jamba

This Fall I will be going into my third year of college as an Economics major. I haven't really looked for an internship this summer and I feel like it's wasting away. I recently had an interview with a company that sells insurance, such as World Financial Group or Northwestern Mutual. The company seems very legit and I was impressed with the workspace.

I asked my friend who's interning at Goldman Sachs if I should take this position and he said that I shouldn't work for these companies that go around selling insurance because they're scams. I'm not too familiar with this whole idea, but I do get the pyramid scheme vibe from what they're telling me.

The thing is that I won't be working as a Financial Representative, which means that I won't be going around trying to sell this product. I'll be working under one of the Financial Representatives and be doing some "administrative work," which is probably a ton of paperwork. It's unpaid and they only offer college credits.

I was just wondering if any of you guys could possibly shed some light about a company like this. Is it worth interning?

secretfire

If it's going to be your rising senior internship, I'd say it isn't worth it. I'm sure your school does career fairs in the fall so wait and see what you can get then. Though the company may be legit, it's even more important to make sure the internship is legit as well. I went for the name brand company and my job turned out to be alot of nonsensical work. Don't waste your time. Try to get into an organization that will give you the opportunity to be an asset to their one of their lines of business rather than do admin work that they can hire a secretary to do.

My opinion is to get an internship with a company that values your abilities enough to at least pay you. What college student can afford to drive to an unpaid internship on $4 dollar gas anyway?

yahooo

World Financial Group is a SCAM. It's definitely part of those MLM schemes. IMO the Northwestern Mutual is a bit more legit, but you probably wouldn't be learning too much. I would try to stay away from those sales positions.

Just curious, are you a UCLA student? I think I just saw the companies you posted on BruinView..

jamba

Yeah I'm attending UCLA. Are you in the Business/Economics major Yahooo?

The only thing I've been doing so far is getting rid of my Writing II prerequisite at my local community college. I don't want to waste this summer and do nothing. Do you have any advice on what I can do this with the rest of my summer?

yahooo

I'm going to be a second year pre-bizecon major this fall. I'll be applying for my major right after fall quarter.

Hmm... At this point, I think it's a little too late to find internships but perhaps you could find a job on campus. Or, you could take summer classes.