Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

And one more point:

If you wanted to cast doubt upon an ex-SF employee's ability to find comparable work for comparable pay, there are so many ways you could do it without providing false information.

For example:

1) You could point out that technical roles at State Farm tend to be more limited in terms of scope than at most other employers, so SF employees may have trouble competing with others who have a more industry-standard skillet.

2) You could point out that those living in the general proximity of Bloomington (I don't really count myself among them) may have trouble competing because of all the bodies hitting the job market in the same area at the same time.

3) You could point out --for longtime SF employees in particular-- that all the knowledge they have accrued about doing things the "State Farm" way isn't going to translate to other companies, so they had better have kept their technical skills sharp or they will be less competitive.

4) You could have pointed out --again, especially for longtime employees-- that all those raises and promotions they accrued for being loyal to State Farm aren't going to impact their salary at another company. Another company will pay you ONLY for the practical knowledge and marketable experience you bring to the table. So if you're making 110K at the Farm mostly because you've worked there for 15 or 20 years, but your real-world marketable knowledge makes you an 85K per year employee, you may have to settle for the lower number. This is especially a problem for SF because people tend to sign on and never leave, and over the years there is a pattern of technical skills deteriorating.

All of those things are true.

But the salary for a java developer at State Farm is not out of line with other companies. That's just a fact. Data has already been provided in this thread.

And the data certainly speaks loud enough to drown out hyperbole.

As a follow up to my last post (immediately below) I want to reiterate that I am not located in Bloomington. I am located in a fairly large city within fairly close proximity to Bloomington. All I can tell you is that companies in the city where I work tend to PAY MORE than State Farm does.

Like I said, a few years back, I actually took a 10K per year PAY CUT to come back to State Farm because my job at the time was a sweat shop with no work-life balance.

The job postings available for my area on sites like Ineed show that nothing much has changed in that regard: the pay is still a bit higher at other companies here in my city than it is at State Farm.

To the person I was responding to: Are you actually a State Farm employee?

To the last poster: I have worked at other big companies in the same area where I will be applying for work in March. Salaries are actually higher at the other companies here locally. I have friends working at these companies. I have personally worked at some of these companies.

I actually took LESS money to come back to State Farm a few years back because the work life balance was better at the Farm.

So I don't know what data set you're looking at; I can only tell you it's wrong.

To the last three posters: keep feeding yourselves those lines when you are out looking for work at one of these so called other big companies.

I agree with the last two posts.

In my experience, State Farm tech jobs have slightly lower salaries, with slightly better benefits, than other comparable jobs in whatever region they are in. On average.

I agree when they say regional market.. Keep in mind, that State farm is not the only big company in the area.. ISU, U of I, ADM, Cat, Country Insurance, State of IL, Kraft, the list could go on.. In fact most of these companies pay more for less skilled workforce... IT salaries are for SF are actually below curve in perspective to what other IT shops are paying for the same skill sets. Pay is not directly correlated with where you reside, its about the things you bring to the table.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,18.htm

Oracle

Software Developer

Oracle

201 salaries

$125,225

per year

$70k $173k

Keane

Software Developer

Keane

192 salaries

$116,398

per year

$84k $176k

General Motors

Software Developer

General Motors

182 salaries

$66,620

per year

$55k $102k

BlackBerry

Software Developer

BlackBerry

174 salaries

See 226 salaries from all locations

$99,581

per year

$70k $143k

Multivision (Illinois)

Software Developer

Multivision (Illinois)

173 salaries

$73,357

per year

$63k $99k

IBM

Software Developer

IBM

161 salaries

$86,966

per year

In reply to the previous message: I don't work in Bloomington.

Every year, the company does an assessment (or at least they used to) for every regional area in which they employee people. This analysis includes cost of living, wages provided by other employers for similar jobs, etc. The statistics employed here are more advanced than just "what are other companies in medium size towns in Illinois paying for x role," but of course that's part of it.

I started out my career working at a remote office where I did Systems work. Not in Bloomingon, but in a top 20 city. Our job salaries were very much in line with others in the area -- and this was in a big city.

The payscale in Bloomington was pretty much the same, and the cost of living in Bloomington was actually higher than it was in my city.

So again, I can't speak to the management jobs. But the tech jobs were NOT over paid. When the office where I worked was closed, the tech people jumped to other local companies and almost everyone ended up making MORE money.

You are State Farm. You are the regional statistics... that is why they appear to match!

Well I can't speak for leadership positions since I was always technical. But the technical salaries were competitive with other tech jobs in the industry. Salaries were a little lower, benefits a little better -- and this was all based on regional statistics.

No, I made the grave mistake of accepting a role in Systems in A leadership role. Let me assure you that they were indeed overpaid for Central IL and in general their total lack of technical skills. You are not in Chicago, you are Central IL and the salaries should not be the same.

It's not the salaries at Corp South that were high -- they were competitive with the industry.

What was out-of-whack was (as another poster mentioned), State Farm never fired anyone. If you're lowest performing 5% stick around for 30 years and draw a pension, they are way too damned expensive, and you have to hire OTHER people to do what they aren't doing, doubling the expense.

If State Farm had simply canned the lowest performing 5 or 10 percent in Systems during a 1 year probationary period, we wouldn't be nearly as screwed up as we are now.

"Imagine the day where peeps in Bloomington aren't running to Systems for the highly overpriced, over glorified salaries they pay and instead revel in some sense of security that a business role may be perceived to have."

That's was always the MO of an operations employee. Start in underwriting or claims, migrate over to Corp south as a systems analyst and just coast out the rest of the career. After all, at the time SF never fired anyone. You could just live the Farm life... Attend endless meetings, build up the pension, eat out at the 450 restaurants, go to SF park, and sing kumbaya at the annual December speech just being interested only in if the 401 was going to get a match. It's no longer the Truman Show, it seems.

Unfortunately, bubble town's bubble is about to pop! It was so nice, for sooo long. But all good things must come to an end!

Imagine the day where peeps in Bloomington aren't running to Systems for the highly overpriced, over glorified salaries they pay and instead revel in some sense of security that a business role may be perceived to have.

I believe there are more cuts to come, but I don't know about the armed guard part. I would think if that were the case you would see it in the hubs as well

I heard a rumor that there is a 2nd wave of new "impacted employee's" coming in the next 3 weeks. I also heard that they have hired 20 armed security officers for Corp South.

I don't think too many people are aware of this site. I found it by accident searching for something else.

It is funny this forum is not more active. For a 95 year old company I would have thought more people would have an opinion.

Maybe life is good in bubble town?