I joined USAA as an intern few months back, hoping to build my career here. After hearing too many good thinks on the web. Unfortunately, the experience was disappointing enough that I decided to leave for another bank last week.
The biggest issue was the constant organizational changes. Teams and priorities kept shifting, making it difficult to focus on meaningful work or feel any sense of stability. On top of that, budget constraints seemed to impact every decision, resulting in limited resources and frequent compromises.
The work culture was heavily driven by micromanagement. Every story and task required excessive oversight from the product manager, leaving very little room for engineers to make decisions or take ownership. Instead of being trusted to deliver, it often felt like every small detail had to be monitored and approved.
The return-to-office policy made things even worse. Employees were expected to be in the office four days a week regardless of personal circumstances. It didn't matter if you had been on an overnight production call and barely slept—you were still expected to show up in the office the next morning. There was little flexibility or consideration for employee well-being. The work life balance is zero here. Its strange that USAA is still claiming themselves as best companies to work for and misled the future employees
To sum it up, the environment felt rigid, exhausting, and not conducive to learning or growth, especially for someone early in their career. I eventually decided to move on and accepted an opportunity at another bank that offers a healthier work environment, better trust in employees, and a much more sustainable work-life balance. Felt like a titanic to me and only course of action was to jump off before it sinks.