WOW! I have been to about 20 interviews over the last 3 weeks, and these people are the least professional of anyone I have ever had an interview with. Let me be clear, there are obviously people who find success with this firm, because their parent company has huge revenue and good profit compared to other insurance firms. What I am saying here is that the people I have dealt with are extremely unprofessional.
First of all, the first person I spoke with was a sort of telemarketer; obviously reading off of a pretty poorly written script. She said she had just pulled my resume of of the internet, and was traveling between the Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky offices. She then asked me to meet her the next day, and to bring another copy of my resume with me.
Because I research every firm I interview for before meeting with them, my next step was to research American Income Life. I found out a great deal about the parent company, Torchmark Corp., and that they were not a "scam" like most of the links related to American Income Life claim they are. However, I also found that there is no Louisville office and no Lexington office (according to their own company Website). More than the obvious lies I had already been told by their telemarketer/recruiter, almost every bit of information I was able to find about American Income Life led me to believe they were dishonest at the very least. For one thing, almost everyone defending them on the "scam" and "complaint" sites are either cut/pasting the same message to multiple sites or seem to have very little relevant information to defend against the attacks against the firm they claim to work for.
With all of that said, some of the people complaining are just not cut out for sales work of any kind and are expecting to be handed huge paychecks for nothing. I want to make it clear I am not one of those people. I know what sales and commission jobs are all about, and I fully realize that most, if not all, insurance sales jobs require you to invest a great deal of time and some money in order to become successful. I'm just talking about their level of professionalism and dishonesty here.
Despite the "shifty, " scripted call from the telemarketer/recruiter claiming to be some sort of manager wanting to meet with me, I decided that I should at least attend one interview because of the state of the current job market and to expand my opportunities. This led me to lose two and a half hours of my life I would never get back.
The "Lexington Office" was really a sort of "rent-an-office" where about 15 different companies were obviously renting offices and meeting rooms to conduct hasty operations and interviews. When I walked through the halls to check the place out (because I always show up early for interviews) every office had a little temporary name on each door and was obviously not an official office for a multi-billion dollar insurance firm. There was not even a sign in front of the building, excepting the one that said something along the lines of "office rooms for rent" or something along those lines.
For one thing, the woman I had spoken with, Amber, was nowhere to be seen when I arrived for my interview. Instead, a young man (he looked to be about 20 years old) led me to an elevator where his boss was waiting for us to enter the elevator. Niether he nor his "boss" had shaven that day. In fact it looked like the two of them were fresh out of high school and fresh from a camping trip. Sure, they has shirts and ties on, but for the love of God shave your face! After a 45 minute "interview" where this kid took me to a rented conference room about the size of my hallway closet and attempted to lie to me about a number of things regarding the success of the firm's sales agents, he finally told me it was a MLM where sales-team managers got a percentage of their sales rep's sales.
Once that was all over with, I was asked to stay for a "second interview" which turned out to be a sales pitch from a supposedly former NFL player who looked and acted like a leg-breaker for the mob. Not only did they ask me to fill out some information which most people would see as free marketing research instead of recruiting material, the 45 minute interview now turned into a two and a half hour ordeal, where I felt threatened, insulted, and wasn't sure of this thug and his underlings would even let me leave unless I told them what they demanded to hear. Let me explain.
For one thing, the huge 350lb thug conducting the presentation was the only one out of the five employees and managers attending who had shaven that day, and he had some sort of evil looking goatee and a nice pin-striped suit (making him look even more like a mobster). Once he had finished what I can only assume was his best sales pitch, he asked each of the five men being interviewed how many sales we could close out of 10 by using that pitch. The first guy said 70% or 7/10. The next guy and all the rest said 50% or 5/10. Yes I said 50% also, just trying to be polite and show some enthusiasm, because this huge brute was obviously getting mad at our answers. I can't think of any sales person in any industry who would actually have a 50% sales closing rate.
The guy then says, "well you have made our decision easy. What you have just told us is that you have no faith in our products and no ability to be sales representatives. Almost everyone says 10/10!" I asked him if he had a 100% closing rate and he answered in the negative. He was so mad about my question that he spent the rest of the presentation attempting to make me feel stupid by telling me how successful the salesmen in the room were and some other irrelevant information; basically trying to bully me into agreeing with him by showing his aggression toward me. Even when he told us his average sales people closed one out of three sales attempts (33% opposed to the 50% I had suggested), he still posed that information at me like I was some sort of idiot.
After the "meeting" or "second interview" or whatever these guys want to call it, I met with some of the guys on the parking lot. We all sort of stood there looking at each other for a moment before I suggested those guys were the least professional I had ever met (I could tell the other guys were scared to say anything). Everyone agreed, we had a few laughs, we all shook hands, and we wished each other luck in the job hunt. The yougest guy out of our group of five was litterally shaking when I shook his hand. I told him to apply to as many jobs as possibe, to attend as many interviews as he could, and to never let someone intimidate him into working for them. The kid smiled and we parted ways.
My suggestion to anyone looking for a job in this tough job market would be the same as I told that young man. Oh and by the way, steer clear of American Income Life. You don't want to be tied in with people like that. And for those of you who try to defend these questionable business practices, I suggest you kep your names to yourself. |
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