American General Finance Reviews

Pros

if you succeed you can get a branch in 18 months

Cons

pay is below average and very conservative sr management

Advice to Senior Management

better advancement opportunity by creating more specific job titles

Pros

People in the branch
get to know the customers as they tend to repeat business
opportunity to make a lot of money on commissions
generally easy job
generous with time off

Cons

collections
employees held responsible for circumstances out of control
too much favoritism
upper management will tell employees what they want to hear with no intention of following through
unrealistic goals
little opportunity for advancement unless you stay there for 15+ years or get promoted to Manager in training and agree to relocate to one of 3 districts
rewards are based on loan generation and insurance sales alone, therefore employees that do a lot of loans but don't follow through with correct paper work, etc are never punished because of the money they generate

Advice to Senior Management

learn to really appreciate those that get the important paper work, etc done. focusing only on loans causes trouble in other areas. Don' t string employees along when they want to be promoted, either do it or be honest. Telling someone to wait and wait and wait and then be surprised when they chose to leave after a year of waiting is ridiculous.

Pros

Good training program for new employees. They treat thier employees well and provide good benefits with a normal schedule. If you are in a good branch it can be fun as you get to know the few employees that work in your branch, good fun environment.

Cons

The pay is not what it could be for the work that you do. You are required to sell, collect, process and manage files. This provides lots of oppurtunity to learn but also a good amount of work to be done.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward the employees if they make the company money as you don't pay much over the base salary, which can start pretty low.

Pros

Pay was higher than local average.

Cons

Management was out of touch with office. Training was hit and miss at best.

Advice to Senior Management

Study the local markets and adjust expectations. Follow up with trainees to make sure they don't fall through the cracks.

Pros

Pay, Benefits, Advancement and growth within company; If it is your cup of tea.

Cons

Tedious, Repetitive, Cold Calling, Push to sell. Etc.

Advice to Senior Management

The Company is what it is. Want to learn more.

Pros

Not the worst place to work. Compensation could be better in comparison with other companies but there are several performance reviews for advancement. The longer you work there the more opportunity obviously.

Cons

Everyone is a fairly type A personality. Not much of a teaching environment. Training is terrible at best. Fairly leisurely job if you're into that sort of thing.

Pros

One of the larger companies in Evansville and a good place to gain experience in many different areas such as IT, Marketing, HR, Legal, Accounting, etc. Nice co-workers. Good place to start your career and gain experience.

Cons

Senior Management doesn't respect their employees as they should. Schedules are inflexible. Promotions and raises are a long time in coming.

Advice to Senior Management

Handing out desk ornaments stating "People Make the Difference" under the company logo doesn't mean anything if you don't back it up with credit and praise for hard work and innovation or demonstrate you recognize your employees as people. Little things, like asking how a person is feeling on their first day back after being off several days, obviously still recovering from the bronchitus they were diagnosed with the week before.

Pros

The training that I received I feel has given me what is needed to manage not only an office but also the individuals within the office.

Cons

Management needs to show they care a little more about the growth of employees. When employees were not quite meeting standards as many did at certain times of the year management never gave help as to how to improve but just said "you need to do better."

Pros

Great enivorment to learn basic skills for entry level employees and recent college graduates.

Good benefits (while with AIG)

A good path to gain manager experience in a fair amount of time.

Cons

Depending on which district or division you are in, can be VERY unprofessional. Lots of personal attacks and conficits. Many decisions are made for personal reasons. Favoritism is very relevant. Want to move up? You better be your district manager's best friend. Lots of gossip. Lots of unethical methods used. Upper management is clueless. They do not listen to employees who do the work that they bonus of off. They hide facts from employees as well. More concerned with finding reasons to fire employees than to help them. Upper management is horrible about micromanagement as well. They like to tell you how to do your job although they are clueless how to do it. Incentives are very limited for employees who produce.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the branch managers who you promoted run their offices as see fit, as long as the follow basic policies. Demographics based on branch locations are very different. One method does not work for every office. Also, create better incentives for employees who produce. Managers who can be lazy are awarded the fruits of their employees hard labor.

Pros

Pay is ok.

It's an entry level job for those just out of college.

Benefits are ok.

Decent amount of vacation time for an entry level job.

Working here helped me decide to go to graduate school for a career change (one of the best decisions I ever made. That's a pro, right?)

Cons

Managers can be incompetent.

Goals are often impossible to meet, especially in an office with cut throat coworkers stealing loans from you. I met my goal twice in the two years I worked at American General In a small community like the one where I worked, there will only be so many people who will take the product American General sells and even fewer of them would qualify even under the company's lower lending standards (compared to banks).

American General provides no training at all.

There is little room for advancement. If you do get a promotion to a Branch Manager, you have to work at least 10 years to advance to a District Manager position.

Managers micromanage everything. I had a sick stomach once and the manager was keeping track of the amount of time I spent in the bathroom. Yeah, seriously.

I worked in an office where I would be the only one collecting accounts in the field at the end of the month.

At the end, I didn't care at all and would have welcomed being fired. Thank God I took the GRE, went to grad school, got my masters, and now have a job I love.

Advice to Senior Management

Micromanage less. Set more realistic goals and make better loans, especially in a down economy. Actually provide some training to employees. Respect your employees. Pay a little better.