W3Y'st'd Days

Thursday, February 05, 2004

insurance salesman

So I get ready for this "consultation" and run out the door. I drive down Parsippany Road looking for #1055, but I don't see it, so I turn around and I still don't see it. I decide to stop home and check mapquest and realize that #1055 is a lot further down than I had initially driven. By now, I'm already 5 minutes late, about 10 minutes by the time I get there.

I head down Parsippany Road, and cross Rt 46 and start looking around the Embassy Suite area. Apparently, I'd gone too far, and had to make a u-turn. By now, I'm about 20 minutes late.

I walk in the building and go to the office where this place is. I walked through the doors to find no reception desk. Just a few small offices. I saw a girl, who was relatively attractive but was wearing too much makeup, on the phone. I saw another guy in a room typing and asked him where I should go. He pointed me to a double door that led to a conference room. They had already started.

Apparently, this was just an introductory seminar, totally not what I had expected. I wore my suit too!

So Jehf was right. It is a pyramid scheme. Well, not really. The seminar was to recruit sales representatives. It's kind of ironic because my dad sold insurance at one point in his life too. The job was extremely stressful which led to his depression which just didn't help his liver any. So this is what I would be doing. Making appointments with old people and trying to sell them health insurance.

The whole seminar's emphasis was on how much money you could potentially be making. In the first year, the average commision is a little under $60K. And managers making around $100K. The money sure is right.

I don't know though, this is not how I imagined my life to be. Granted, I had prayed earlier about doing God's will. But I don't know if this is it. Considering I had just decided that I didn't want to have a career just for money's sake, this seems like a huge temptation.

During the entire seminar, I felt extremely uncomfortable. Partly because I felt tricked. Part of it was memories of my dad. And another part was just doing something that I would enjoy, not just the money. Granted, the amount of work I would have to do is low and easy compared to programming, but I wouldn't enjoy it. There's no challenge, there's no problem solving. There's no creativity and creation of something.

These thoughts just kept floating around inside my head for the remaining 30 minutes of the seminar. I figured, even if I don't make this into a career, I can just use it as a part time job in the mean time. So I set up an appointment to see if I can get hired. If God wants me to do this, He'll give me the job. Otherwise, water off a duck's back.