[amygal]

I know it’s a big thing, or else they won’t dig out my CV out of the dirt. I was over the top when I was called for an interview. There was promises of their recruitment intention was to train fresh people to lead after one year time. Very tempting… atleast managing the FP team better than pestering people for more sales.

I think their job advert is misleading, because they should state sales approach required! Instead, making it sound like FP is a professional career who HELP plan, guide and etc.

[yu270322]

your circunstance is pretty much like mine, I just return to hong kong 2 weeks ago after spending ten years in Canada. I have a degree in Business Econoincs, in other words, nothing. I had a offer from two of the AIA locations and the way I look at it is it's no harm at all to go to their training and get my licences. I don't think I can be a good insurace agent/financial product salesman neither. But it is obviously better than sitting at home since they still pay me 10k during training. Hopefully I can learn something from them and I 'll use them as a stepping stone so I can get into the banking industry in maybe 3-6 months.

Good luck

[jaykay]

Remember though that the training they will give you for free will cost about $12,000 according to their contract. So if you leave within 12 months you will be prohibited from working for anyone else in the same industry for 12 months unless you pay them the training costs back. But as long as you're not registered as an insurance agent or technical representative with any other company you will be fine. Remember as well that even when you are leading teams you still have to sell yourself!

[yu270322]

So let's say if I take one of the offers from an AIA office, go to their training courses, and then I go to HSBC as a financial service officer/trainee, do they consider it as the same industry since they are different in nature? My friends who work at banks say I didn't have to worry about it at all...

[amygal]

ATT: yu270322

Thanks for sharing your scenario. Atleast you have a Degree in Business Economic which might come in handy. Please let me know the outcome of the training process, as I know they provide 2 month trial contract before they take you seriously. During the period you need to performance, or else why would they pay you 10k? I just get really nervous if I can’t survive the training period.

[yu270322]

That's they sweetest part of the deal, I get PAID during the training period, which is actually just a month. If everything going according to my plan or their plan or whoever's, I'll receive my insurance licence 1,4 and 5 by the end of the training month. While I'm attending their training, I alreay apply for jobs at different banks since that usually take about 4-6 weeks. So when I finally get a chance for an interview at a bank, I got something to show them rather than just a fresh grad with just a degree which is good for hanging on the wall...

Raymond

[jaykay]

But thats the kicker! Doesn't matter whether you have those licences, you wont be able to use them for 12 months afer you leave. So if it's Insurance, Life, General, Investment linked or MPF it's no good. Say if Company A employs you and you get your MPF and Investment linked. All well and good and you will get your cert and id cards (MPF + Insurance). When you leave they will inform the HKFI and SFC which they must do by law and you have to hand any cards back. You then go to company B who then have to register you. Company A flag you as being registered with either and then they have a claim against you. Simple. And due to the high turnover they do have departments checking registrations everyday with the HKFI and SFC. So at your own peril really. If you want to use it as a springboard you have to realise that these certs wont mean anything and you will have to be doing something completely different.