Bad Management of Resources, Stagnant Growth, Bad Hiring Process, Decline in Developers Quality - Software Engineer Optum Employee Review

1.0
18 Dec 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Freedom Work Life Balance Work From Home Option

Cons

Hiring Process - Hiring Contract to Hire doesn't mean we are hiring right folks. No talks about culture, hiring a good developer is fine, but you need to check if he matches the culture. Due to this negligence by Managers, no one takes ownership nor think to innovate things. Its like hiring robots that perform duties written on user story, no communication or collaboration. It used to be really good and lively. Now we lost it. We are hiring 3rd Grade developers in this process. Management - I see tons of good developers leaving and management looks like least bothered about it. At least have courtesy to check what you didn't do right, what you can do better to make other stay. Growth - absolutely null. Managers have their headset sticked to their heads and each of them over 2000 devs reporting. At a bare minimum, I expect to have 1:1 with my Manager and check about my performance and where I can grow, what I need to do better, etc. All I get is you are doing great, but at the end of the year, I end-up with no-promotion. if I'm doing so well, why I didn't get promotion, no one answers. Its definitely not based of performance. Expect to be stagnant at a specific role forever regardless of consistent performance. Bad Management of Resources - Hire a Java Dev contractor and ask him to do DBA work, Hire a UI developer and ask him to do DevOps, hire a DBA and ask him to write Java code, hire a Java dev and ask him to write UI code, hire a Dev and make him write automated tests without proper training. What are we trying to do.... No clarity, No target. We are hiring Junior Devs and expecting them to be take ownerships. If we want to hire an all-rounder, we need to strengthen the Hiring Process. Mind-set - Few teams are really doing well, while most of the other team’s mindset is so depressing, that they are not ready to share knowledge, siloed, business (PMs) are the worst. Too many ReOrgs and lay-offs just to showcase numbers that we are doing really well. Bad Quality of Products - Management prefers to acknowledge number of story points accepted than quality of the product. Its always numbers game. I worked of different products and every product is a failure, fragile and ready to be doomed. Managers and their own lalaland - Managers don't have up-right knowledge about their own products and teams, I see most of the managers don’t really understand business or involve with team to understand how they feel, what are we doing, how is team performing or try to bring in positive environment by improving things. Isn't it the duty of the manager to take care of the folks in the team and make sure if they are okay or give appreciation/feedback based on their performances? False promises - If you hire immigrants, its your responsibility to take care of their immigration. If you can’t handle it please don’t hire them. Projects - Good Projects always have budget cuts, worst projects with worst quality code lasts for over a decade. Pay - Below Par pay.

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5.0
5 June 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

Very employee focused company and good PTO.

Cons

Performance is mainly based on billable hours.

3.0
4 June 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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