Complaint Review: American Income Insurance / Torchmark Corporation

I originally received an email from American Income Insurance saying they had looked at my resume on Monster.com and that I should contact them to set up an interview. I almost did, I am on unemployment from a job I REALLY do not want to return to, but first I looked at their website. I saw it was a insurance sales position and that it seemed like your main income came from insurance renewals rather than a real paid type job. I simply disregarded them as it's not something I was really interested in doing.

About a week later I received a phone call from them, again stating that they saw my resume on Monster.com and that they were interested in setting up an interview the next day. OK I thought, I'll give it a shot if they went to the trouble to actually called me, plus the rules of unemployment are that I would have to attempt to get any job offered to me. In any case I went in for my interview at 1:15 the next day.

I had to go out to Hillsboro for the interview, which is set up something like a maze, I ended up being about 20 mins. late. My first bit of unease came from the fact that their office was an almost empty office building (they were one of 3 offices occupied out of about eight), but I figured that Hillsboro has quite a few locations like this. I came into the office, said I was sorry for being late, the lady at the desk seemed unphased by that, weird I thought, most of the time if you are that late for an interview you have some reason to worry about your potential to be hired, oh well, maybe I was just lucky...

I had to fill out a form with a bunch of typical interview questions and a few math problems and then I was called into the office by the woman I had spoken to on the phone. She asked if I had brought my resume (she never asked me to do so on the phone and didn't they get it already of the internet?) I hadn't, so she looked at my questionaire and then asked me to tell her about me. I clarified if she just wanted me to talk about my life or work, she said my life, wierd but ok, I talked about growing up and how I had been at the same job for 3 years and was looking for a stable career type job, this was all in the questionaire by the way. She had asked me a few questions about my management experience and then talked to me about how successful their company was, a bit odd since most interviewers aren't trying to convince you to join their company, but trying to see if you would be a good employee. The whole interview seemed scripted and it seemed like she was only half listening to my responses, giving me smiles when they were programmed to be giving, that kind of thing. In the end she said she was going to make a "snap desicion" and have me come in for a second interview.

I should probably make the point that the only job experience I have ever had was food sevice and a paper route, although they included some low level management it's not exactly what I would call great qualifications. I have been hired on "snap desicions" before though so it wasn't too unusual. She gave me a hastily scribbled posted note:
"www.torchmarkcorp.com
Thrusday 12:00
TMK"
and told me to study their website and look up the TMK on yahoo finance then show up for a "orientation" on Thursday, then if I passed that level I would be scheduled for a 3rd and final interview.

I was feeling a little nervous since I still wasn't quite sure what I would be doing in my new "career" but glad none the less to potentially have a new job.

I "studied" their site, which provides very little information about what I would be doing, and tons of repeated information about how I could earn tons of money, even if I stopped working there. In fact their profile on yahoo finance gave me more info about their company than their whole site. After this I was a bit worried that this company might not be all that great.

I searched around a bit trying to find testamonials of actual employees, not on their website (they all said things like "what have you got to lose" not very promising, and "you can earn as much as you want" sounding much like those get rich quick SPAMs I get all the time). I didn't find much good or bad at first, then I came across someone's online journal which told of his own experience and linked to this site. Everyone's experiences seem to follow mine like a script, after reading them I have decided that even if it wasn't a pyramid scheme it's not what I want to do. The fact that you have to pay for your training and that they were not up front about being a independent contactor recruiter bothers me. I felt like I was just another possible paycheck for someone and that they didn't have people's best interests in mind.

I would encourage anyone who has been recruited to take everything said about the company to heart and at the least make a judgement about whether you want to be a door to door salesperson who has to provide all of their own supplies before they can start.

Kelly
Portland, Oregon
U.S.A.

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