American Income Life Insurance review: misleading interview 15

wrong wrong wrong great company great money to be made

I am somebody that works for AIL in the human resources department actually and I just want to tell everybody else how wrong you are! The first thing everyone is told when they start working there is that you never lie or mislead a potential employee. I am sorry you feel you had a bad experience but, I am even more sorry that you ended up missing out on an opportunity that could've changed your life!

I as many of the people who have written in I was called for an interview after posting my resume on Career Builders I could hardly understand the person calling but I agreed to go to the interview. The first thing the initial interviewer asked was did I check out the company before I came to the interview I said I did not have time as I had been interviewing with other companies all week and the call only came two days before Then I was asked to stay for a presentation and there were 3 other people in the room One was a young man just out of college and a pharmacy tech and a girl with no sales experience at all I have been a REALTOR for a couple of years but with the slowinge real estate sales I decided to see what else was out there so I have been in legit sales I listened to their presentation They said they would look over our profiles and call us if they felt I was a FIT for their company. Keep in mind I live an hour away from thire office and they expect me to drive an hour to and from their office for TRAINING FREE I left their office and called my husband and told hime I did not think I was interested in their JOB It seemed to me it is a glorified Pyramid scam and after reading the comments in this website my instincts seem to be right Debbie

### american income, how dare those ### trick me. i had gotten a call while i was at work, they gave me info and i wrote it down, scheduled an interview after work, he said their interviewing hours were at 10am, he scheduled me for 4pm., i shouldve known. my beautiful Natalie had googled these jackoffs and told me that its a scam. i really need another job, im a temp right now, ill soon be broke. ### american income, they gave me false hope, ### america for making everything expensive, yea ### you too if your from ail, . get ###ed.

### jim and jamie, your job is a lie. you make money from ###ing people over, AIL only gives jobs to ###holes like you who lives to mislead people, karma's gunna come and ### yous in the butts.

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.

I have a quick question that I hope will get answered soon as I have an interview with AIL later this week, but do the job titles for the sales positions state "Enrollment Representative"? I am not looking to get into sales and the job posting did not mention sales at all. Also, the salary listed was no where near 6 figures, it is only in the low 30s. From the job posting, it sounds like it is more of a customer service call center position. So I was just trying to make sure that this was different from the sales agent jobs. If anyone knows, please let me know. Thanks!

In response to MBA4career

I read all of what you said and overall I find you a very smart individual. I like the fact that you made yourself very clear in a lot of the things that you were talking about which i've been reading many posts today, realized that most people who didn't want to work for AIL pretty much just added nonsense jargon with some swear words and more swearwords.

I really do not know where they were in a "rent-a-office" it could have been for the reason that the office was just opened or they have not found a location as of yet or for many other reasons that you or i do not know. But I personally would have never done any hiring without a real office. Which this is a legitimate reason to think it is sketchy.

But on the shaving or un shaven factor. I really think that is more of a personal decision for each individual. It's as if i were to say I think this woman is uneducated because she has long, blonde hair. That's all personal preference. The people you may have seen may LIKE their facial hair (or maybe they really did forget to shave). From another aspect I am now 24 I started with this company at 21 and facial hair and a suit actually helped me because if i am seeing people who are either 2 times my age or even more and they see a young guy in their 20's talking about insurance to them i have seen first hand where they show you no respect because "you are just as old as my son" or "my daughter is your age" . Which in your post you had stated just that, they were just Young men whether it be complimentary or uncomplimentary. Facial hair may give one a little older look that the person may be looking for that. As far as intimidation factor goes, I would assume that most 350 pound men in a suit seem intimidating, not because that's what they are going for. but because of their general size. It's the same reason why people are intimidated by black people in baggy clothes that may be walking in your direction. You are perceiving it to be just that, whether they are intentionally trying to be intimidating.

As far as myself, I do work for American Income and I am proud to be working for American Income the office that I am in is in Asheville NC (actually swannanoa) and I will state my full name. Michael Ellis, I am an MGA for the company and i can honestly say this job is not for everyone. If it were everyone would be doing it. But it's not, so if you are unsure of if you should go, I say you should go, find out for yourself if this position is for you. If not, then at least you made that decision and didn't potentially miss out on one because of what you read. Everyone has different tastes, wants and likes. And who know, you might like it.

This is in response to Debra Merritt (original poster)

If someone from AIL tells you they will call you and schedule you for the second interview AFTER you have had your first interview. I will guarantee you, you did not get the position and you will not be getting called back. So the response the person you gave was very correct, it was an opportunity for a job, but that opportunity had just passed you up in which the person who interviewed you decided for some reason you would not be a good candidate by what you said, what you did, or even simply by being late. Obviously, I do not know your personal qualifications or disqualifications but I know that it would have been for one of those reasons.

The reason why they bring so many people in is for many reasons, one of the main reasons is not everyone will be selected and odds are out of 10 people who come in for an interview maybe 7 will be brought back based off first impressions or resume and then out of those 7, 3 of them may not be qualified or even interested and then with the remaining 4 maybe 3 can make the financial and time commitment and out of those 3, maybe 2 will make it passed the licensing process for whatever reason it may be. Then maybe 1 will decide sales or insurance or even the working time is not for them and leave. that leaves 1. If it were an army of 1 that would be great but the fact of the matter is every job, career or any opportunity is a numbers game. That may sound harsh to give all the people who are coming in a number, but when you go in to interview for any other company, whether it be insurance or sales or even food industry or ANY industry it's all a numbers game. It could be a numbers game as in we need 10 servers and we will hire 15 because for whatever reason or we need 3 cooks or anything. That's business and unfortunately business takes bodies and bodies sometimes need to go through the metaphorical ringer.

Or what American Income could actually do is spend their time and resources findind, hiring, and training people who would actually be a good fit for this job. You know, just like how every other reputable insurance company operates.

Most insurance bring anyone aboard that wants to do insurance. They also want people who have had several years of experience in sales, any kind. Those people they bring on board, also sell to their families, friends, neighbors, aunts, uncles, parents, brothers, sisters, anyone in their social circle. Which, you can verify by asking almost anyone who sells for other companies.

Samantha B - I strongly doubt that you've done insurance, because the entire insurance industry has a high turn over rate. The only reason why American Income stands out from the rest of them, is because most of them deal with strictly cold calling, door to door sales, selling to families. And that turns most people away. Whatever a previous agents opinion on the company is, I guarantee they will say, that they didn't have to just door to door sales anyone [unless they specifically chose to] or HAD to sell to their family [not to be confused with WANTED] or even had to pay for leads, resources, office space, training, management opportunity. Most 'reputable insurance companies' operate under that mantra. So, yeah American Income brings in more agents, which in- turn agents quit [with the already high turn over rate] which makes it seem even worse.

Samantha B - I would strongly suggest doing a little bit more research on these subjects before you post a response to people. Trolling, is a brainless talent, which results in shooting many blanks.

I don't think that you can generalize the insurance industry as having a high turnover rate. You have to be more specific. For example, based on what? New agents persistency after 6 months, a year, 2 years, etc? We can debate said specifics until we are blue in the face, however, I worked at an agency (not ail) where new agent persistency was traked for 3 years. Meaning they took the number of people they hired in a given year and measured against how many hirees were still with the agency after 3 years. That percentage was hovered between 40-45%. In other words, 4 out of 10 agents were still with the same agency after 3 years. When you compare those figures to AIL's agent retention of 5% after 6 months, it is pretty clear that AIL does indeed have a VERY high turnover rate. It would be easy for you, MichaelAIl, to dismiss that statistic as the insurance industry's nature, but clearly AIL set's the bar for very poor agent retention.
40% of agents stay after 3 years at a NON-AIL agency and 95% leave within their first 6 months with AIL. Something not quite right wouldn't you agree?

Well how do I start? I used to work for Santa Rosa Office...
My friend recruited me into the company thinking he'll get the bonuses when I'll start making money. However, once I got hired and started to make money, my friend was fired and MGA Ryan Kendl, talked bunch of bad stuff and made fun of not only him during his meetings, but also laughed and joked about all the people that decided not to work for the company. Also, he teaches to fraudulently put the "right" wrong information on the apps so that more people would buy the insurance and ofcourse so that he would end up with more bonuses. He is a liar himself and teaches others to lie. When I wrote my biggest policy and roughly should have got paid $2, 000, he, Ryan Kendl, coded the policy to himself. (Basically stealing my money, not sure if there is any legal foundation to that one.) The leads are outdated and been seen couple times, lot of cold calling, , , When I brought the issue to him, Ryan Kendl, he acted like nothing happened and then "decided to let me go", ofcourse keeping the business I wrote. I am not the only one, hopefully people like him, Ryan Kendl, get their insurance licenses revoked and I'll do everything to make it happen. Guys, if you had same problem or been tricked, make sure you FILE A COMPLAINT WITH DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE and take it to the courts. Half of what they doing is completely fraudulent. He. Ryan Kendl, will willfully lie to new hires in order to just get his bonuses. Oh and I've tried to resolve the issue by contacting the company itself, so far nothing has been done...THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE JOB! NO LEGITIMATE JOB WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PAY FOR TRAINING!

You had to write about your "friend?" Sounds kinda fishy to me. You're probably some [censored] with another company posting crap about a A rated company. Ryan is a top producer and manager in the company. I think he knows what he's doing and does it the right way. Besides you can't recode business these days. It's all on electronic apps. It has the agents' name on it. Managers can't recode that. Heck, not even state general agents can.

Stop talking crap and get a life.

Listen, I stumbled upon this Blog and would like to share my opinion. As a Sales Consultant, Mentor, Trainer and Situation Coach, I understand where you guys are coming from who are complaining about what AIL, it is or what it is not, but the truth of the matter is that if your looking for a pay check most likely sales is not a career for you. Life has no guarantees and either does a career in sales. In any sales career you are as good as your last weeks total sales production and if you are afraid of working of any type of commission, you need to either go back to school and get a high education or go into a office job (J.O.B. =just over broke). Listen it is ok if you cannot make the cut, but please do not point the blame at a company that is still in business and your the one who is unemployed. Obliviously, they have found continued success in their industry. It is always easier to make an excuse and point at the other guy, over being accountable for a person own actions and admitting what your limitations are, or perhaps this was the experience in your life you needed to let you know what your particular level of dedication is, or what you are willing to do to get ahead. As, I told my son the other day, some times you have to do the things in life you might not enjoy, but it is good for you to gain the experience you need in order move forward and maybe ask others to do the same. Then I told him to eat his broccoli, because it was good for him. With that said, all of you guys and gals have the potential to be successful at what ever you what to do, the trouble is that a lot of people do not know what they want to do and get caught up in careers they probably did not intend to go into, but it was means to an end at the time. I have even heard my clients say that they stayed in a sales career, because they found some success and then quickly found their back against the wall with debt from purchasing a lifestyle beyond their means. The bottom line is to make sure you communicate clearly and go into any interview with viable question about the company and know what your limitations are prior to committing to the interview slot, you could be taking someone else's slot who will appreciate the training and sales experience and missing out on the interview else where that is meant for you.

Del Rene, THE SITUATION COACH