APPLICANTS BEWARE! This company tricks applicants into sales positions, regardless of the
department you actually applied for! Let me explain.
I applied for an open position in Burlington, Ontario as an administrative assistant. Within an hour of
applying for this position online, I received a call from someone from AIL's HR department and was
immediately booked for an interview the following day.
When I arrived at the American Income Life Burlington branch, I was surprised to see a throng of other interviewees anxiously awaiting their turn to see someone. While waiting in the foyer, I started talking with some of the other interviewees. One told me he had applied for the same position as me, another said that she applied for a receptionist position on kijiji.ca. After about a 20-minute delay, I finally met with my interviewer.
As soon as the interview began, I knew something was not right. The interviewer started by giving me
a sales scenario and asked how I would handle that situation. He then continued to ask sales questions
completely unrelated to the position I thought I was being interviewed for. He barely glanced at my
resume and asked nothing about my work history or previous education/experience. Just questions
like...Do you consider yourself a leader? Do you enjoy giving presentations? (and some other garbage
along the same lines). Never-the-less, I answered all of his questions to the best of my ability, and was
then invited to an information session which was taking place that afternoon in one of the conference
rooms.
When I got to the room, I saw that the other two interviewees I spoke with earlier had also been invited
to this "information session". The presentation started, and I was immediately baffled by what I was
hearing. The presenter (and also branch manager) started talking about the insurance sales position, in
particular, how much commission one could make, what skills are needed for the sales position, what
hours one would be expected to work etc...Basically the presentation was a sales pitch for the insurance
sales position.
After the information session, we were invited back to see our initial interviewers. At that point I
expressed my confusion, and told him that I didn't apply for the sales position and I have no interest in
sales. I tried to explain my work history in administration to him, but he didn't seem interested. He then
asked me if I have any interest in sales what so ever? I responded "no", at which point he concluded
the interview and said he would call me later that day to let me know their decision. As you may have
guessed, they never called...though I didn't expect them to.
Thanks for reading my rant. I hope that if you pursue interests in this company, you're treated with a
little more respect than I was.