Job Responsibilities
Major job responsibilities include selling all lines of
insurance to customers. These lines include life, health,
property and casualty insurance. This means that I sold life
insurance, health insurance, insurance for the home and
automobile insurance. In addition, State Farm has State Farm
Bank. Since the inception of the Bank, we must also sell
deposit products (savings, checking accounts and CD's), loans
(lines of credit, auto loans) and mortgages. In addition to
selling, the job also includes a lot of service work. Some times
the agents are under appreciative of how much of the work
actually entails servicing the customers. This includes
processing all of the paper work, scanning over proper documents
to the regional office, sending paperwork into the regional
office. Handling customers' concerns; from answering simple to
complex. In addition, while one is servicing the customer, the
management would also like that you pitch a new product, such as
a bank or insurance product to the customer. Duties also
included telemarketing and cold-calls. The agent would print off
marketing lists. Then, we reps would have to cold call and pitch
products to obtain new customers for the agency.
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Job Requirements
Each state has different insurance laws. The state, in which I
worked, Michigan, requires all employees of the company that
sell insurance must be licensed through the state to sell
insurance. I had to take two separate courses; one for property
and casualty and the other for life and health. After each
course I had to take a state exam. The exam had to be taken at
an examination center. It was a computer based test, which is
timed. You are only given the score of the exam if you do not
pass. Fortunately, I passed each exam on the first try, but I
know several people who had to take the test several times. My
agency paid for the fees for the courses and exams.
Unfortunately, I am unsure how much the examination process
cost. In addition, the license has to be maintained. Every two
years the licenses have to be renewed. In addition, State Farm
offers several courses to further educate and train the
employees regarding the products. I found the training and
examinations fairly easy, but I had also just finished my
undergraduate degree and was used to the study and learning
process.
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Uppers
This job did not have to many uppers for me personally. It is good for someone
who wishes to have a job that pays a decent wage, but don't expect to become
rich. It is a job for a woman who wants to work to earn some extra money, as a
supplemental income. One other upper is the possibility for bonuses. The bonus
is not too much.
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Downers
The downers are the fact that each agent can determine the
amount that he or she would like to pay. There is not a standard
rate of pay. Most agents like to keep as much money in their
pockets and therefore pay the staff relatively little in
comparison to their compensation. The agent is the "manager" of
the office, but in most cases he or she is only so successful
because of his or her staff. The staff, or reps, are the actual
ones who service and sell to the customers.
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Lifestyle
The work hours are decent. The work hours in my location were 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Overtime was not paid. This was highly stressed. There was not business travel
performed, nor company social events. Our dress code was business professional.
Jeans were not accepted. I feel that State Farm is needing to fit an Affirmative
Action quota, and therefore favoritism is well seen within this corporation.
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Compensation
An hourly wage of $12 was paid. I worked for the company for one
year, and was never given a raise. The agent instated a bonus
program but changed the program several times. Inital pitch that
the bonus program was a rate increase, therefore the hourly wage
would not be increased. Then the agent decided to change the
bonus program a few months later. Then stated that we should not
count on the bonuAn hourly wage of $12 was paid. I worked for
the company for one year, and was never given a raise. The agent
instated a bonus program but changed the program several times.
An hourly wage of $12 was paid. I worked for the company for one
year, and was never given a raise. The agent instated a bonus
program but changed the program several times. Initial pitch
that the bonus program was a rate increase, therefore the hourly
wage would not be increased. Then the agent decided to change
the bonus program a few months later. Then the agent stated that
we should not count on the bonus program as part of our wage.
(How should it be a wage increase then?) The program was very
unstable and changed every few months.
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Advice to Jobseekers
I would recommend asking around before accepting the job. If you
have the possibility to ask other staff members how it is to
work for the agent, or would they recommend it -- I would. If I
would have had the chance to ask around before accepting the
job, I would have never taken it. The agent was a very
unappreciative person to work for. The expectations were to sell
products 70% of the time, and service 30%. This was impossible
when the agent was hardly ever in the office, and customers came
in or called regarding service situations 85% of the time. Yes,
these customers were pitched a new line while in the office, but
the agent did not see the entire picture, and we, the staff and
the agent, were working against each other and not with each
other.
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