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 Insurance Agent or Corporate Job as a fresh grad

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Xenopher
post Jul 17 2020, 12:30 PM

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QUOTE(Justinng343 @ Jul 16 2020, 01:56 AM)
Thank you for taking your time to list this out!
That income is what really attracted me honestly. And from what you said being the 20% of people that are able to make that much on average is really better than 8 year in a corporate job.

Idk it is too good to be true šŸ˜‚ and ofc I know I need to put in the amount of work and effort as well.

And I assuming you also an insurance agent?
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It's quite different from my perspective. I have a lot of friends (20+) doing insurance and property. Only 1 managed to do well (unit manager in few years and is now a regional manager). A few of them doing ok, getting averagely 8-9k per month after years of effort. But most of them earning below average, quitting and rejoin 9-5 job after few years of trying. At bad times, some even get 0 sales for months.

As for corporate job, in my circle, my average performer friends are getting 5-7k after same years of experience. A few performing ones are getting 13k+ and 1 I know is getting 20k+. We also saved up a good sum of EPF which a lot of insurance/property agents don't have.

I think if you can perform, you will do well in both. But for average people, corporate job is better in terms of stability.
mini orchard
post Jul 17 2020, 02:02 PM

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QUOTE(Justinng343 @ Jul 17 2020, 11:23 AM)
Yeah, I did look into real estate agent but not in unit trust
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Why not real estate then ?
hksgmy
post Jul 18 2020, 07:09 AM

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Actually, we do have a few insurance agents in these forums. wild_card_my is quite active, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing his personal perspectives on this issue - from what I understand and if I recall correctly, he started off with a bank and then went into insurance: so TS might get a different view of both aspects.

If he gets this tag, hopefully he'll have time to chip in!
wild_card_my
post Jul 18 2020, 07:56 AM

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QUOTE(Justinng343 @ Jul 14 2020, 01:35 PM)
1) Is it best for fresh graduate to start working in a 9-5 corporate job first that offer stable income, or should I start with being an Insurance agent? Which is better?

2) If I work in a corporate job for a few years, will it be too late for me to start being insurance agent when I could already build a client base long ago?

3) If I work as an Insurance agent and it doesn't work out, will it be too late for me to find a stable job since I don't really have any experience in banking or finance other than insurance sales. And I would have wasted all my time as an Insurance agent and go back to square one with basis salary.

4) What is the success rate of being an Insurance agent?

I wanted the freedom and make a lot of money but afraid it would fail on me even with all the hard work and I would end up with no jobĀ  sad.gifĀ 

Any help from profession or anyone would be much appreciateĀ  icon_question.gif notworthy.gif
Thank you in advance for your kind assistance!Ā  cheers.gif
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There are no right or wrong answers here, I am just going to give you my opinions based on my experience as wells as those around me

1. Working in the bank has made me who I am. A little different than most agents that were recruited from other professions. What I am saying is that your first job defines you a lot. If you start off as an engineer then become an agent, your style will be different compared to mine who started off in banking

2. There are tons of agents that were recruited from other industries, those not even related to the insurance industry

3. This is my bigger worries. I know of ONE fresh-out-of-uni insurance agent that is successful - he's an agency manager, with the support of his sister who is also an agency manager. That is one out of hundreds of agents (and non-agents now) that I have met that made it. Everyone else (successful) started off in a different career path before taking this part-time, before eventually becoming a full-time agent, if they persist

4. I wouldn't know the actual numbers, but I can give my input anecdotally: quite low. I am looking at my uplines' success rate in recruiting quality agents. In the company that I represent, there are four levels of promotion - agent > unit manager > unit manager 2 > agency manager. To get promoted an agent needs to have a few downlines that are able to reach a set of sales target. e.g. to become a unit manager, an agent would need at least 1 recruit that does RM50k sales and 2 recruits that does RM25k sales a year

So these promotion-aspirants would do a recruitment spree - based on what I see, only about 1 out of 10 makes it and would last longer than a few years. People falter away after a while, never to be heard of again. It is not an easy job, and your recruiter may even mention this - "anything worth doing is not easy". But this applies to everything else, including your corporate job

It took me about 3 years with Prudential to buy my dream car. It was hard work and my style is different from most agents out there. As mentioned, I was a banker for quite a few years, so when I become an agent I was able to land on my two feet and started running; I didn't need any soft-skills nor sales knowledge training (not at beginners' level anyway), I only needed to learn about the products which are similar to the things I was already selling in my previous jobs. The bank made me who I am today, which tremendously helped, the same can be applied to corporate employees agents turned agents

About the perception of insurance agents - not much that you can do about it. You just have to be quite professional with yourself - I am not saying that you have to dress in corporate attire all the time, my daily "uniform" is just a dark blue shirt with jeans. Wear whatever makes you comfortable without being over-dressed. You have to be happy to announce to everyone that you are an agent. Your main job as an agent is to meet people. If you do not meet people because you are shy about being an agent then you would have failed the first requirement of being one

QUOTE(hksgmy @ Jul 18 2020, 07:09 AM)
Actually, we do have a few insurance agents in these forums. wild_card_my is quite active, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing his personal perspectives on this issue - from what I understand and if I recall correctly, he started off with a bank and then went into insurance: so TS might get a different view of both aspects.

If he gets this tag, hopefully he'll have time to chip in!
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Thanks for tagging me. I'm always happy to share my thoughts on these matters.

This post has been edited by wild_card_my: Jul 18 2020, 08:03 AM
TSJustinng343 P
post Jul 19 2020, 08:30 PM

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QUOTE(mini orchard @ Jul 17 2020, 02:02 PM)
Why not real estate then ?
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I see Insurance have a more long-term and passive commission than real estate. Or am I wrong? haha
TSJustinng343 P
post Jul 19 2020, 08:32 PM

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QUOTE(hksgmy @ Jul 18 2020, 07:09 AM)
Actually, we do have a few insurance agents in these forums. wild_card_my is quite active, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing his personal perspectives on this issue - from what I understand and if I recall correctly, he started off with a bank and then went into insurance: so TS might get a different view of both aspects.

If he gets this tag, hopefully he'll have time to chip in!
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Thank you for tagging someone with more knowledge / experience in this!
TSJustinng343 P
post Jul 19 2020, 08:43 PM

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QUOTE(wild_card_my @ Jul 18 2020, 07:56 AM)

So these promotion-aspirants would do a recruitment spree - based on what I see, only about 1 out of 10 makes it and would last longer than a few years. People falter away after a while, never to be heard of again. It is not an easy job, and your recruiter may even mention this - "anything worth doing is not easy". But this applies to everything else, including your corporate job

It took me about 3 years with Prudential to buy my dream car. It was hard work and my style is different from most agents out there. As mentioned, I was a banker for quite a few years, so when I become an agent I was able to land on my two feet and started running; I didn't need any soft-skills nor sales knowledge training (not at beginners' level anyway), I only needed to learn about the products which are similar to the things I was already selling in my previous jobs. The bank made me who I am today, which tremendously helped, the same can be applied to corporate employees agents turned agents

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Just curious, if you don't mind me asking. What role you work as at the bank? And what make you leave and be an Insurance agent?
mini orchard
post Jul 19 2020, 08:45 PM

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QUOTE(Justinng343 @ Jul 19 2020, 08:30 PM)
I see Insurance have a more long-term and passive commission than real estate. Or am I wrong? haha
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Depends on whether you are a licence holder or a negotiator.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1408800/+100?hl=Real%20estate

This post has been edited by mini orchard: Jul 19 2020, 08:47 PM
wild_card_my
post Jul 19 2020, 09:05 PM

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QUOTE(Justinng343 @ Jul 19 2020, 08:43 PM)
Just curious, if you don't mind me asking. What role you work as at the bank? And what make you leave and be an Insurance agent?
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I was in sales. I left because it was either going up the ladder or expanding my sales network

I am very entrepreneurial. Stepping on other people's toes while climbing up isn't my cup of tea

 

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