Optum/UnitedHealth Group Corporate Development - M&A analyst

Worked in this group a few years ago - will try to keep it constructive as possible. I have never worked in an IB shop, but people are correct on this post, in general. The department very much runs itself like an IB both culturally and in workload expectations, with CD-level pay. Pros and cons below:

Pros

1. Exposure to lots of M&A deals - While I worked at CD, I think I might have worked on 30-40 deals per year (with about 5-10 closing per year). These deals ranged in size from a few million to multi-billion acquisitions, so definitely a cool experience out of college.
2.  Field of Healthcare Services - If you're interested in that space (if you just do quick searches online over the last 2-3 years of start-up / growth companies in 'care delivery,' 'health insurance,' 'benefits management,' 'digital health,' 'complex health management'), you'll see pretty quickly there's tons of capital pouring into that space right now. I say all this because Optum / UHG is really a powerhouse name in HC services. What that means is this position, if you network correctly, could place you into some interesting start-up / growth companies or funds, likely more the former.
3. Other - I think like any IB job, you take a lot of shit on this job in terms of how quickly you have to execute on things. While it might be brutal at times, I think this job really helped me grow up, for better or worse, and make me mentally tougher.

Cons

1. Culture - The CD department is organized in a top-down manner and really the goal of many of the VPs / directors is not to stay in the group, but to move on to other opps in the organization itself (in CFO or other exec roles). As additional context, I would say that the CD team is often given very last-minute from execs to get projects / assignments done (very similar to at IB). Factoring all that together, it shouldn't be that surprising but analysts / associates were generally not treated very well when I was there and were often taken advantage of in terms of both their time and allegiances. As one might expect from such a large organization, this group has had a really bad tendency to be overly political in how it incentivizes / motivates its junior resources. I don't think there was ever a genuine moment where VPs / directors were looking out for the best interests of the junior people. As one VP once put it to me, "We want to squeeze the juice out of you until you're dry."
2. Job Opps - Although you can get some interesting opps out of this job (including myself, our class got into some interesting healthcare startups / growth companies), I want to set expectations. First, you will not get into a megafund / large MM fund out of this job. If those are your expectations, do not sign the employment letter. I have heard of situations where people have interviewed at places like Summit Partners, but the most likely finance jobs out of this are (i) working in a related CD / strategic finance role in another company / department at UHG, (ii) working at a regional fund (think Minneapolis regional), or (iii) working at an IB position (have seen some people go to Goldman, Barclays, etc.). Recruiters will also not be lining up to reach out to you as they would in a typical reputable IB / fund. You will need to do a lot of legwork on the recruiting front, so just be prepared so you're not getting caught flat-footed once you decide to leave.
3. Location - If you are not from Minneapolis or did not go to school in Minneapolis, I would encourage you to think again about this role. First, in my experience, the majority of people in Minneapolis (including in their 20s) are either a) from Minnesota / Wisconsin or b) went to one of the schools (U of M, Carleton, St. Olaf. St. John, etc). It's a very tight-knit community and there are not as many transplants. In my observations, the people who have especially excelled in this junior role hailed from local colleges like St. Olaf. There are not that many big M&A jobs in town and quite frankly, they're able to "take it" / sip the Kool Aid a little bit more. Second, Minneapolis is well, Minneapolis. It's not quite as vibrant of a scene as Chicago and it gets even colder during the winters (when I was there, it was often cold from October - May and in the peak months, you might even see temps drop to 20 below). 
4. Comp - I personally don't think comp should the most important thing to consider when you're right out of college, but I'm also writing this on a Wall Street forum so I'm likely in the minority. And yes, comp is in-line with a CD job without the same lifestyle benefits.