AIG American General - Are You Considering Selling Life Insurance for Them?

AIG American General Life Insurance has been advertising their job opportunities for a long time. They say that they pay $450 a week and provide training. Sounds like a good opportunity if you're looking for a career change. I sent in my resume as requested and then received a call for an interview not long after. Seemed a little fast in my opinion, but I scheduled the interview.

After I arrived for the interview, I had to fill out several forms. I also had to take a brief test on the computer and then watch a video. It wasn't until a lot of my time had been wasted that all of their hidden fees were revealed. I became angry considering I had driven a distance to attend this so-called interview. It wasn't much of an interview. And they scheduled me for a second interview. Will this actually be an interview?

I've never been on an interview where so many details had been left out until they met you. AIG American General does provide training, but you have to pay for it. Training requires traveling to North Carolina for three days and has a fee of $200. If that wasn't high enough, there is also the $197 fee for the licensure training. And then add to that the fee for taking the test to be licensed, which is approximately $100. Of all of these fees, the latter one (and the smallest) is the only one that American General Life reimburses.

You're also expected to come into their business already having 200 leads (leads being people who want to buy life insurance). If you do not have 200 leads then you must buy them from a third party seller online. While I haven't looked up the price, I assume it's not cheap to buy leads.

Dressing for success is definitely required at AIG American General. However, if you don't already have appropriate attire, then that means buying a whole new wardrobe.

The listed pay of $450 a week is also only during the thirteen weeks of training. But a lot of that salary will be eaten up by all of those fees plus having to buy clothes. After the training, you're switched over to commission. While I have no problem with commission, this was another issue that wasn't stated until they had me come in.

It'd be really easy to spend a lot of money preparing for this job. And then if the job doesn't work out (if they fire you or you quit), the money still has to be paid for all of the training and the license. That requires a level of trust that I'm uncomfortable with. How do I know that AIG American General won't take my leads that I bought and then fire me? This job is more like having your own business rather than an actual job. And it should be advertised as such.

It's a shame that the bait and switch law doesn't apply to jobs.