Pros
Surrounded by very knowledgeable people who truly understand their work and what they do. Insurance is a lot more interesting than it sounds - especially when you are working with Underwriters who write risk on AeroSpace, Energy, big Construction (oh the list goes on...). Exciting growth in parts of the company. Loads of opportunities to travel and live in High Growth markets like China, Brazil, Columbia, etc. Swiss Re is really a Global Organization across many locations. Employees are treated well - good benefit packages and excellent compensation (usually higher than local benchmarks). In some areas, chance to work from home after being with the company for some time.
Cons
Consensus based company - need to build agreement with everyone before can make any changes. Highly complex in systems and processes. They are working on reducing complexity, but not quite clear on how to create simple usable processes and systems that allow for growth. Due to a tough Insurance market, they are slowly reducing benefits for employees - moving towards the average benefits range. No women on the board. No women on the Executive team. Gender diversity is not there as you move upwards in the ranks. Great at external branding - not quite the same at branding internally. You may always feel like you represent the company you came from. Work life balance depends on your location. If in Zurich - yes the number of vacation days is great - but when you are working - you are working a lot and hard!! You really really need that time off.
