Is AIL a scam? I don't agree with classifying this company as that, but I would never advocate their business model to anyone. Not even people that I wished ill-will towards.
Less than two months after finishing undergrad, I was contacted by AIL. Being naive and desperate for a job I agreed to interview with them. I remember filling out a questionnaire of various personal questions, but nothing intrusive though. However, I thought it was odd that they would want to know who "I looked up to the most" as I didn't feel that this would be helpful in the hiring process. Anyway, I then met with a very friendly girl (I emphasis GIRL, because she couldn't have been a year older than me). After a 5 minute talk I "passed" and was invited back to the 2nd interview.
I went to the 2nd interview (group interview) which had about 20 people. Each potential hiree introduced themselves and described their background. I was the only person there with a business-related background and only one other person had a sales background. That seemed a little strange to me...
The 2nd interview proceeded as was explained above. An informal individual attempted to give a formal presentation on how you'll be making $50k-$100k in your first year, just as long as you "play the averages". I believe they told us that 1/3 "appointments" results in a sale. Of course, this is a company-wide statistic which they track using information provided by agents themselves. So I don't believe that number at all.
Anyway, after the 2nd "interview" I somehow was invited back for a 3rd interview (even though I had only talked to one girl for 10 minutes).
(This is where things went from bad to worse and my stupidity shone its brightest!)
The 3rd interview was about 5 minutes. I met with the same girl as before, but now a manager was present. After the 5 mins, they had me leave to talk things over between each other. Then I came back in to talk to only the girl. She told me that the manager didn't believe I had what it would take to succeed but she knew I could do it and wanted to offer me a position (good cop/bad cop.... nice trick!). Elated.... I accepted the offer. Then, within 10 seconds of accepting, the girl proceeded to explain to me that I had to get to work! I had to sign-up for the licensing course and study and pass it within 3 weeks time. (For the jurisdiction that I was in, this suggested study time for this course was 6 months.) Needless to say, I studied my ass off and went to write the exam, of course I had to pay the $350 registration fee first.
At the exam there were 2 other "candidates". Both in their 50's. WE wrote the exam. I passed, each of them failed and were basically kicked out. So here I was, one of about 20 people who had made it through the licensing program. I should have been so proud.... but I was the biggest sucker of them all.
Now it was time to start "boot camp". Before I began this part of the process, I e-mailed the girl who hired me to thank her for her support and I was looking forward to working with her. Then I got an e-mail back from her explaining how she had decided to leave AIL for another position at a large utility company. In the e-mail she apologized to me (on more than one occasion). I didn't know why she was saying "sorry", but now I know why....
I started boot camp and was told I had to learn a script. This was the equivalent of a 30 minute presentation. Of course, I had to memorize it because nobody is going buy anything from you if you read it off of a sheet. I was told that this script was developed over 80 or so years of experience and they had used psychologists to ensure that we would evoke the appropriate emotional response from an audience (that definitely concerned me). So whatever, I learned the script in the 4 days they give you, got through boot camp and started my field training.
Field training was where I started to stop eating and began sleeping less and less.
The first part of field training was to set-up interviews for experienced agents with prospective clients. So I had to call them up and read my phone script and try to book and interview time. For the most part, it was pretty straightforward. However, in one call I made I was cussed out someone saying that I was trying to scam them and then in another instance the police were called because they too also believed I was trying to scam their retired father out of his CAW pension! I definitely started to feel like a total chicken-hawk. Remember, this all happened BEFORE I had even been to a home to meet a potential client.
So now we're going out to meet a client. All I was expected to do was sit there and observe the experienced agent. The one house we went to, the husband of a RN threatened to "sick his dogs on us" if we didn't leave, while another person stopped us halfway through the presentation and told us to get out before he called the police. Of course, the experienced agent played this all off as being "rare" and not representative of his job. (I guess I was just unlucky?!?!)
Now let me remind you, at this point I have been with the company about 1.5 months, paid for my licensing, the gasoline to drive to the office and then to clients homes (clients which could not be mine since I wasn't an "AIL Agent"), and my time (6 days a week, 3pm-11pm M-F, 8am-3pm Sat.) and I hadn't seen a dime!
So what kept me going with the company? I was in too deep and didn't want to accept failure, so I just kept pushing.
Finally I received my agent number and could officially sell. Of course, they wouldn't send me out on my own since I had never done this before, so on a saturday I was supposed to go out with my manager for some appointments. I was waiting for him at 7am at the office and the guy never showed up. I called him half a dozen times but he never picked up. So (nervous as hell) I left for my appointments. As I'm on my way tot he first one, he calls me up and explains to me that he was out late last night drinking. At this point I should have just quit, but I'd seen enough crap so far that a comment like that didn't phase me. So I went out, and actually sold some policies on my first day. That made me happy! Until I returned to the office that afternoon......
When I got back I saw one of the other new agents (a girl named Tanya) and she was in tears. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she was quitting because she felt like a total scum bag. Personally, I felt pretty seedy working for this company, but just thought I was too sensitive because everybody else seemed so content (and remember, the manager said I "didn't have what it would take"... another great trick!). I guess it was talking to her that made me realize that I was a moron and completely justified in my insecurities while working there.
Two weeks later I quit.
It's been three years since I began the interviewing process at AIL. In that time I returned to school to earn a master's degree in Economics and I'm now an economist. I'm making more money than AIL promised me in my first year and I love my job. I guess my point is that if it sounds to good to be true it usually is. And in the case of AIL, it was!
I realize this is a very lengthy posting, but I feel that I need to explain my individual story to anyone who is considering a position with this company. Maybe my situation was isolated, but I've only explained to you the tip of the iceberg in my experiences there. |
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871 days ago by Anne Ramos 
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