It was the interview I had today with TMK. I arrived early as is my general habit for appointments, and filled out a general form that had some specific questions on it such as being the subject of insurance fraud or being implicated or sued for insurance malfeasance. While those aren't specific to many careers, they are common questions if you work in the insurance industry.
A few minutes after filling out this form I chatted with one of the recruiter's underlings. Again, some general questions more along the line of tell me about yourself. He explained that the process was a three step interview procedure and if I had the time I could move on to the next interview step.
I was ushered to a room and given a collection of questions to answer - about seven pages worth. The first page were questions that I provided short answers to such as:
1) What traits help you succeed in business?
2) How competitive are you?
3) What are two of your weaknesses?
4) Describe yourself as an employee
5) What three positive things would your last boss say about you?
6) What are your goals?
7) Describe the perfect job
8) What motivates you?
9) What do you want to avoid in a career?
10) When were you most satisfied in your last job?
Great questions. I like these much better than "Describe a time when you failed?"
These took up the first page and the remainder of the questionnaire were multiple choice questions with the choices "strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree." There were things about hobbies and energy and ethics.
There is supposedly great potential here to earn a good, if not a great income. You have to be sales oriented though as it is all commission work. There is a week of training in which you are paid $200, then there is an active participation training where you learn by example and then slowly the training wheels are removed. From then on out you are expected to have eight to ten presentations a week.
In order to perform these presentations, you need your own vehicle, a lap top, a cell phone and a life license. Non-negotiable. It makes sense. They provide a specific app that is put on the laptop and if you hit a certain point in the presentation, no matter the outcome, then you get credit for the appointment.
Realistically, this means afternoon and evening work. Two of your days, Monday and Thursday are reserved for time in the office for meetings and updates.
For the past three years this company has been rated by the local newspaper as one of the top work places in the metropolitan area.
The third phase of the interview talks more specifically about compensation and gets you a seat in the training process. I respectfully declined to attend this final phase when I got the call this evening. I need to know exactly how much I am going to earn from paycheck to paycheck. I know there are a lot of folk who can do commission sales work and they make good livings. I'm just not one of them. I'd wash out before the training wheels were off, so why waste anyone's time or money?
However, it was a good experience. I was able to answer the questions asked of me, I was able to ask questions in return. I was told they were great ones (apparently not enough people ask questions at interviews).
