CHANGER A CHALLENGING CAREER IN INSURANCE

a lot of students were taking nursing. At the hospital where his grandfather was confined, he saw the beauty of these nurses in taking care of the ill patients aside from being captivated by the white uniform and white shoes these nurses were wearing.

After graduation, he took the board exam but didn’t pass. “When I took the exam, my sister would be in college and I had to support her in sending to college. In addition, I had to help my parents as well,” he said.

Tantan had to do something to make both ends meet. He was up to the challenge. After all, he had been selling kakanins that were made by his mother and grandmother when he was still young. “I loved doing it – going to our neighborhoods and offering it. I love the idea of selling and gaining profit from it,” he said.

He started his career by joining the BDO Life Assurance Company, where he worked for five years.

“I had the best training in BDO Life,” he admitted. “It was tough but it was worth it as I was being mentored by my bosses. I attended a lot of seminars and training that the company provided. Being in the insurance business was very hard. It was a tough job because it was not easy to convince people about the value of having

BY HENRYLITO D. TACIO

Together with his wife and three children insurance.”

Later on, he joined the Maxicare Healthcare Corporation only to transfer to Manulife Philippines in the same year. He is now in his sixth year in Manulife as a business unit manager.

It was Roy Cervantes who invited him for a new opportunity; he was recruited by him to join Manulife. When he accepted the offer, he was assigned as a unit manager in Tagum City. “With my experience in sales in my previous company as an insurance sales advisor, it was easy for me then to have the job,” he said, adding that the only challenge he encountered was to create a new team and how to manage these people as well.

The task was herculean.

“It was so hard for me when I started because I have to recruit people to join in the industry and at the same time I have to sell as well because I have a rank retention to maintain,” he said.

“Recruiting people was very hard because it’s a commission-based program and most of the people I invited are not into it because they have that employee mindset that is comfortable in 15-30 payroll,” he continued.

What most people don’t know is that a career in insurance is very self-fulfilling. “On top of the earnings that you have, you are entitled and privileged to enjoy perks in an all-expense paid luxury trip if you hit the sales parameters,” he said.

Tantan is one of the chosen few who had that opportunity. He was 28 when he got his passport because