Some Advice?
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I have my resume up on a bunch of boards and have been looking for a job for a few months. The companies that seem willing to hire me (AXA/MassMutual/Met/NWM/NYLife) seem willing to hire any yahoo, licensed or unlicensed. They feel a lot like Primerica looking to churn through my friends/fam then ditch me. Many make you write a given number of life policies before being hired. Anyone of these maybe better than the rest? Am I unfarily lumping them w/ Primerica?
Banks seem to be looking for someone a bit more experienced and have been shot down by a few of them. I feel that banks are my best bet. Wirehouses are awfully concerned about my "Natural Market." Despite being willing to do whatever is necessary (cold call, prospect, chase rich people around town) they want a massive natural market which I simply don't have. Recruiters recruiting for Merryl constantly call me, go over my natural market, and suggest it might not be a good fit. Should I exagerate? I'm talking to a few small firms which I think I would be independent at. I would pay for everything myself and recieve a 1099 at the end. Both allow me tons of flexibility to do anything for my clients, but warn me I won't do much better than 20K first year. I've read tons of posts on this board (great board by the way) and thought maybe some vets or even non vets could tell me what they might do if they were me. Tips? Advice? I'm 26, currently live w/ parents. BA Degree, Series 7/66 and Life/Accident/Health. 8 years @ target 1 year @ Primerica (felt they were a scam and used them to get licenses to get real job) 1 year @ Fidelity (Inbound call center, service and sales, flat salary, boring)[quote=Raticus99]I have my resume up on a bunch of boards and have been looking for a job for a few months. The companies that seem willing to hire me (AXA/MassMutual/Met/NWM/NYLife) seem willing to hire any yahoo, licensed or unlicensed. They feel a lot like Primerica looking to churn through my friends/fam then ditch me. Many make you write a given number of life policies before being hired. Anyone of these maybe better than the rest? Am I unfarily lumping them w/ Primerica?
Banks seem to be looking for someone a bit more experienced and have been shot down by a few of them. I feel that banks are my best bet. Wirehouses are awfully concerned about my "Natural Market." Despite being willing to do whatever is necessary (cold call, prospect, chase rich people around town) they want a massive natural market which I simply don't have. Recruiters recruiting for Merryl constantly call me, go over my natural market, and suggest it might not be a good fit. Should I exagerate? I'm talking to a few small firms which I think I would be independent at. I would pay for everything myself and recieve a 1099 at the end. Both allow me tons of flexibility to do anything for my clients, but warn me I won't do much better than 20K first year. I've read tons of posts on this board (great board by the way) and thought maybe some vets or even non vets could tell me what they might do if they were me. Tips? Advice? I'm 26, currently live w/ parents. BA Degree, Series 7/66 and Life/Accident/Health. 8 years @ target 1 year @ Primerica (felt they were a scam and used them to get licenses to get real job) 1 year @ Fidelity (Inbound call center, service and sales, flat salary, boring) [/quote] Who are you talking about...Merryl Streep? Exaggerate? Something tells me you don't have the integrity for this. If you have to lie to get hired, and you manage to pull a quick one on your manager, chances are you will probably still fail.Wow, thanks for the quick response, and thanks for picking out my typos. I like Meryl Streep even though I didn’t cry after Bridges of Madison County.
Funny you mention Jones. I applied online a few days ago and just got an e-mail turning me down. From what I can gather on this board, its a pretty good place to start. Had I found this board earlier, I might have knocked on their door instead of applying online.
I kinda like the idea of being Indy, but I'm not sure its the write choice without any book and limited experience (right intentionaly used wrong to give some of you guys something to do, and its kind of entertaining.) For one of them, I would actually get a book which I'd have to pay off over time. Is it that bad of an idea for someone inexperienced?Wow. Magician you are right. EDJ usually takes any warm body. Raticus unless you made some serious typo on the app then try a different industry. Or maybe go to Allstate an be their financial guy. If you did make a mistake try contacting EDJ at the local level. I choke to say this but if you are living at home and that young then EDJ is the best place for you to start. Learn to drive the pinto before you drive the cadillac.
Rat - grab your nads and get a job. Don’t timidly post your resume on the internet waiting for people to call you. Broker houses are looking for leadership and people willing to hunt the big game - not a bunch of passive farmers.
Knock on doors (wow - I never thought I'd say that), and introduce yourself to as many industry sales and branch managers as you can. Ask them to give you 10 minutes to talk about what it takes to succeed as a producer. Faint hearts never won fair maidens - faint hearts put you in iron maidens.Freeman is right. If you can get a local Jones guy to say you’re all right, they’ll let you right in. PM me and I’ll give you some names of people who’ll let you put them on your application.
They need it so they can check that category.
Just go to 4 local EDJ branches, tell each rep you want to be their golden ticket to a vacation, and they will refer you. You will at least get in the pipeline.
Just start as an Indy. It will save you time and effort when you get ready to leave Jones. Think of it as cutting out an entire step.
I appreciate everyones thoughts. I got a bite from MS Friday afternoon and I have to take their sales test. From what I read on this site, their survival rate is pretty low. Do they have a starting salary? Would a wirehouse be too much of a risk?
I don’t want this to sound rude because I don’t mean it rude, but you may want to move out of your parents house and get established on your own before trying to tell/sell someone else how to manage their money.
Dear Rat, I live in my Grandma's basement and I'm a good salesman.I don’t want this to sound rude because I don’t mean it rude, but you may want to move out of your parents house and get established on your own before trying to tell/sell someone else how to manage their money.
I don’t want this to sound rude because I don’t mean it rude, but you may want to move out of your parents house and get established on your own before trying to tell/sell someone else how to manage their money.
River, I disagree with this one. As advisors, we should always be making smart decisions with our money. If living in the parents house is the smart decision, that is what the advisor should be doing. We are often advising clients on situations in which we don't have first hand experience. Delayed gratification is an important financial planning concept.After a few interviews, I got an offer from Lincoln Investments today. I can't seem to find any posts on this company at all. They specialize in 403Bs for teachers and have agreements with most school systems to let their representatives in there. They offer everything else too, but just about all business is through the schools.
I would "own" my own book and receive a 1099 at the end of the year. Plenty of autonomy. I figure I can go to the schools in the day and chase around business/big money on the weekends and at night. Only problem is, and 3 reps verified this, I would only make about 10K the first year and 20k in the second (no salary or benefits.) Whats with that? All the reps have series 6/63 but somehow sell wrap accounts. Don't you need the 66?Doesn’t Fido have an internal brokerage portion of their business? I seem to recall taking some accounts from an actual broker who did fee based biz for them. He wasn’t an RIA just clearing through them. I would think an internal candidate would have a decent shot at a position like that. In my opinion it’s easier to get a job inside your company than looking outside.