Employment

Recommendation Report

Evaluation of Available Positions for an Accounting Graduate

Olivia Spencer
Employment Recommendation Report:
Evaluation of Available Positions
For
An Accounting Graduate

Prepared for English 320

By Olivia Spencer

English 320: Unit 2

October 11, 2010

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Table of Contents

List of Figures................................................................................................................................iii
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................v
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Company Research..........................................................................................................................2
Cargill...........................................................................................................................................2
Financial History......................................................................................................................2
Benefits and Salary...................................................................................................................4
Location/Community................................................................................................................5
Polaris...........................................................................................................................................6
Financial History......................................................................................................................6
Benefits and Salary...................................................................................................................7
Location/community................................................................................................................8
UnitedHealth Group.....................................................................................................................8
Financial History......................................................................................................................9
Benefits and Salary...................................................................................................................9
Location and Community.......................................................................................................10
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................11
Works Cited...................................................................................................................................13
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List of Figures
Image 1

Located on the Cargill Inc. Website URL: http//www.cargill.com/company/financial/fiveyear/index.jsp

Image 2

Polaris chart located on yahoo finance at URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=PII+Basic+Chart

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Executive Summary
This report details the information gathered from you as well as through research done on

each of the three companies that is offering you a position. The companies in which you are

offered a position, and by which I will focus my report on, include Cargill, Polaris, and

UnitedHealth Group. In my report you will find that each company will receive its own category

which will include company information. Under each category there will be sub categories that

are listed as such:

Company –

- Financial History

- Benefits and Salary

- Location/ Community

Through the research performed it was clear that working for UnitedHealth Group would

be the best decision for both you and your husband. The financial history of the company

showed that the company has had a steady financial record, even during the recession, and the

company will continue to grow throughout the years. The benefits and salary offered by

UnitedHealth Group were significantly greater when compared to the other companies. Also, the

location of this job is ideal for your situation. In terms of relocation, UnitedHealth Group offers

many locations in several different states, allowing for an easy transfer should you need to move.

I highly recommend that you take the position at UnitedHealth Group. By working for

UnitedHealth Group you are able to meet your desire to work for a financially stable company,

have more than a necessary amount of benefits, and pay, offered to you, as well as live in a

location that is a great community for starting a family.

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Introduction
After being offered three jobs, you approached me seeking council in regard to what

position would be best for you. Through the information gathered from both our meeting, and the

independent research done on each company, it has been formulated to focus on three main

subjects that you have shown to have greatest interest in. These include the financial history of

the company, the benefits and salary that each company offers, and the location/community

where the job is located.

At our meeting the first item of business was job location. Through a serious of questions

it was indicated that your husband’s job limits the area in which you may work. Because he is an

engineer, you must also be prepared to travel in order to accommodate his working conditions.

For this reason, it is vital that you work for a company that has many other locations so should

your husband be relocated, you may transfer to another branch of the company without any

complications.

Another priority that you had mentioned was of great importance to you was the salary

and benefits being offered. You had mentioned that these were high on your priority list because

your husband did not receive many benefits at his job. You also indicated that you were planning

on starting a family soon, thus, you wished to have benefits that covered your future family as

well.

Toward the end of our discussion you had made it clear that you did not wish to be

involved with a company that was not in good economic standing. You had indicated that the

company should be in good financial condition and was continuously growing.

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Because these three factors were the main points of discussion during our meeting, it was

imperative that I focus my report around these subjects.

Company Research
The three companies that I will be reporting on are the ones that have offered you a

position. These are Cargill, Polaris, and UnitedHealth Group. My research on each company

will be broken into three categories which are the companies Cargill, Polaris, and UnitedHealth

Group. From these main categories I have created subcategories that consist of the main

information that is being derived from each company which, as indicated in my introduction, is

the financial history of the company, the benefits and salary offered, and the location/community

where the company is located.

Cargill
Cargill is a company that is best known for its contributions in food, agriculture and risk

management products. According to the Cargill website, under the title of “Our Business: Five

major business segments,” Cargill organizes its business around five major segments,

“Agriculture Services, Food Ingredients and Applications, Origination and Processing, Risk

Management and Financial, and Industrial” (2010d). As a former of the horticulture club which

you were vice president of in Ukrain, you have an advantage in this position as you are

knowledgeable of what this company works with beyond the field of accounting.

Financial History
Cargill is a privately owned company. It has a reported net earnings of $2.6 billion on

sales and other revenues of $107.9 billion (Cargill Incorporated, 2010b). When I
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compared the fiscal earnings from 2008,2009, and 2010 it was apparent that growth was

occurring. In 2008 it was reported by Lisa Clemens in her Cargill financial report that

“Cargill earned $3.64 billion from continuing operations, a 55 percent increase from

$2.34 billion a year ago. The $310 million gain on the sale of discontinued operations in

the fourth quarter brought fiscal 2008 net earnings to $3.95 billion” (2008). In 2009

Clemens reported again that for the fiscal year of 2009 Cargill “earned $3.33 billion, a 16

percent decrease from a record $3.95 billion in the prior year” (2009). However, when

understanding the information gathered from this year, we must take into consideration

that there was an economic recession taking place and that the sales for this company still

remained fairly high compared to other companies. As of 2010, Clemens has reported

that for the full fiscal year, “Cargill earned $2.6 billion, a 22 percent decrease from $3.33

billion in the prior year… Cargill’s earnings rose 14 percent to $2.07 billion” (2010). As

we take a look at the graph located below we can see a five year comparison of Cargill’s

earnings and such from 2006 to 2010.

Dollars in 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

Millions
Sales & other $107,882 $115,059 $119,011 $88,266 $75,208
revenues

Net earnings 2,603 3,334 3,951 2,343 1,537

Net earnings, 2,603 3,334 3,951 2,343 1,727
excluding
special items1
Current 34,978 35,902 45,952 31,722 23,263
assets
Net property 25,869 27,003 29,394 26,747 24,074
& other assets

Total assets 60,847 62,905 74,312 58,469 47,337

Current 17,527 20,176 31,818 24,975 17,718
liabilities
Net worth 26,585 24,976 23,137 18,715 15,990
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As an accountant I am sure that you understand most of the information provided;

however, the more important pieces of information that we must focus on are the net

earnings and net worth. It is clear that the years 2009 and 2010 were difficult for the

company, but we can see that the company’s net worth has risen. Recent data has shown

a lack in growth; however, the conclusion that can be derived from the information

provided is that there is a strong chance that sales will raise as the economy continues to

recover from the recession. If you are seeking growth from every fiscal period, this

company has not met your expectations, however, if you are seeking a company that will

grow after a period of decline than this company is more than capable of doing so.

Benefits and Salary

At Cargill the benefits available for public knowledge is limited. The information

provided on the company website is what I must base the information off of. With that

Medical Disability
Dental Retirement benefits
Life

known, the benefits offered by Cargill vary with the position held at the company.

However, the benefits that are offered to all employees include:

(Cargill Incorporated, 2010a). On a blog website called the Glassdoor, a website which

allows employees of companies to review the company for which they work for, has

several bloggers that reported that the beginning salary was very good compared to most

other companies, however, there were a few bloggers that had mentioned that the hours

can sometimes become long during busy times (2010e). This, of course, goes against

your wish of working for a job that was flexible with hours.
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Location/Community

A requirement that you had said was very important was the availability of job locations,

and the community in which they are in. You had said that you wished to remain in the

northern region of the United States, more specifically in Minnesota or North Dakota.

The headquarters for Cargill is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is very

diverse when it comes to safety. The closer you get to the inner city, the more the crime

rate goes up. The job that you were offered is located in Big Lake, MN. Big Lake, MN

has a population of 9,618 people, and the median salary for the area is $59,388. The cost

of living index for this area is 92 (Neighborhood: Big Lake, 2010). Throughout this

report I will use the cost of living index to compare how expensive it is to live in the city

that each job offer is located in. In order to understand the numbers it is important to

remember that the national average cost of living index number is 100. If I were to report

a number such as 120, we would interpret that number as the city being 20% more

expensive to live in. In this case, Big Lake has the cost of living index number of 92, thus

Big Lake is 8% less expensive than the national average. The pupil to teacher ratio for

schools in this area is about twenty pupils for every one teacher. The amount spent on

each pupil is $4,102. This information is important to take into consideration as you are

planning on starting a family once you have graduated; Big Lake offers much potential

for providing a good education for your children (Neighborhood: Big Lake, 2010).

Polaris
Polaris is company that focuses solely on creating and selling items such as snowmobiles, ATVs

and rangers, all the way to motorcycles. This company has been around for 54 years. During this
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time the reputation of the company began to grow as the famous Polaris TX-L was used to win

several races in Minnesota and Canada ( Polaris Industries, 2010f). However, you had mentioned

earlier that you had little to no knowledge of snowmobiles, because of this I do not believe that

you will have as strong a liking to this profession as you would at Cargill where your hobbies

and past organizations helped you to understand and enjoy your environment.

Financial History

There was no information found on the company website. However, on yahoo finance

(2010m), analysts have estimated that there will be a growth in the company. The chart

below was found on the yahoo finance website. The information is based off of the

current data for October 10, 2010. By looking at the chart, it is apparent that company

growth is occurring, the question that is unable to be answered is if the growth will

continue. The chart provides the current stock activity that has been occurring between

November, 2009 and September, 2010. It is apparent that the Polaris stock ahs been

gradually growing in value; however, there are several periods where its stock has been

greatly decreased. Currently, when compared to its competitors, Polaris is the only

company that has shown a quarterly revenue growth of 24.4% as compared to its

competitors, in this industry, that still remains in the “teen” digits (Yahoo Inc., 2010m).
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Benefits and Salary

The list of benefits provided by the company is extensive. The benefits that you become

eligible for once you accept the position are:

 Paid Vacation  Sick/ Personal Leave

 Paid Holidays
 Vendor Relationship Discounts
 Product Purchase Program Discounts
 Employee stock purchase plan
 Profit sharing
 Stock awards
 Tuition Reimbursement
 Medical/ Dental Insurance
 Disability/ Life Insurance
 Flex Spending Plan
 Employee Assistance
Program
* (Polaris Industries. 2010g).
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This is a great list of benefits that the company offers its employees. While looking up

the average salary at Polaris, on careerbuilder.com, I found the average salary for

employees at Polaris was about $57,000. As a new employee right out of grad school I

would expect you would earn between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. (Polaris

Salaries,2010)

Location/community

The location of the position you were offered was in Medina, Minnesota. There are 2

other locations available in Minnesota, as well as a single location in Wisconsin, Iowa,

and South Dakota (Polaris Industries, 2010h). If you took this position you would be

limited in travel and you would have to choose to work in Minnesota. The crime rates in

Medina, according to the Medina, MN Profile, are much lower than Minnesota’s average

level of crime. In the past 8 years there has not been a case of murder. The city is

continuously growing and has been claimed to be a great place for raising a family

(2010).

UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group is a national healthcare company that offers an array of health services to

people. This company has been in business for 40 years. The kind of services that this company

provides is health benefits which include; united healthcare, ovations, americhoice as well as

health services such as; OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions.(UnitedHealth Group:

About, 2010i)
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Financial History

UnitedHealth Group has remained consistent and strong over the years, especially

through the recession. According to yahoofinance, in a direct competition comparison,

UnitedHealth Group has been doing very well compared to both competitors and the

Industry average. This year alone, the company has been experience a 7.40% revenue

growth each quarter; its competitors have experienced a loss (Yahoo Inc., 2010n). It is

the company with the most employees, 80,000 people, and it has had the highest amount

of net income with $4.29 billion. If you are wishing to work for a company with strong

growth, UnitedHealth group would be a good decision.

Benefits and Salary

The benefits that you would receive from UnitedHealth Group include:

 Medical Coverage  401k Savings Plan Offer

 Vision Coverage  Paid Time Off
 Dental Coverage  Paid Company Holidays
 Life  Tuition Reimbursement
 Spending Accounts  Adoption Service Plan
 Long and Short Term Disability  Volunteers Support
 Employee Stock Purchase Plan  International Coverage

According to careerbliss, an online salary guide for major companies, the average salary

for an accountant working at UnitedHealth Group is $102,000. It can be assumed that

your starting pay will range between $50,000 and $60,000 which is very high for this

field of work.
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Location and Community

The location of the position for which you have been accepted a job in is Minnesota. A

great benefit to working for this company is the several locations that are available for

you to transfer to should your husband be relocated. The states and areas where you

would be able to transfer to include:

 Alabama  Minnesota
 Arizona  Nebraska
 California  New Jersey
 Connecticut  New York
 Delaware  Ohio
 District of Columbia  Pennsylvania
 Florida  Rhode Island
 Georgia  South Carolina
 Illinois  Tennessee
 Indiana  Texas
 Iowa  Virginia
 Maryland  Washington D.C.
 Michigan  Wisconsin

*(UnitedHealth Group, 2010j)

As you can see, this is an extensive list of available locations for you to transfer to. Should you need to

relocate, you would have little to no problems. The area in which you are offered a job is in Minnetonka,

MN. Minnetonka, according to city-data, has an incredibly low crime rate compared to the rest of

Minnesota. It averages a crime index of about 147, where the average for Minnesota is 320.9. This would

be an excellent area to move to when raising a family (Minnetonka, MN, 2010). The cost of living index

is a bit higher in this area at 118, meaning the cost to live here is 18% higher than the national average. In

Minnetonka the pupil to teacher ratio is much lower compared to the other cities. In this location there are
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13 pupils for every teacher and the amount spent on each student is about $5,660 (Neighborhoods:

Minnetonka Profile, 2010).

Conclusion and Recommendations

After looking at all of the information provided, it is clear that the best choice for you

would be to work at UnitedHealth Group. UnitedHealth group meets and exceeds your

requirements that you seek in a job.

When comparing UnitedHealth Group to other companies, it exceeds them in the amount

of growth that has, and will, occur. The financial history of Cargill showed that Cargill had been

struggling the past two years with sales, and their potential for the future could not be foretold.

The same situation occurs with Polaris. During the recession, Polaris suffered greatly in sales.

Should an economic crisis reoccur, it can be assumed that Polaris will respond by cutting its

costs through materials and employees.

UnitedHealth Group also offers the most benefits and highest salary. All of the positions

offered similar coverage; however, what stood out the most of the benefits offered by United

Health Group was the international coverage. This would be an excellent advantage for you as

most of your family is located in Ukraine.

Another benefit to working for UnitedHealth Group is the several branches it offers in all

50 states. The specific job location in Minnetonka, MN would be a great location to start, and

raise, a family. The schooling in that area offers a great student/teacher ratio of thirteen to one,

and the possibility of having your children attend private school is available.
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By taking the position at UnitedHealth Group you are allowing yourself a great

opportunity to be involved with a well appraised company. If there are any questions or concerns

in regard to the report please contact me at (701) 231-8461. I wish you the best of luck in your

new career.
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Works Cited

Our History: Explore the Roots of Cargill.(2010). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from URL
http://www.cargill.com/company/history/index.jsp

Our Business: Five major business segments. (2010). Retrieved October 10,2010, from URL
http://www.cargill.com/company/businesses/index.jsp

Financial Information. (2010). Retrieved October 10,2010, from URL

http://www.cargill.com/company/financial/index.jsp

Clemens, L. (2008). Cargill reports fourth-quarter and fiscal 2008 earnings. Retrieved October
10,2010, from URL http://www.cargill.com/news-center/news-
releases/2008/NA3007599.jsp

Clemens, L. (2009). Cargill reports fourth-quarter and fiscal 2009 earnings. Retrieved October
10,2010 from URL http://www.cargill.com/news-center/news-
releases/2009/NA3018763.jsp

Our Benefits: The benefits of working at Cargill extend beyond pay. Retrieved October 10,2010
from URL http://www.cargill.com/careers/why-cargill/benefits/index.jsp

Cargill Fill Room Operator. (2010, August 11). Overworked [Web log comment]. Retrieved
from http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cargill-Reviews-E2739.htm (2010, October 10).
Review of Cargill.
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Cargill Anonymous. (2010, July 29). It’s alright here [Web log comment]. Retrieved from
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cargill-Reviews-E2739.htm (2010, October 10).
Review of Cargill.

Cargill Anonymous in Memphi,TN. (2010, June 12). Corn Milling Memphis,TN [Web log
comment]. Retrieved from http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cargill-Reviews-
E2739.htm (2010, October 10). Review of Cargill.

Cargill Middle Manager in Minneapolis, MN. (2010, July 24). Lots of autonomy [Web log
comment]. Retrieved from http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cargill-Reviews-
E2739.htm (2010, October 10). Review of Cargill.

Basic Chart. (2010) Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?

s=PII+Basic+Chart

Income Statement. Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?

s=PII+Income+Statement&annual

Competitors.(2010) Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?

s=PII+Competitors

Benefits. (2010) Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-

us/OurCompany/Careers/Pages/Benefits.aspx

Polaris Salaries (2010) Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL

http://www.careerbliss.com/salary/polaris-salaries-467869/

Medina, MN Profile (2008). Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL

http://www.idcide.com/citydata/mn/medina.htm
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UnitedHealth Group: About. (2010). Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/main/AboutUs.aspx

Competitors, (2010). Retrieved October 10,2010 from URL http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?

s=UNH+Competitors

UnitedHealth Group: benefits. (2010) retrieved October10, 2010 from URL

http://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/Why-Work-Here/Rewards-and-Benefits.aspx