, and limited for offshore developers.

Cons

These are only applicable if you are working from India - Work life balance is non existent. - Pay is abysmal. If you learn a bunch of new things in your personal time and punch multiple classes above your weight, you'll get some awards. The interesting thing is these awards are allocated out of your variable pay, so you are not being paid anything extra in a sense. - Experience before expertise. Doesn't matter how hard and smart you work. If you are not getting promoted based on your skills and expertise, please don't believe the B.S. your manager sells you. - Matrix management. You don't have a clear role and multiple managers for project and reporting put you in a crossfire. - Blame mentality. The onboarding is not good and no clear info is given when moving between projects and if something goes wrong expect the blame to be moved onto you. This again depends on the team and I haven't experienced it personally but too many of my colleagues and friends have. - Group mentality and glory hogs. You are expected to NOT work over hours if it benefits your team onshore. But if it's offshore, you are expected to work in your personal time. This is a turn off because I've been supported by my peers and managers from onshore. - A master of all trades. The expectation to learn and work on atleast 10-20 different technologies is laughable. Domain expertise is not respected unless you are a Java and SQL developer. Everything else is secondary and you won't be paid for it. If you hear the term FSE, RUN. - Last but not least, 3 MONTHS NOTICE! This makes sure you can't leave easily, the buyback clause is a joke and requires the approval of your director and well... good luck getting that approved.

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
Mar 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good culture and managers are very helpful, good work benefits

Cons

not much movement or increment

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some very talented people give so much of themselves to the company, the clients and their co-workers. I work with (and have worked with) some excellent, smart, supportive people.

Cons

Too many layoffs. Upper management is clueless about how the day to day work gets done, what it takes to make certain changes to processes, and how to treat employees. Some are great. Mostly, they just look at numbers. So many of us have been doing our jobs long enough to know what is needed for certain requests. But we don't get a voice. We just have to do it and suck it up. They are firing ('reduction in force') all of the seasoned staff and let the rest deal with the fall-out. So many teams are losing good people but those people are training their off-shore replacements before they are told about being cut. So how is that a reduction in force? It's just a reduction in payroll numbers. Everyone is on edge just waiting for the next axe to fall. And we have to try and learn or teach another role with less experienced people and more work. It's crazy. On milestone anniversaries, they send an email recognition but once the milestone gets to over 15 years, you are a target. Pay and benefits are fine by me. Raises are practically non-existent, even after layoffs and asking employees to take on more responsibility. that's messed up. They talk about work/life balance but that doesn't trickle down to the actual workers who are so stressed they fear for their jobs if they don't do the extra mile. Many of us are just hanging on instead of quitting so we can at least get some severance. Others are actively looking.

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