Northwestern Mutual Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – Can make a ton of money as a college student.

Cons – Very easy to fail and they encourage you to sell to family and friens which can get uncomfortable.

Advice to Senior Management – Give interns some names to call.

Current Employee – been working at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – To get experience in sales.

Cons – Very competitive, and self-motivated driven to be successful at the company.

Advice to Senior Management – If you want to move into leadership position, start with internship to see how it goes, then convert to full time. Once you shown success, leadership is just another step away.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – Room for improvement, big ceiling as with all sales jobs. Just the way I was treated wasn't great, I don't know.

Cons – It's sales. Long hours, and have to rip off your friends and family. If you're driven enough and are accepting of potential failure then go for it.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't use college kids as your salesmen. The business model is frowned upon, and your reputation isn't very appealing - especially around my campus.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – *Flexible work schedule.
*Solid whole life insurance policy that pays high dividends. (I own 3 of them)
*If you are really good with people and have a large client base, residual commissions can provide for a lucrative lifestyle.

Cons – *100% commissioned, some less reputable companies even offer a salary.
*No personal "lottery" to draw from during inactive periods where no commissions are received.
*"Joint work" is an attempt by more experienced representatives to pocket a percentage of your commission from your client.
*No matter how many services a representative can offer a client, you cannot hide the fact that you are just an insurance agent selling the company's proprietary insurance product.
*Conflict of interests created even if you are selling funds/retirement plans/education savings accounts/etc because the whole goal is to sell a Northwestern proprietary product and then cross-sell to make you seem more of a finance guy.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay reps a starting salary, then slowly ween them off it as they become successful or start collecting sufficient residual commissions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – If you are looking for a Niche company to sell to Niche prospects, it is one of the best in the industry. The culture of the company is amazingly the same all around the country. Phenomonal place to intern or career change into.

Cons – Mutual company and not a salary offered to get started in the business. Not a place to start if you are looking to specialize in investments.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus more on diversifying the field offices and field force. Other companies have done a great job of doing this. Productivity for everyone would increase over the long run.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – got to meet great people at the job. It was a great chance to learn from others and develop good communications skills. I also gained the ability to speak to people concerning life insurance.

Cons – commissioned based which made it difficult if you could not get life policies. It was also hard to travel and it takes a huge tool on your car. You need special skills to deal with constant rejection.

Advice to Senior Management – I think that they are highly skilled salesman that try to help people secure wealth for their clients and propposed new clients.

Current Employee – been working at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – Flexible schedule, potential for growth, you're your own business. People are kind, smart and have excellent ethics and morals. The general attitude is to always put the client's interests first. It's an amazing opportunity for some.

Cons – No base salary, and unless you have a large peronal network, it's really difficult to get up and running. No financial support, plus they ding you on everything. Not surprising that it has a 13% rate of retention.

Advice to Senior Management – All support goes out the window once someone isn't off to a rocket-fast start. Have more patience and give more support to those who are struggling.

Current Employee – been working at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – They helped you grow as a person and as a business indivudual. They had great mentors to help interns along the way.

Cons – It is fully commissions based so if there is a large fluctuation in the amount of icome you can gain each month.

Advice to Senior Management – I think they are doing everything right. It is a company where you need selve drivien individuals, if you have that you will be okay.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – The flexible schedule. You can work at your pace.
You can get your insurance license paid for by the company.

Cons – The flexible schedule. If you're not disciplined, you won't work as hard or as much as you would had there been someone keeping tabs on you or monitoring your work.
You are spending 75% of your time on phones trying to "beg" people to sit down with you for 1-1 1/2 hours so you may try to sell them something.
Employees are driven by money.
You're work will be the same every day. There will be nothing different.
Employees don't seem to ever want to progress or gain more education.

Advice to Senior Management – Give your employees some type of mixed salary/commission compensation. That way, maybe employees would actually stay for a change and the 80% turnover ratio might decrease a little over time.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Northwestern Mutual

Pros – Northwestern Mutual is a good place for people who are good at sales related financial services. The compensation is good for the people who can sell.

Cons – If you are not a sales type of person, you will struggle to make money as it is based all on compensation.

Advice to Senior Management – The management is terrific. The only matter is in the employees being good at sales. The management can help you figure out if it's right for you to be at Northwestern Mutual.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend