Dennis' Weblog

Schreef ik eerder vandaag nog heel enthousiast dat ik ben uitgenodigd voor een gesprek bij American Income Life, nu kan ik schrijven dat ik heb afgebeld.

Na mijn gesprek – en nadat ik mijn vorige blog entry schreef – ben ik AIL eens gaan Googelen, en ik werd niet erg blij van wat ik vond. Meteen al de vierde en vijfde resultaten spraken over “scam” – meestal geen goed teken.

De titel van een kort artikel was “American Income Life Insurance – Scam Or Not?“, en op dat artikel waren 170 reacties gekomen. De reacties varieerden van “niet zeuren, als het je er niet bevalt dan vertrek je toch” tot “blijf zo ver van dit bedrijf vandaan als je kunt”.

En de meeste van de reacties vielen toch wel in de laatste categorie. Ik las heel veel overeenkomsten met mijn gesprek vanochtend, maar één ding verontrustte me: er waren meerdere mensen, door heel het land, die waren opgebeld en werden gevraagd om op gesprek te komen voor een entry level management positie, en eenmaal op gesprek te horen kregen dat het toch om een sales positie ging. En dat is het laatste wat ik wil.

Ik heb dus teruggebeld naar het nummer dat me vanochtend belde, en gezegd dat ik verontrustende dingen op het net had gelezen, en vroeg hoe het nu precies zat. Het antwoord was dat het wel degelijk een sales positie betrof, ook als manager; immers, je moet toch weten wat je mensen doen om ze te kunnen managen?

Toen ik daarop zei dat ik dan het gesprek morgen wilde afzeggen, omdat ik geen “commission based income” wil, en geen sales wil doen omdat ik er de persoonlijkheid niet voor heb, werd er kwaad wat gemompeld, en werd de verbinding verbroken.

Leuk, hè? In ieder geval genoeg reden voor me om tevreden te zijn met mijn beslissing om af te zeggen.

Ook heb ik meteen een commentaar geschreven op het eerder genoemde artikel;

I received “the call” this morning, in which I was told that based on my resume I would be great for a position with AIL.

I specifically asked if this was for a sales position or not, since I have no interest in a sales position whatsoever. I also do not believe I have the right personality for a sales job (as assesments have proven), nor do I want to work on a commission based income.
I was told that they have many other positions available, including entry level management and several other administrative positions, as they were looking to open more offices in Colorado and needed people to help set those up.

Reassured that I would not be coming in for a sales position, I scheduled an interview. I would have to be in Denver (I live in Fort Collins, about an hour away) at 10:30 am, so not a bad time. I was asked to bring at least 2 copies of my resume, and to dress professionally.

I was rather excited that they had picked out my resume from monster.com – apparently it works after all!

That was until I started doing some research, and I have to say that their company website makes it look very attractive. Although: hint number one should have been that their site mainly focuses on opportunities for sales positions – no other positions.

Next I stumbled onto this site, and a lot of the things I read here sounded very much like my call earlier today.

Having read that even when you come in for a management position – no matter what level – they will want you to do sales and you will always be commission based, but nicely cover up that fact or fail to mention it altogether during “the call” and during interviews, I decided to call the number that I received the call from, and verify a few things.

I got the person on the line, and told them that I had been reading up on AIL, and that what I read everywhere was kind of disturbing. Most importantly, that even as a manager you would end up doing sales, either prior to becoming a manager, or even as a manager. I told him I was calling him to verify whether what I read was true or not.

His answer, was “Yes of course, you will have to do sales. After all, if you are going to manage people, you need to know what they are doing, so you need to do sales.”

I told him that this morning he failed to mention that to me when I asked if this was for a sales position or not, and he said no.

Strictly speaking he has a point: you have to know what your people are doing in order for you to be able to manage them properly. And yes, you are coming in for a management position, not a sales position. However, they do not tell you that prior to getting the management position you do need to do sales – so, it initially is a sales position after all.

Next I told him that in that case I was going to cancel our interview, since I was not looking for or interested in a sales position, simply because I do not want the commission based income, nor do I have the right personality for a sales position.

The reply I got was a few mumbled words which I was unable to decipher, though the intonation spoke volumes, and next thing I know, he hung up on me.

I tried to write this as neutral as possible, so you can make your own decision based on facts, not emotions.

During “the call” they give you just enough information to get you to come in for an interview, and answer any questions as to the nature of the job in such a way that it is hard to find fault in what they say.
They do not lie to you, they’re just not telling you the whole truth – and there is a difference there. You do not find out the specifics until you call them back and ask about it, or when you go in for the interview, apparently.

However, the fact that they are so little forthcoming, and do not reveal all you need to know prior to an interview, does not sit well with me. Also the response to my canceling the interview – in other words, an angry mumble and then hanging up on me – was proof enough for me that I made the right decision in canceling.

Once again, use the above information to your advantage to make your decision.

If you made it onto this site, then you will most likely have some suspicion – as do most people here.

It may not all be true, and some stories may be a little biased, but there is enough here to at least make you think twice.

And remember: where there is smoke, there is usually fire – and there is a lot of smoke here…

Jammer, maar het is beter dat ik er nu achter kom. Toch?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 21:17 and is filed under General posting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.