February 27, 2004

• The AmEx Experience

  For a while, several years ago, I was a licensed Life Insurance agent for Primerica, a subsidiary of the Traveler's Group. I was working on one of the two securities licenses I would need to become a full Financial Adviser when I quit the job. I could no longer do the work!

  I have a history of migraines, but they have only rarely been serious. Once was in the late 1970's, when I was doing a lot of specialized report generation for the State Department to help them prepare their negotiations for the Panama Canal treaties. The stress of that assignment gave me other health problems, too, and the migraines disappeared when the special reports were no longer required.

  The migraines would last up to three days. During the most intense period, any bright light or any loud noise was agonizing. I would seek the quietest dark place I could find to ride it out. Two headaches could ruin a week.

  Migraines are curious phenomena. Before they start, you can feel them getting ready. Then there is a period of up to three or four hours in which you can suffer what they call the aura, various kinds of visual or auditory malfunctions. My usual aura was the kind they called scintillating scatoma, bright flashing lights and bright jagged lines and geometricals that completely obscured the visual field, effectively blinding me. Then the aura would be replaced by wave after wave of pain.

  The migraines from the reporting didn't have much of an aura and I could often work through the pain. But when I was working for Primerica, the migraines were mostly aura followed only briefly by pain, partly because I had learned how to treat them.

  The people I was working with didn't react well to my suddenly going blind every once in a while, although my clients never knew. The levels of stress didn't diminish. I bailed out.

  When I posted my resume on the Internet, I originally left out some of the work I had been doing as being inapplicable to the kind of job I was seeking. When I lost my customer service job, I updated the resumes. I not only included the information about the customer service job, I added the information about my brief experience in the world of financial planning.

  American Express Financial Advisers called me. They had discovered my updated resume and wanted to know if I was interested in working as a financial adviser for them. I took their computerized personality profiling test and sat through their presentation, then declined their offer. Although the conditions and benefits were much better than what I had enjoyed with Primerica, the work would have been just as stressful. I would have three months in which to pick up the three licenses (Life Insurance Agent plus two Securities licenses), which would require an investment of about $1,500 on my part initially, to be repaid double when I have the licenses. But I can't risk having my migraines return to cut short a promising future.

  From what I've seen of them, American Express would be a very good company to work for. They are actively expanding right now and have many openings for people able to get the licenses and to work with people on planning their finances, a not-unpleasant task which is also financially rewarding. I don't really know why it stressed me so, since I enjoyed it while I was working at it.

  But if you've had even one severe migraine you'll understand why I'm extremely reluctant to go ahead with this potentially rewarding career.

  • 21:10
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