I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Northwestern Mutual (Dallas, TX) in May 2012
Interview
I was contacted by recruiter to interview (I did not make the initial contact), and I went in to speak with a recruiter one-on-one. The office was very nice, and the interview went very well. I was given a packet of information and walked through the entire hiring process (which is extremely complex...) before being taken to another office to watch a video about the company. Afterwards, they emailed me a personality test to take at home. I took it within 24 hours, and within another 12 hours I received an email stating that "based on the results from my test" they would not be moving forward with my application. After all that, it felt like they had wasted a lot of my time. They contacted me, brought me in for a long, drawn-out interview, lectured me on the hiring process, made me watch a video... all so they could deny me after taking a test that I wish they had asked me to take in the first place.
I applied in-person. I interviewed at Northwestern Mutual (Garden City, NY) in Sept 2011
Interview
Local branch manager does interviewing, or there will be a specific recruiter on staff. Most interviewed are offered positions as attrition in industry is very high. Had to wait a week or two for a new training class to begin. Size of class varies; mine had 7 individuals. By end of 12 months, only 3 remained.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Northwestern Mutual (Princeton, NJ) in Mar 2011
Interview
Met a recruiter at a business marketing event. I was invited for an interview with the company where I had a one-on-one review with an HR person. They asked questions about myself and my work experience, what qualities I have that sets me apart from other candidates, etc. etc. Everything was going fine till they briefly spoke about the compensation process. It sounded eerily familiar to a MLM structure so I asked them if that's what it was, and not to my surprise I received a lot of ums, and other mouth fumblings, till I was told when I come back for the second part of the interview it would be explained in more detail. This was a red flag for me, if you can't explain how you compensate your employees in 5 mins you probably don't have the employees interest at heart.
