Last month, I got an email from Monster that my resume was going to expire. Looking back, I should have just let it expire. I don’t get the point to Monster.com anymore. I still have some resumes out there, just in case a good opportunity comes along. That has never happened.
Monster is still living in the 90’s. Unlike some other sites, you can’t edit your resume online. I had to pull together my updated resume in Microsoft Word and upload the document.
Then I sat back. And sure enough, I start getting calls and emails about selling insurance.
I was a Realtor for about 6 months, but everything else in my resume, going back to 1992, is for technical work. Nothing about sales, nothing in the insurance industry.
And yet, a whole bunch of insurance companies start calling and emailing me.
Now, back in 2014, I went to a meeting at one of these insurance companies just to see what it was about. It wasn’t one-on-one. There were a bunch of us in the room. Then a guy in a suit came in, told us about the company, and how much money you can make in it. They had us introduce ourselves and talk about where were work now. I don’t mention the name of the company, but their mascot rhymes with the F-word.
Somebody from that same company sent me an email a couple weeks ago. I deleted it. Yesterday, I got a “follow-up”. In my response, I told the guy I have no interest in sales or insurance. I might be interested in selling technical products and services. Strangely, none of those recruiters ever contact me.
I once did look up technical sales, and you can’t get those jobs with technical experience. A tech sales job with a salary comparable to what I now make requires more years of sales experience than I could probably get in the next 15 years. I’m not going back to “entry-level” just to do it.
As the closing to my two paragraph response to “mascot rhymes with F-word” recruiter, I asked what part of my resume indicates I have ANY interest in sales or insurance or selling insurance. How can any honest recruiter look at a resume with 25 years of experience that goes like this: “Navy technician, technician, engineer, IT Project Manager, IT Policy”, and think “This guy would be a perfect match for selling insurance!”
Selling this type of insurance must require the exact same qualification as selling multi-level marketing: you have to fog a mirror. It’s the same thing if you find yourself in the target of an Amway representative: “You’re such a go-getter! I’m with an international business that’s looking for people like you! We’re meeting at a hotel tonight. You should come! Here’s a motivational tape that tells you how much money you can make in this business. But it tells you absolutely NOTHING about the business!” (Hopefully, they’ve progressed beyond tapes by now. Even CDs are getting archaic.)
