actuary

insurance agent

customer service representative

internal wholesaler

financial analyst

Transamerica

This is definitely not a job for the faint of heart.  Think of your busiest most stressful work day and times it by 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  If you think this is an exaggeration, go ahead and test the waters. As a Client Relationship Manager/Account Manager/Account Executive your first year will be a blur of 10-12 hour days just trying to stay afloat. We call it the "sink or swim" period.  Training is almost non-existent and nearly impossible so you will have to learn as you go.  It will take a full year to even feel like you have your feet underneath you, due to the mass amount of duties, emails, questions, research you will be doing. Even 5 years later you will still not know it all, and probably never will because every day you will get some new situation or question thrown your way.  You will have to give up the hope that if you almost empty your inbox, tomorrow will be a slower day because it will never happen.  The more emails you answer, the more you get back, like a boomerang on steroids. If you are a fan of 8 hour work days, this isn't the job for you. No one will force you to work over 8 hours per day, but if you want to be successful and keep your job, you will have to.  The workload requires it.  On average, our department works 10 hour days to stay at our SLAs.  Work Life Balance?  You won't find that here.  If you are a work-a-holic, this is just the job for you.  If you like research and problem solving all day everyday, this is the job for you.  If you like high stress, are very organized, looking for fires upon fires to put out, have excellent prioritization skills, are a quick thinker, have excellent customer service skills, work ethic to the max, have no young children, and have basically no life outside of work, this may be the job made just for you.  
I know this sounds mostly scary, but there are a few good things as well.  Your work hours are fairly flexible, you have the opportunity to work from home at least a couple days a week, you will have a mostly amazing team of co-workers in the same boat as you, the pay is competitive, and the benefits are good. 
Hardworking, dedicated, and ready to work your tail off?  Then apply and be ready to do just that.

Transamerica's New Business Department  is a disaster!  The work itself isn't bad, but Transamerica management within their operations department is TERRIBLE.  Manager's have never performed the specific job functions of the job, so they're unable to assist you with the day-to-day functions of the position, they have terrible training, and management doesn't seem to care much about the overall well being of their employees.  Work is expected to be completed according to management's time standards and quality expectations, which is nearly impossible to do without cheating their system.  Each work type you're required to work has a specific time standard associated with it, meaning that you have to get through that piece of work within the specified time standard or you will have a low TPP (Total Production Points) score.  You also have a quality score, which is based on the number of errors/mistakes you make (or someone else makes).  So if you make too many errors/mistakes, or if you don't catch a mistake that someone else made while working the piece, you will have a low quality score.  Having either a low TPP score or a low quality score can get you terminated.  So basically, you have to rush through your work as fast as possible without making any mistakes, which is very difficult to do.  This is why Transamerica's New Business Department burns through so many employees.  This is not a long term job and there are very few advancement opportunities.  My advice, if you want to get ahead within the department or just keep your job, fudge your numbers and play the politics.  That's the only way I saw anyone in our department get ahead.  Use out-of-ques to boost your TPP numbers and try not to work difficult pieces.  This strategy seemed to work for one of my co-workers and he got promoted twice within the department.  Of course, you can get fired for fudging your numbers, but if you don't, you'll probably get fired anyways for having a low TPP or quality score.  Like I said, it's a terrible place to work.

I got the interview, now I am excited. Job interview was uniquely under qualifying as I was shown an excel report and asked "Can you do this?" I acknowledge the report and was hired. Not much of an interview, we did not discuss my other credentials(years of experience) or my recent degree in finance. I thought hey not the best interview but very excited to get the job for a decent wage. 
Showed up for work with the excitement glow ready to help my new team mates.
Rocked after the first week, because the supervisor did not (because she could not) train a different new employee that was 30 days into her job. That employee was denied equal treatment apparently  color plays a part in decisions concerning advancement or potential raises. I was shocked! Director level management had their old guard set in place for years!
As three years passed saw many individual treated unfairly by poor supervisor and director's. Recurring thought was if the outside world knew about this organization no one would by Insurance from this place. After using my management skills from a prior experiences - to help cultivate a more team atmosphere for all which was inclusive. I was branded a color lover to which I was proud of? Again WOW!
Is this really happening in 2013? Aren't we tired of the disrespect to others? When I approached HR. Nothing changed except additional mistreatment because I was now a threat.
Finally forced to look for another job elsewhere because of the harassment. Thank God I was blessed to get a job with a more Professional approach including a windowed office. Felt bad because others were not able to leave and were great people. Under the right management team with true evaluations based on qualifications/job performance this place could excel but sadly from my contacts the same old discriminating tricks are still being played with no accountability especially the HR corporate staff after being informed by many, many others as they quit!
This place is not worth the effort! Move along! I hope this helps!

Internal Wholesaler:

1.  Making phone calls throughout the day, but metrics keep changing and management does not communicate with transparency the needs of the desk, leading to confusion and frustration of the team.
2. Required to clock in BY THE MINUTE.  If the time stamp does not match, you are required to re-enter your time.  Hints of a lack of trust and micromanagement by higher-ups.
3. Middle Management appears to be rather incestual,  not necessarily focused on progressing the company, but rather, collecting of paychecks.  Middle management doesn't appear to hire outside, but rather play a game of musical chairs, promoting and moving around to different positions within the company, while not seeing any real progress being made.
3-a. Company is focusing on initiatives that do not relate to the end user or the core business functions of the company.  We are to serve our retail clients, financial advisors, and insurance brokers with financial services and products, and instead are focusing on "Wealth and Health".  
4.  The hardest part of the job is trying to please two masters.  Working with your external wholesaling partner and maximizing efficiency while also trying to please management by "checking the box" of hitting specific metrics that are blanketed across geography.  There is no understanding of different cultures within different parts of the country and therefore different ways to conduct business and drive results.
5. The most enjoyable part of the job is the people in the pits making dials with you.  Good people.

One last note:  If you are looking to work for Transamerica on the sales desk, a good take away is a case where one of the internal wholesaler's father had a stroke in the middle of the day.  Seeking to leave work to visit his father in the hospital, his manager specified that this time would be taken as "Unscheduled Paid Time Off" and result in an "occurrence" that would be held against him for 12 months.

I worked at Transamerica for three years.  I started as a temp, and it took a year-and-a-half for them to hire me as a permanent employee.  When I first applied as a permanent employee there were "issues" with HR which delayed my permanent status by almost a month.  Other employees who were there for less than three months were hired on as permanent employees before myself because supervisors "played favorites".  
After I was hired as a permanent employee, I worked on a project which was outside of my job description for approximately a year, during which time it was hinted I might get either a promotion, new position, raise, and/or bonus, but, when the time came around for my annual review I got only a $0.34 raise, and additional responsibility was added to my job description which included roles I had not previously filled over the past three years.  
When I would try to talk to my supervisor about any issue after she became aware I was no longer content with my situation, she brought in another supervisor to try to handle my complaints, seemingly to avoid confrontation between herself and I.  
Management was inflexible and unwilling to compromise regarding my situation. I gave not two, but three weeks of notice when I quit.  There was NO EFFORT MADE to try to retain me.  Not even any hint of appreciation for the hard work I put in over the last three years, nor the project I worked on which save the company tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands.  
Additionally, when times were hard for the company the first thing they did was ask for voluntary separation, followed by various department cuts, and then layoffs.  While this may have made the most sense on paper, the way they went about it, in my opinion, was unprofessional.  
Perhaps it was just my particular department and supervisors which failed me, but from my experience I advise to AVOID TRANSAMERICA.

I loved working for Transamerica for the better part of my many years there.  Fantastic employees including management. A strong history of promoting from within and providing proper and realistic training.  Starting with the financial crises a few years ago, Transamerica made some tough decisions with regard to adapting to changing times. Upper mgmt began leaving in droves with hardly a quarter going by without some sort of email announcing a management reporting structure change or divisional structure change. At some point during all this change, the focus was put directly on production and results. You either had to produce the results they expected or be at risk of losing your job.  Like any company, the entire idea is to make money.  Nothing wrong with that.  The challenge was you were expected to produce with a continued reduction in resources. That meant longer hours, discouraged employees, and more and more unhappy customers.  Some incredibly talented people have been let go as a result of automation. I suspect many of them were offered other positions within the company but at far lower pay levels and possibly not in a field they're familiar or comfortable with. In any event, their workload had to be handled by the fewer and fewer remaining employees with, in some cases, troubling results and ever lengthening resolution times. Should you work for Transamerica?  Sure, but understand what you are signing up for.  This is not your time card punching job where you just do your job and go home each day. Those days are long gone.  You must produce, expect to work overtime, and above all else, diversify as much as you can while there. Cross train as much as you can and never forget that.

Transamerica is lacking in management support. They will lie to you during the interview process about your job duties, lie to you about having a flexible work schedule, lie to you about compensation. Transamerica only cares about numbers, not their employees. If you are looking at a position in the New Business department, I strongly urge you to reconsider. New Business is treated as a lesser at Transamerica, there is no support, no help from management, you will be forced to be on the phones for 6+ hours a day, 1 hours phone calls, then told to work emails while on the phones. It’s mentally exhausting, and management refuses to help. The position was told there would be little to no phone calls, we would be working emails to process cases as a Case Manager should, however, that was a lie. The supervisors spend all their time in meetings coming up with NO solutions to help their team. Management, upper management, supervisors ~ they lack leadership skills. No support system, you are treated as though you should not have opinions and should do as you are told with no complaints. Supervisors will isolate you, not tell you the truth, they do not care about improving the company or their team. Supervisors will be MIA when you need them and they will force you to do their work. 

There is no flexibility in your schedule, you cannot pick your hours, your breaks and you are forced to work late night shift each month. 

You will regret working at Transamerica, turn back while you still can!

I started as a temp without an interview. Training took about 2 weeks, but they're extended that out to 3 weeks since I started. They dragged their feet hiring me based off the fact that I missed one day in a 6 month period. The company has gone downhill since I started there a few years ago and covid hasn't helped. They used to care a lot about company culture and appreciating their employees but they don't even try anymore. There is a high turn around rate in the company as the job is entirely on the phone. Systems regularly fail, policies are changed with very little consideration of how they will impact employees, upper management doesn't care about the employees, and while the supervisors will tell you they care and want to see you advance and succeed, they really just want to micro manage you and make sure you're taking as many calls as possible. They've recently started to implement mandatory overtime and they've been using it a lot more frequently and for longer intervals. The pay is decent, but the raises are miniscule and only done once a year and are "performance based". The benefits are okay with a 3% match on 401k. They talk a lot about how they want you to advance and do more but they offer next to no guidance or opportunities to do it. Favoritism is typical. Your value as an employee is based on how many calls you can take and how close you can stick to a schedule, down to the second. Courses that are offered are vague and I've yet to see any other employer know what the certifications are. The company itself doesn't even care for other positions.

The "actual" work is Great!  The conditions are not.- Typical day - multi-tasking all day- - Paying bills, maintenance, suspense, reaching out to New business ,groups ,agents when no policies, no applications, rate issues, refunds, email responses within 24 hrs. Calls from groups or agents with questions regarding bills, inter-office emails , IM's , attending meetings, training, personal mandatory Integrity Ed training, Correcting errors.
 Instead of having types of jobs separated - all employees do it all and due to this we are unable to meet or surpass our Productivity goals.

Learned word, excel, access , many internal programs-
Personal training in diversity

 Management manages per  Corporate offices -Some  are not friendly nor speak  to the subordinates -

 Co-workers are the Bomb-We get our support and strength form each-other- we laugh and encourage one another 

   
The hardest part is that with todays economy the Employees are spread too thin. While productivity is unattainable, because so many other duties are involved- Doing more with less. Moral is the worst I have ever seen - Our evaluations are the results of  our Productivity - we have to pay so may bills in an hour - Not all bills are the same- It could take days to pay one bill, due to the challenges presented.   

 The most enjoyable part of the job is working with numbers and getting the satisfaction of putting the puzzle together and get that feeling of pleasure and satisfaction when a group or agent is pleased
that all areas of their bill have been addressed and corrected and they want you to always pay "their" bill.

It's like working in the movie "office space". For some they just want a steady paycheck and typical 8-5p job portrayed in the movie I mentioned. I would say if you want to work for a company that empowers verse puts boundaries up, is customer centric, has a transformational leader in charge, has an innovative environment, is transparent and trustworthy then you will have to make a decision if this the right place for you. 

They are smart and have their location central/downtown making it easy to live in any part of Denver. They do a good job with benefits over what a small company can offer. I was happy with what I got for retirement, health insurance, tuition reimbursement ($5250 yearly) and free rtd pass. Lastly, Transamerica offers a "competitive package", but is not the industry leader in compensation/benefits. 

The other big observation I will add. Work life balance is not a thing in this department. I would say less then 5% of employees in this particular department get to work remote, alternative hours, or a flexible schedule. I had a difficult situation come up in life; was offered the use FMLA, talk with someone, but they quickly made it clear they wouldn't be open to a 4day shifts, part time remote, or even any other solutions around schedule even on a temporary basis. 


Bottom line: I couldn't recommend family/friends to work at Transamerica or use their retirement products. Not that they were terrible, but why would you recommend 5th best to family/friends when you knew of better.

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