Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan Interview Questions
& Process

You'll have a face-to-face interview with a managing partner, who would be your direct boss. If he likes you, you'll take a computer test to gauge your honesty, work ethic, values, and ability to succeed in insurance sales. It's not easy, and most people don't pass. Farm Bureau requires managers to hire people with very high scores on this test, aiming for the top 15%. If you pass with a good score, they'll be eager to hire you because the manager has a new hire quota. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to join, including promises of making over 100k in three years. However, in my nine years there, I never made that much, and I didn't know many agents who did. Out of 400 agents, only about 10-15 made six figures, with most earning in the mid-50s. They'll say you control your schedule, which is true, but you need to be selling a lot of life insurance to justify your time off to your manager.

This is my second time applying here. The first time I had trouble scheduling an in-person interview and ended up taking another job. This time, I had an initial phone screen and then waited. I took a short contract role in the meantime. After that ended, I had a panel/group interview. They used an interview checklist and followed it. The technical screening questions were very basic, like something a third-year IT student could answer. No programming test was given. The manager was competent and nice, and I got the job. I've been here a month. The tech is about six years old, which is considered current. The people are friendly, and I haven't seen any weird behavior. Management is good, and meetings are short. The pay is fair, and the hours are short (38-hour week compared to my usual 50-hour weeks), with good benefits. It's a very relaxed environment compared to past contract jobs. It's a great place to be hired, and I might retire here. They value employee retention, with some colleagues having 20+ years of experience. It's unusual they haven't been outsourced. Also, half the IT staff are women, which is interesting given the low percentage of women in IT graduates, though perhaps normal for an insurance company. There's a lot of institutional knowledge because people stay long-term, making for a pleasant work environment. This is a great place to start a career, and my search for a normal workplace is over.

The interview process took about 3 weeks from application to the final in-person interview. Everything was going well until after the face-to-face interview. What was frustrating was that they didn't update me after that. I waited 2 weeks, then contacted my main point of contact. Within a few hours, I got a generic rejection email from someone I'd never spoken to. My advice is, if you don't want the candidate, the person they interviewed with should have the courage and respect to let them know promptly. I'm more upset about the poor communication at the end than not getting the job.

The interview process was set up quickly and was a well-organized experience. It's been 2 months since my interview and I haven't heard anything about the status. There's no contact person to follow up with, just a prompt to check their career page. The waiting period has been the most difficult part.