customer service representative

actuary

insurance agent

adjuster

software engineer

USAA

I am a new hire at USAA and wanted to add my two cents. I worked a prior career in another profession and did employee advocacy for years.  I recently retired and got a job with USAA with the goal of working a few years more. I have no insurance experience but wanted to work here and am eager to learn new things. 

AZ is not known for being en employee friendly state so many reviews on here are from people who have no experience working anywhere else. They would run back with their tail between their legs if they only knew. 

 USAA is a very employee friendly company with amazing benefits. 

Pros- 
The facility is gorgeous!  Spa, Gym, TV Rooms, Relaxation Room, Energy Room, break rooms, nice views!  Beautiful Restaurants with not bad food, food discounts for healthy choices, and a Starbucks.  

Training- no experience, no problem. They pay you to pass your licensing test three times and you get 15 college credits while you are paid trained to work. Amazing quit frankly. If you are young it is worth it to work here just for the college benefits. 

Benefits- amazing- 10K for college, all benefits included and are good. 401 is one of the best in America. Most youngsters do not think about a 401K and I am saying, you should.

Discounts, promotions, and fast track to management if that is your thing. I am treated well here. I have no desire to promote but you can faster than other companies. They are loyal to hard workers.

Safe- it is like working on a base. Security is very tight here. 

Customers- our military. What an honor to serve them. 

Time off- 32 days. volunteer days and charity days. This company is very community involved and oriented. It is what drew me here .
 
Yearly and holiday bonus- not guaranteed but they are a very solvent and successful company and have given them yearly for decades. 

USAA membership -that in itself is a gold sought after thing.  Even after you quit you keep a lower level membership. 

Cons- not many, but to be fair I can share a few things I noticed since I started. 

Salary- ( But it is AZ) The salary is not the best, not the worse in AZ. 37K is more than starting teacher salary in our state. Not bad for a young person right out of school. On the plus side you can promote much faster than other places. 

Shifts- You might be stick on a not so great shift fo a little while. The price you pay as a newbie but hopefully you can bid out after 6 months to a year for a more desired shift. With that said, some folks like shift work and they do pay a shift differential. 

Application process, very, very thorough. It takes a long time to get hired and they are very picky. Use drugs? Do not bother applying. That is a pro for me in all areas of their recruitment and hiring. They keep you informed  every step of the way. It is just a lengthy process. I could do it but I would think many others could not wait 4 months to get a job. Just a heads up prepare for at least a 3-4 month hiring process. It is not a fast thing. Start applying now. 

People in training-- Some of the people on my team have issues. Maybe it is a mind set of private corporations versus Public Agencies and I am not used to it. Some of my team members are mean, Tattle Tales, disrespectful, and very needy. When the teacher says put the phone away put the phone away. It can be distracting and unnerving to work with immature, negative people who complain and yell they do not get it but are personal texting while the teacher is teaching. SMDH!!!!! Listen to the lecture people! To be honest, I do not like most people on my team. However, with that said, I have met some amazing, great folks here. I just wish they were on my team. I am hoping for less contact with these naysayers once I get my desk. I just want to serve our members to the best of my ability.

Investment/banking/technology changes- USAA is going through some corporate changes right now so that can be unsettling to people that have been here a while or do not like change. But this is probably true of all financial companies.  

The job itself- it is phone work. I wish I liked it better. I am a, "face to face", non "Sit At A Desk" kinda gal. I am hoping to get another position in the company after my year that fits me a tad better. I hope I can find one because I love the mission. I want to stay here for at least five years.

Was with the company 6 years and have watched it decline tremendously. They care more about emotional intelligence  than talent, efficiency and competency. Those who are gifted in making the managers and directors laugh have more opportunities than those who exceed their metrics each month and are top performers. The managers selected for their positions have gotten them based off who they know vs what they know and it's evident in how they lead. They aren't licensed so they cannot help members during escalations, they claim they cannot respond to questions because they manage 15 people each day (meanwhile IPs handle 100s of members and questions all day everyday) yet somehow they find the time to tell us about their families, vacations and personal life all day via email and slack (things no one wants to know nor cares about). System issues are constant and the applications in place aren't suited for daily tasks to properly serve the member. I spent most of my days contacting IT and setting up follow-ups for the members because my quotes could not be completed or screens would freeze. Calls drop constantly. Members are hung up on by our phone systems and the automated system misroutes members. USAA's website is confusing and not user-friendly. Our billing system is also a mess and hard to understand--not only for the members but the IPs. When confronting leadership about the constant system issues and work tools not working regularly, they make an excuse and say "it's gravitational and only pulls you down if you let it." If our systems and tools don't work, how can you expect me to perform well and go above and beyond for the member?. It's extremely embarrassing to tell a member: " I apologize, I am experiencing system issues and cannot complete your request, I will have to escalate this to IT and give you a call back." It's also embarrassing when a member asks to speak to a manager and I am required to tell them: " My manager cannot help you because she isn't licensed and can only write down your complaint, do you still want to speak to her?" Each time it makes the member more frustrated. I have submitted feedback from 2017-2023 about system issues and nothing has been done. The issues have gotten worse. It's so bad, it motivated me to find a job elsewhere and swear off insurance and call centers. On top of that, teams spend 2 hours off the phone socializing and talking in team meetings about what they would do on a deserted island or what their last meal would be when we could be spending that time training and reviewing important information that would increase our job knowledge and assist us on the phones. Insurance is complicated and requires a lot of research for most calls due to the state requirements , and contracts. It's impossible to memorize. Spending 2 hours in a team meeting socializing with people you don't know or care to know feels like a waste of time. USAA has also reduced their training to self-taught modules instead of giving us weeks to learn hard skills. They burden IPs with more skills and roles without increasing their wages. I was also shocked by how they treated unvaccinated employees during the vaccine mandates. Vaccinated employees got away with saying horrid things about the unvaccinated. Things that weren't true. The comments were very unkind, hateful, not inclusive and unprofessional. USAA spent a lot of time censoring feedback from the unvaccinated who expressed their concerns about taking a drug that could potentially harm them or felt as if they didn't have enough information about it to make an informed decision but kept the mean comments of the vaccinated up. Overall, I am disgusted with USAA as a company. They just announced a significant rate increase nationwide during a time of financial hardship for their members and still expect metrics to be met. They have money for cringe-worthy commercials, and will pay for women to travel and abort their children, but no funds to increase wages or fix their dying systems. They manage their money poorly and ignore important feedback and warnings from employees working behind the scenes. It's not surprising they were fined. 

The typical work day depends on the unit you support.  If you are in a customer facing role in the bank side, you will typically take 30 to 40 calls per day and expected to maintain around 90% adherence.  These calls will inevitably  back to back when staffing wildly underestimates call volumes as is typical.  As a result you will inevitably go to your breaks and lunches later than scheduled, which will impact your numbers. 
I learned many things about the formulation and enforcement of compliance laws and regulations as USAA is constantly in violation of both. This is in part because they grew exponentially when the decision was made to include non-officers as eligible members. However since that decision has been made, they have had more than a decade to get on the right track. They have spend time and money supporting a culture of an aptitude amongst the lower ranking employees and lack effective change management to mitigate the compliance changes that were faced as a result of their growth.  Further, for a company that has been in operation for over 100 years and is a multi-billion dollar organization, they use some of the worst technology I have ever encountered in my entire adult working life.  There's no excuse for a company that prides itself on technology to have a 6% shrinkage rate based off of that technology failing consistently for the same reasons over and over again. It's an embarrassment.  It is as though they are constantly playing catch up on things that should have been at the forefront of the changes they were making.  
 The most difficult  part of your role becomes on a daily basis being expected to work harder to accommodate the shortcomings executive leadership.  When you are working with the members on the phone, it comes down to you to explain to them why something happened that shouldn't have, when in all honesty you have no explanation because it never makes sense and most frequently is the result of a lack of training or a fundamental breakdown of systems that should be better maintained.  

In the beginning of my tenure with the company and for the first several years, I felt as though it would be the company I ultimately retired from. After 7 years of working with them, what started as mild oversights leading to miscommunications ultimately became outright deceptive behavior and unethical treatment of the employees.  On multiple occasions I was misled. I was mislead regarding the tuition assistance program which wound up costing me several thousand dollars that was garnished from my paycheck. I was misled regarding promoting to a new businesses unit where I was required to take on twice the load of other employees with my title and maintain the same level of pay without increased opportunity for promotion.   As a final torment, I was overlooked for a promotion multiple times.  Not because I lacked sufficient merrit or education or even experience, but because my race and gender did not fit the requirements for their diversity and inclusion numbers. 
In the last 2 years I worked with USAA the only part of the job I actually enjoyed was being around my compatriots who my head become friends with over the course of my tenure. Every day there was a new insult to injury being added from being effectively demoted in order to advance my career, to being downright lied to regarding personal branding. It was a nightmare of a job to maintain that burns out employees faster than any job I've ever had and once those employees are burned out and need to go on medical leave because they're so burnt out, they look for an excuse to get rid of them and turn around and complain about the attrition and shrinkage. Their solution to which is to tighten the adherence metrics on everybody else. Extremely toxic, but then aren't all call centers?

I am a disabled war veteran, and I worked for Usaa for over 12 years.
When I first started there, I loved my job, and what I did for the customer.  It was more of a customer service job.  Back then Usaa cared more about the "customer", back in 1997-98.  As time went on, and after Y2K and other significant events transpired, Usaa had to take a hard look at their finances because they weren't really taking good care of them, but suddenly they had to, because of world events, so then Usaa totally changed.  They became more like other companies, & then everything just became about money, money, money, & numbers, numbers, numbers.  They stopped caring about their customers, (the members), and their employees, and now they are just like every other corporation.  Over time, my job just turned into a sales job, and I was trained to be this "annoying" sales person, who was constantly shoving 20 products down a member's throat every time they called in, whether they liked it or not.  And believe me, the members cannot stand it.
Most people I talk to nowadays can't stand Usaa.  They think very little of Usaa.  They do not think highly of Usaa, like they once did.
As time went on, I noticed that the "higher ups" made it harder & harder for the regular employees to get approved for the annual bonuses too, as if to purposely do this, so that the men at the top, making the most money could get even bigger bonuses.
During the 12 years I worked there, I was moved 15 times, and had 15 different managers.  I always did my best, and I loved my job.  The best part of my job was the customers/members, and helping them.  But I have to say, out of those 15 managers I had, I got one of those managers 3 times, and for whatever reason, she decided she did not like me. She was determined to try to get me fired, no matter what it took.  So, she would just make things up, and write me up for anything.  She would lie on formal documentation, and say that I made a fist and threatened her, when I could not even lift my hand because I was recently in a car accident, and had the MRI's to prove it, etc.  Yet, even when I tried to get help from upper management, and the Vice President over policy service, etc., no one helped me.
So, I am here to tell you; Usaa claims to be "pro" veteran, and "pro" military, etc., but they are not.  They don't care about us.  All they care about is "MONEY"!!!  And I am proof of it!  I was harassed by a manager over, and over again, for no reason, and nobody helped me.  I took it all the way up the chain of command, and no one helped me.  I was a disabled war veteran being harassed, and no one in upper management, or any of the executive managers would help me, yet, they claim to be "pro" military, and claim to hire "military, etc., yet they do not care how we are treated, while we are employed there.
Just so you know, most of their "upper" echelon, are not prior military, and are not veterans, or associated to the military at all.
So, I am here to tell you, Usaa treats military and veterans terrible!
I am living proof of it!  And I am a female veteran also!

A typical day at USAA, through Millennium Group, starts with the unsettling realization that no matter how hard you work or how dedicated you are, your efforts will never be enough if you’re not part of the inner circle. Despite this, I consistently maintained a high level of productivity, addressing issues swiftly and effectively—actions that were acknowledged and praised by the client. However, that recognition meant little in an environment where favoritism and office politics dictate your future.

What I Believe I Learned: I learned that professionalism and a strong work ethic can be completely undermined by a toxic workplace culture that prioritizes cliques over competence. This experience has taught me that no amount of dedication can protect you from the arbitrary and retaliatory decisions of management if you dare to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

Management: The management at both USAA and Millennium Group is a glaring example of everything wrong with corporate leadership. My unjust dismissal following a simple request for a reference check was nothing short of retaliatory. Leadership's inability to provide clear reasons for my termination, coupled with dismissive and inconsistent responses, highlighted a complete lack of transparency and integrity. It seems management is more concerned with maintaining their control and power dynamics than with fostering a fair and supportive work environment.

Workplace Culture: The workplace culture is toxic, dominated by favoritism, cliques, and a pervasive sense of insecurity. If you’re not in with the right group, you’re constantly at risk of being sidelined or, worse, terminated without cause. This culture stifles true collaboration and innovation, creating an environment where backstabbing is rewarded and genuine effort goes unnoticed unless it aligns with the agenda of those in power.

The Hardest Part of the Job: The hardest part of the job was navigating the treacherous waters of office politics while trying to do my job to the best of my ability. It was challenging to remain motivated and focused when it became increasingly clear that my efforts were irrelevant in the grand scheme of things if I wasn’t favored by the right people. The constant fear of unwarranted retribution created an unbearable work environment.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job: The only redeeming aspect of this job was the opportunity to prove my skills and work ethic, which were recognized and appreciated by USAA, the client. However, even that satisfaction was tainted by the knowledge that it ultimately didn’t matter when management decided I wasn’t part of their clique.



USAA is a good company overall in terms of its mission, community engagement, and the benefits they provide their employees.  The office buildings and onsite amenities, especially at the home office in San Antonio, are top notch.
    
That being said, a lot of these 5 star ratings must be from individuals that are either brand new to USAA and have recently drank the Kool-Aid, or are not on the phone and possibly in management.  Your overall job satisfaction really depends on what you do there.  I’ll give it 3 stars to show some balance because your experience differs greatly from member contact to non-member contact, and management.  First off, USAA is just like anywhere else.  It’s not so much what you know but who you know.  A degree may help in some cases, but there were plenty of individuals in leadership positions without one.  I also saw a lot nepotism over the years.  Managers, directors, and even higher level executive management often hired their friends or colleagues from previous jobs and insulated themselves.  A lot of the time it just comes down to who the hiring manager wants and the interviews were just a formality.  That’s nothing unique to USAA.  

As for being a member contact employee, I would say it’s not as good as it used to be.  It’s more about metrics as opposed to actually helping the member.  Management will tell you otherwise, but the reality is if you want to be promoted and get ahead you better be focusing on selling and referring other products and services.  Knowing your job inside and out and helping the member is secondary.  Don’t get me wrong, expanding member relationships is very important to any company if they want to stay in business and grow.  However, the offers at USAA were often repetitive or unnecessary and only cost USAA in the long run with worthless referrals to other departments and maintenance costs for accounts members never used.  Also, be advised that there are layers upon layers of management and never enough member contact employees so it can take some time to move up and or out of the call center especially if you are not in the home office in San Antonio, TX.       

As for non-member contact and management positions you will have much more freedom and by far less stress than you will get from working in the call center.  I know this can vary to some degree depending on what you do and who your boss is, but from my experience the call center was by far more stressful and scrutinized.  

USAA is a good company overall and probably one of the better call centers out there.  It has its politics and favoritism just like anywhere else.  If you want to get ahead just play the game and sell and refer products.  If not, just suck it up and take advantage of their benefits until you are ready to move on.

When I first started the training was amazing and classroom setting. Great for team bonding and culture. For 6 weeks you’re with the same group of people and luckily in our dept we all had the same team for about a year. Once the job starts though, its still call center life. Repetitive and dreadful! Banking is rough over the phone, members are really rude and entitled. I never worked in a call center before so personally i quickly began to hate it after like 3 months of phones. I worked a mid shift and thought I’d be happier with a new schedule, but nope. They do offer shift bids so you get an opportunity to change your schedule, but it’s not guaranteed it’s a systematic pick! Most of us got it though it’s done maybe 2-3 times a year. the only reason I’m still here is because we can work from home due to Covid, and opportunity to permanently do so, but trust me it doesn’t change the nature of the job!! Management is there for you and supportive but i think because they are being watched and monitored often too.. so, at the end of the day if you have little ones it’s still corporate life and doctors notes won’t save you if you have a lot of occurences. However calls aren’t rushed you can take your time. if you can’t disclipine yourself you may struggle. The director literally told us the best way to move up and out of the phones is to know everyone above you, usual networking but that shows you how much it’s really about who you know. A lot of us from the team i was on quit after a year. If you’re needing a job this company will take care of you but it is not something i could do forever, and it seems impossible to get off the phones to back office or anything ..unless you wait around long enough! They usually give a Christmas bonus and then performance bonus in feb.. after covid not sure how that will work since they spent so much in other things but that’s probably the only good thing. The performances bonus is fairly large compared to any I’ve seen! Insurance could be better. you have to contribute to HSA plan for the cheaper insurance and if you don’t you’ll be paying more when you visit. If you get the other plan to pay you get a health credit for visits but premium is more pricey of course. On site there were a lot of cool perks but realistically a phone rep doesn’t have time to utilize all that with our short breaks. I’m sure there is worse out there call center wise, but I have never felt so unhappy at a job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The benefits, particularly the 401(k) and PTO, were the most positive aspects of working at the company. Unfortunately, the overall work environment and management practices negatively impacted employee morale and well-being, which ultimately outweighed the positives.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working at the company was the extreme level of micromanagement and the constant pressure surrounding performance metrics. Employees were frequently written up for missing metrics, with promises of additional support that often failed to materialize or appeared only briefly. This created a cycle of pressure without meaningful assistance.
There also appeared to be favoritism within management. Some employees consistently posted strong metrics despite frequently relying on others for help with basic tasks, while those without proximity or favor were held to much higher scrutiny. When concerns were raised, including unequal workloads and treatment, HR offered little support once issues escalated.
At one point, despite improving my metrics, I began receiving a significantly higher volume of claims—nearly double that of other team members. Even a temporary manager questioned the workload imbalance, noting it was unusually high. The explanation given was that it was “algorithm-driven,” though the impact on workload and stress was substantial.
Over time, it felt as though employees who were no longer wanted were slowly pushed out rather than supported. I witnessed long-tenured employees experiencing extreme stress as part of this process. The overall environment was mentally and emotionally exhausting, and I would not choose to work there again.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment often felt misaligned with the company’s stated values. While leadership emphasized support and fairness, day-to-day practices frequently reflected the opposite, creating frustration and distrust among employees.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day involved managing a high volume of claims under constant metric monitoring. The focus was heavily on numbers rather than quality or sustainability, with frequent check-ins, limited flexibility, and ongoing pressure to meet shifting expectations. Support was often promised but inconsistently delivered, which added to daily stress.

The title is pretty much the best thing I can say about it. If you start out a "process-manager" instead of a "people-manager" you're bound to have a less crazy-making experience, but most of those positions and departments are located in San Antonio. 

Promotion and mobility here are not based on merit. They can't measure merit because, roughly every quarter, they change the way they measure and evaluate performance. Therefore promotions are essentially based on an interview process wherein the applicant sells themselves in the correct format.

This is a place that, in all earnest, encourages its employees to "drink the kool-aid," which I find to be a pretty harrowing reference to an event that resulted in the deaths of almost 1000 people. They continue to wave this banner even after that fact has been brought to their attention. 

I moved through a member-contact call center position, to a "supervisor" position, to management in the course of 2 years, which is not common. I think I managed to avoid a large amount of brainwashing by moving so quickly and that's why I couldn't make a career out of this place. Getting to management is "the dream" for most call center employees, and once there I certainly learned a lot. You have autonomy and are tied to a desk less. 

However, you see how the sausage is made and really earn the true depths of how broken the system is in this company. "Executive" management is so out of touch it is pretty painful to have to work with them. The GENUINE solution to every issue is "well here's the work-around," and if you try to speak up about aspects of the culture, system, approach, and philosophy that could benefit from change, don't expect anyone to maintain respect for you. I legitimately got in trouble for, among other things, "Having and being open to sharing your opinion." If this doesn't scream toxic culture, I don't know what does. 

If you enjoy thinking for yourself, this is not the place for you. That's not a cliche, it's the honest truth. This is probably a great place to work for someone who only cares about their benefits and wants to punch in, cash a check, and punch out. It's an awesome job for someone young who wants awesome benefits without having to work hard (it's not a very demanding call-center job, as call-center jobs go).  Education assistance is unbeatable, 8% 401K match is phenomenal, but most employees can't afford to contribute that much. Their health insurance is expensive but good. The facility is flashy and comfortable. At the end of the day, though, it's a call center with a bottom line and a broken culture.

I started at USAA with full confidence in the company’s ability to work for their employees, not the other way around. I was told USAA was all about family, all about taking care of their employees, all about paying more than a living wage. Boy was that a lie. It started off GREAT. Training was good, if a bit (or a lot) lacking, and i was a fully licensed P&C agent in three months (though that ended up taking nine months due to covid. USAA wasn’t at fault for that and made remote working easily accessible to their employees). But once i actually got my license, USAA stopped being such a “great” company. My manager was constantly berating me and telling me what i did wrong, despite the fact that i was meeting AND exceeding my metrics. I was constantly told i needed to shove sales as much as I possibly could. I expected a culture of caring, inclusivity, and good work-life balance because that’s what i’d heard USAA was all about. Instead i got a horrible schedule that i couldn’t change even with a requirement from my doctor saying i needed a specific two days off in a row for medical reasons, a leadership team that didn’t care that i was struggling and was entirely unwilling to help me do better at my job, and a pay that was laughably low for what i was now and already had been qualified for. The benefits that USAA totes as one of their biggest high points as an employer get taken away if you don’t meet your metrics or if your manager feels you aren’t performing well enough. You’re locked into your position for a year or more with no advancement opportunities even if you far exceed normal job performance requirements. The executives and directors, even the managers, at USAA consistently get exorbitant bonuses and salaries while the front line employees get paid bare bones with no adjustment for cost of living in the area and no ability to even attempt negotiating salary when you get offered an initial position. The benefits are great at USAA, i will say that. But the pay, leadership, and overall failure of the executives to uphold company values and standards has made me never want to work for them again. At least, not in the P&C department. I’ve heard that other departments are much better, but without seeing it for myself I have a hard time believing that. 

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