Career advice for someone young and new to the industry

[millennial_broker]

Hey everyone. Forgive me if this should've been posted in another section of the forum.

I obtained both my 2-15 (Life/Health) and 2-20 (P&C) licenses this year with the hopes of becoming a broker. Unfortunately, I got my licenses right as the pandemic situation really started ramping up. I was able to interview with a top ten broker within the last month and was told hiring me wasn't a possibility until the office reopened and to expect to wait a couple of months. Now, I'm trying to position myself accordingly just in case there is a second wave in my area, meaning lockdowns would extend. I've come to terms with the fact that hiring might not be a possibility for the remainder of the year with this company. Other brokerages also seem to be on a hiring freeze as well.

With that said, I still want to put my licenses to use and bring in enough money to get me by. I'm wondering which direction I should go and which jobs to seek out. I get plenty of calls from agencies that have obtained my information from lists they get of recent licensees. All of these are commission only and don't offer a base salary, something I would have gotten with that sales producer position. I understand I need to be pragmatic during these times and lower my expectations due to the state of the union but another thought of mine is how having another insurance-related position on my resume would be perceived if this brokerage gave me a call some time later this year.

Any and all advice would be so helpful. Thank you.

 

[DHK]

All of these are commission only and don't offer a base salary, something I would have gotten with that sales producer position.

Assuming you were interviewing with a P&C firm, then that's more common. With a L&H insurance agency, having a base salary is RARE, but not necessarily impossible.

Insurance is a business decision, not necessarily a 'job' - especially on the life insurance side.

This video can help you pick a focus and then find companies that align to your vision of what you want to be doing.



Then, after you pass an initial assessment, you need to interview them - because YOU will have more risk than they will.



In the meantime, even if you are going to a P&C agency, learning and building a skill set wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd start by learning from Van Mueller:

 

[Rob Lion]

Hey everyone. Forgive me if this should've been posted in another section of the forum.

I obtained both my 2-15 (Life/Health) and 2-20 (P&C) licenses this year with the hopes of becoming a broker. Unfortunately, I got my licenses right as the pandemic situation really started ramping up. I was able to interview with a top ten broker within the last month and was told hiring me wasn't a possibility until the office reopened and to expect to wait a couple of months. Now, I'm trying to position myself accordingly just in case there is a second wave in my area, meaning lockdowns would extend. I've come to terms with the fact that hiring might not be a possibility for the remainder of the year with this company. Other brokerages also seem to be on a hiring freeze as well.

With that said, I still want to put my licenses to use and bring in enough money to get me by. I'm wondering which direction I should go and which jobs to seek out. I get plenty of calls from agencies that have obtained my information from lists they get of recent licensees. All of these are commission only and don't offer a base salary, something I would have gotten with that sales producer position. I understand I need to be pragmatic during these times and lower my expectations due to the state of the union but another thought of mine is how having another insurance-related position on my resume would be perceived if this brokerage gave me a call some time later this year.

Any and all advice would be so helpful. Thank you.

Hey, Brother i'm pretty close to your age and i'll try to give you best advice i can specifically on the L/H side as i don't know a damn thing about the P/C side. Insurance is mainly a eat what you kill industry meaning if your looking for Salary + commission your going to not have a good time, there are very few of these positions and even fewer that are good positions and 99% of them want good producers and will fire you in a heartbeat if your aren't producing because they absorb a lot of risk. But, that's okay 98% of us on the forum treat our practice like a business we all pay for our own marketing,leads,advertising, etc and receive commission from the sales we generate for the companies we choose to write with. If you don't have any money in your savings to pay for business expenses (leads) or don't have a credit card to start your not going to be making very much and your not going to have a good time, your only reason option besides that is to look for companies like Assurance, or Northstar that instead of getting full commission on products you get reduced commission and all your leads free to you, These setups can be harsh, especially if your new to real sales but plenty of people go into these low commission setups and make more money than people buying their leads and receiving full commission. If you do well in those set ups and manage your money correctly you can go to a different setup and just buy your own leads and your income should scale at that point probably with less work lol.

 

[Rob Lion]

Hey everyone. Forgive me if this should've been posted in another section of the forum.

I obtained both my 2-15 (Life/Health) and 2-20 (P&C) licenses this year with the hopes of becoming a broker. Unfortunately, I got my licenses right as the pandemic situation really started ramping up. I was able to interview with a top ten broker within the last month and was told hiring me wasn't a possibility until the office reopened and to expect to wait a couple of months. Now, I'm trying to position myself accordingly just in case there is a second wave in my area, meaning lockdowns would extend. I've come to terms with the fact that hiring might not be a possibility for the remainder of the year with this company. Other brokerages also seem to be on a hiring freeze as well.

With that said, I still want to put my licenses to use and bring in enough money to get me by. I'm wondering which direction I should go and which jobs to seek out. I get plenty of calls from agencies that have obtained my information from lists they get of recent licensees. All of these are commission only and don't offer a base salary, something I would have gotten with that sales producer position. I understand I need to be pragmatic during these times and lower my expectations due to the state of the union but another thought of mine is how having another insurance-related position on my resume would be perceived if this brokerage gave me a call some time later this year.

Any and all advice would be so helpful. Thank you.

My advice is, if your flat broke Talk with @NSRH with Northstar, or sign with assurance at Join (Assurance- Agent Onboarding) and See what either of them require you to join and just start making money, if it works for you and it's profitable cool stay with either or move on to a different platform. Theres plenty of different lines of Insurance some people fail in Life and go to P/C and do well in Commerical.

 

[Tahoe Ray]

Brother i'm pretty close to your age

You sure you're a millennial? I was thinking Gen Z...

 

[Rob Lion]

You sure you're a millennial? I was thinking Gen Z...

No clue to be honest LOL

 

[marindependent]

Its unclear from your post if you are more interested in becoming a P&C broker or a Life Agent. They are vastly different animals and the advice you might get would be different. I realize that in theory that you can do "both," but often you find agents that find a super specialty and find good success that way.

One word of advice is that from a P&C side I would not let the COVID19 side deter you. People still need insurance through this pandemic. Agencies that have all along been working on the internet are probably handling the work from home environment far better than the tried and true captive agent insurers.