United Health Group

I'm afraid I have to agree with many on this subject; UHG is awful. They are so unprofessional, rude, cold, etc. I recently went to their job fair, and my "maximum" time there was supposed to be 45-60 minutes. I was there over 4 hours, being moved from room to room. (foot note - I am an educated middle-aged person, with a lot of professional experience.) Their "1st stage", a supposed "video" presentation was merely a "slide show" which the person just read, word for word, which I could do myself. Then they run you through various "registrations", "qualifications""applications" and tests, that they call "assessment interviews". Only to be called back another day for an actual interview. The interviewer was rude, COLD!, and disrespectful at best. They repeatedly wanted to know "WHY" I wanted a 'normal' day shift. Oh I don't know - dah - why wouldn't I want to get up before 4:00 a.m. each day to be in my desk by 6:00 am??? They also kept making notes when my age came up - hey, isn't that illegal?! In the end, "they would be calling me soon". Unfortunately, they didn't have their next training dates available yet (what? and you want to hire people?) nor did they have any idea of when they'd want people to start, OR which positions or shifts would be available. Huh? Hmmmm...
My interviewer admitted that I was 'more than qualified and able', and yet two days later, I got an email - oh yeah, no wasting paper and a stamp here -telling me how - of course - they were 'extremely impressed' with my qualifications,.. - yadda yadda - ..but, they think the position better fits someone else. Probably one of the 20ish year olds I saw there - poor,dumb kid. But,I was so relieved! I didn't have to turn it down!
I have worked for over 30 years, and this was the most unprofessional, chaotic mess I've ever had to go through. Welcome to the "cattle call" - I would be afraid of this company - be VERY afraid!

You need to read my posting entitled:

St. Louis, MO/Riverport Location Applicants- Testing and Interview Process

Sounds to me like you and I had a very similar experience with this company. I wasted three trips to their offices but in hindsights I am soooooo glad I was not offered a position. I would have really enjoyed declining it to be honest. It makes me sick every time I think about the entire application experience.

Thank God I can look at my resume anytime I question why thay did not offer me a position; I was far too intelligent, confident, articulate and polished to become one of their peons. I don't think they liked the "challenge" of an applicant that has been in the working world and would not just be a "yes man."

By no means does that email mean you didn't get the position Shadylady (or should I say, "a position"). They send that to everyone. Trust me, I have asked around the office. I received one exactly 1 day after my interview. Then 3-4 weeks after that I get a call with an offer from HR. My guess is that one of two things happens, either the person they initially hired quits right away or someone who has been there for awhile (and by awhile I mean less than 2 years). Because turnover is high at just about every level of this company.

S in OFallon. I have a feeling I know about your experience. After a huge application process there was a hiring freeze. This was after interviewing 50 people. The sad thing is that management wants to hire but has their hands tied during these hiring freezes. Also, there are so many jobs and people applying if you don't get a response don't take it personally. I want to move to another job and I don't get responses and I work for the company.

Thanks, S in OFallon - I'd like to think you are right, but I don't think so. They are still running their Job Fairs every week (and that's quite a while now)and they need to hire over 300 people here.
I've heard from a few other people who "overheard comments" from the hiring staff, that the people here "want too much satisfaction" out of their positions. That evidently, us folks here in the midwest have our "standards set too high". What?! How can we ever have our standards "too high"? As humans we spends 1/3 of our lives - (and HALF of our "awake" time)at our jobs - how can one's standards be too high?!!!!
I got the impression from all that I went through, that they are looking for "fresh" college or high school grads, who are willing to work outrageous schedules, for "less than adequate pay" and think they have it good, because they don't have enough experience to know that there is much better to be had out there. From what I've found, anyone like myself, who is OLDER, or MORE EDUCATED, or MORE EXPERIENCED, and KNOWS BETTER, does not get hired. They want "easy to manage" robots for their "cattle call" to the call center.
It doesn't surprise me now, to see that a company who said they only planned to run Job Fairs for a couple weeks, and hire over 300 people, are going on about their third month of Job Fairs and still haven't hired their quota. I've heard a lot of local "buzz" about all this, I think people here are just smarter than they expected, and we are "on to them".

I would love to hear anyone elses comments about this though - keep them coming.
Thanks,
ShadyLady in EC, WI

Well its pretty simple really, this is a large corporation which only cares about the bottom line. They want to hire subservient, passive people. This way they can make them into robots who are taught not to question any type of authority or think independently. Its seems to me that they have actually started to move away from hiring quality people (well educated, creative, experienced) because it is much harder to control these types of people (and you have to pay them more).

I do think you are onto something when you talk about the midwest expecting more out of their jobs. I grew up in the midwest and now that I have had a chance to live in other parts of the US; I can tell that there is some difference. People for the midwest tend to take a lot of pride in their jobs and usually like to feel as though their job contributes to the common good of the the community. Whereas in larger cities, most corporations have been able to force people to internalize these types of values. Look at a real life example involving this company: The buyout of John Deere Health. JDH was considered to be a very good health insurance company that payed out legitimate claims with little or no hesitation. People who worked there liked their jobs (for the most part) and felt as though they were working for an honest company. But when UHC bought them out, everything changed. Wages and bonuses were cut, working conditions soon suffered and the people who had worked there and watched the company grow were pretty much forced out.

Health Insurance companies are not benevolent entities. They are profit making machines which destroy anything that stands in their way. When it comes to any type of health care this type of behavior can get ugly( because its pathological). People need to understand that UHC makes their money by not paying out claims. They will try to find any loophole possible to not pay, even if you have religiously paid your premium

Thank you Robert - you have really hit the nail on the head! It's all-in-all a very sad state of affairs - because those who really suffer, are those who are obviously already suffering, or they wouldn't need health care.