MassMutual Reviews

Former Employee – worked at MassMutual as an intern for less than a year

Pros – The Group was very diversified, people nice but tough. Work load is not that high as imagine. It's a good stage to start career, where you could meet with professional people and enjoy the high efficiency group work.

Cons – Financial planning is not that fun

Former Employee – worked at MassMutual full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – benefits are worth working there

Cons – management doesn't understand its workers

Advice to Senior Management – Need to reach out to employees more and pay them fairly

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at MassMutual full-time for less than a year

Pros – Nice environment and good people.

Cons – Management are not always clear with respect to expectations and coordination of staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Set clear expectations and follow through on details of progress. Closely monitor dependencies in order to achieve maximum efficiency.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at MassMutual as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Flexibility, independence, exceptional training. The company is solid and its products high-end and reliable. There is a good amount of support for new agents, along with some financial help for the first year. The agencies in general do a great job, while home office is a little less helpful. It is beneficial to try this career because, even if it does not result in large amounts of sales, the training alone is well worth the time and lays an experiential foundation for the future when the economy improves again.

Cons – Underwriting is a nightmare. Agents do the cold calls, get the appointments, make the sales. It is disappointing to then feel that underwriters are slow to handle the business. It leaves the frustrated agent feeling like he/she must run through a defensive line and only occasionally score. The home office staff is overworked and underpaid, which is difficult and often causes the loss of hard-won clients to competitors who have a more efficient system. Commission only is always a challenge, especially in this economy. It is recommended that one have an additional income before embarking on a career as an agent.

Advice to Senior Management – Encourage new people as much as possible. Be realistic with expectations. Even seasoned agents are not able to sell as many financial service products as they could before the economic crash. Please don't compare a new agent to your father who began in the 1960s. It is a new, harsher world in the finance business, with less disposable income and more govenment regulation.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great company, treats employees well

Cons – Lack of salary to start people off in the business

Advice to Senior Management – Rework the comp for people coming into the business and make it feasible for them to come into the career.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual full-time

Pros – Senior managememt really cares about you and wants you to succeed. Excellent training, mentoring programs, competitive commision structure, could be a great career for someone who is good at building a book of business. Solid and stable company. Great people to work with. Everyone is really geniune and knowlegable. Very professional work setting.

Cons – Tough industry, have to be good at prospecting, no base salary, have to pay for your own marketing, turn over high.

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual

Pros – I'm a financial advisor with a MassMutual general agency in NY. Been in the business four years. The position is 100% commission.

Don't get into this career unless your number one motivator is money, don't listen to anyone that tells you differently. You also need a large warm market if you want to make money quickly, otherwise it will take many years. Takes five years on average to make what you're worth.

MassMutual is a great company, some of the best products in the business, but each agency is run differently. Some, all they want you to push is whole life and DI, others offer holistic financial planning services.

Occasionally the agencies have staff vacancies, but its rare. Move up to Springfield, MA if you are serious about a home office position with MassMutual.

Cons – You can get screwed financially if you don't reach sales goals early on in your career as a new agent.

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual part-time for less than a year

Pros – Great product line and fantastic training for sales force. Excellent commissions.

Cons – Can feel like a shark tank a lot of the time, very little support or training in regards to prospecting.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on making agents instead of getting agents.

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Training at first on insurance products, comp if producing

Cons – No lead source, farm your friends and families for products and have a wait and see attitude if you make it or not, Very High turnover equals more residual income for MassMutual and not have to pay the agent. Management for the most part are producing as well so they don't have time for you. Keep telling you to hang in there meanwhile your spending all your savings trying to "make it". Red tape ensures it take forever to get anything done and the amount of paper is to sell anything is absurd for this day and age. No salary, and if your trying to sell anthying other than insurance products your the "redheaded step child" .

Advice to Senior Management – Stop pretending to be a fullservice shop when there's no support or too many restrictions for selling investment products, your an insurance company and that's all you really care about.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at MassMutual full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – From an IT perspective you get exposure and experience to the latest Technology.
The people you work with are the best asset and make the job worthwhile.
They pay well, although it could be better since the money they offer is not enough to stave off any competition.
flexible hours -- although this depends on your manager, which could change at a moments notice.
work from home options -- although again, this depends on your manager and some feel the need to micro manage more than others.

Cons – No consensus of direction from Executive leadership. Talk to several difference Executive leaders and you'll all different visions from all of them.

SDLC is not structured for IT infrastructure --- huge amount of stress. This is not due to the SDLC process itself, but the lack of any real effort to make it work for IT.

Overall SDLC process is a nightmare.

For IT, you are the Subject Matter Expert if something is broken. If it's a Design or Architecture question then the experience and perception is your Expertise is null and void.

Summary for IT staff -- If you like working in the movie Office Space and having your Expertise ignored -- come here!

Advice to Senior Management – Start asking your Subject Matter Experts to design and develop options for you instead of trying doing it yourselves -- you wouldn't ask your Carpenter to perform Heart Surgery ...

No one is going to provide any honest feedback for fear of reprisal. If you want honest feedback -- allow for Anonymous feedback.

You are a big reason SDLC is not working -- because there's an unwritten exception process for executive leadership team and you are burning out your IT staff.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company