actuary

developmental disabilities case manager

customer service representative

director

software engineer

Sun Life

Pros:
- Good compensation and benefits
- Financially stable company
- Good people at working level
- Flexible work from home arrangements

Cons:
- Leaders don't walk the talk. Lots of nice speaches on things like work life balance and caring for employees' wellness, but the reality is that leaders only care about what you deliver and put a lot of pressure.
- Lots of overtime at the professional level, without much recognition. It's expected that you'll work 24/7, including weekends.
- Managers care about results, not people. Only think short term deliverables to make them look good and not long term value.
- Toxic environment and culture in many parts of the company.
- The HR story is nice but isn't delivered by both leaders (with some exceptions) and HR itself.
- Many members of senior management have big egos and only care about their own personal interests and image.


Senior management needs to show that they really care for people. Need to develop leadership skills of senior leaders to be better people manager and not just look good for themselves.
Should also recruit leaders who show more modesty (rather than with big egos and who are self-centered), are better team players, develop people, and know how to show empathy. It will pay off in the long term.

you are trapped....

they make you feel tiny, unheard, unimportant and unappreciated.

I find one of the biggest hurdles with this company is that everyone seems to be working against each other, there is no unity. so much blame and guilt passed around. you do a million good things and you MIGHT get someone telling you "hey good job on that"... do something subpar for once, 10 people asking you whats going on.

you are monitored every second of everyday, make you feel guilty for going to the bathroom! 
You can try and voice your opinion to everyone and anyone you can, everyone will give you the exact same answer from team lead to HR, "that's just how it is".

doesn't matter who you try to speak with or what you try to do, there is no help. 

If you take a sick day, they call you 3-4 times throughout the day to make sure you're still sick and can't come into work.

there is an 18 (now 24) month commitment to the position before you can apply elsewhere in the company, I put in 2 years, applied and received an interview. The interviewer said everything shy of me getting the job, couldn't have gone better. I was told 2-3 days to hear from them, and hinted at hearing even sooner.

after 2.5 weeks, and me reaching out to the interviewer, the director and Human recourses several times, I finally received an email letting me know that although the interview was perfect and couldn't have gone better, she was limited to who she was allowed to choose.

I later found out that the manager put a hiring freeze on the call centre, meaning nobody is to be hired OUT of the call centre for other positions within the company until further notice. which in turn means that they hire externally. Although none of this is legal, I was advised my multiple managers/supervisors/team leads, that if I were to bring this to HR, it would make me look bad and they would "black list me"

All in All if I'm rating this position within this company, out of 10 I would have to go with a solid 3.

I joined the position of a financial advisor - from the beginning everything felt too good to be true. They told me that I was a business owner and would make over 100k starting year one and would continue to do so. It is a commission based job with no base pay, every year your bonuses get cut and management really never explains how you actually get paid. Most advisors take a full year to realize that they are most likely making less than minimum wage. One year I made less than 20K as a full time advisor working close to 50-60 hours per week. Managements answer was too work hard and do more cold-calling - if you are cold calling in 2020s, you are doing it wrong.

There is also next to no training and you are asked to sell insurance and handle people's finances. Unless you have a background from a bank or another financial sector, you are basically pretending you know what you are doing for months, until you self teach yourself. Even then, you can teach yourself and make quotas, so it's better to go to school or join an institution that will actually teach you about finances.

The culture is very "Salesy" and competitive against your peers. Results are posted daily and at monthly campaign meetings you are either praised or criticized in front of all your peers. Most new advisors won't have a client base to draw from, so you are constantly ridiculed for poor performance, while advisors with 20+ experience outperform you.

If you are looking for work life balance this is not the career. When I first started it was close to 60+ hours per week and I was just breaking even on my bills. Clients call at all hours and expect you to get back ASAP. Again no training on how or when to hire staff, also most people can not afford a full time assistant starting out.

If I can save just one person from joining this career path and company I can sleep at night. Do not make the mistake I did, I wasted 3 years of my money and my life with nothing to show for it.

The Sun Life career network is described to applicants as self-employment.

This is the first lie. While it is true that the career offers a lot of autonomy over various aspects of the job, the management team will always be behind you to find out what you are doing, and if they deem these insufficient they will quickly become harassing.

Recently, some regions no longer have a financial center, forcing applicants to make arrangements and obligations on their own, without Sun Life having to worry about anything.They have a good game. Resources, money, employees and etc, but Sun Life asks advisors to represent the banner well when the interest to do so is very low.

Short-term commissions are lower than elsewhere. The fees are higher than elsewhere as well.

Compensation and commissions are very complex and there are regular errors. Makes me think it's designed with the goal of stopping a full understanding of real pay.

There are a lot of people in the hierarchy who are not honest. Be careful not to rely too much on them. After all, if you ever need support or whatever, it will be Sun Life first.

Promises, promises and more promises, but at the end of the day, those promises are rarely delivered.

In your beginnings they will be sympathetic, compassionate, available, but at a certain point things turn out so you have no choice but to listen. Clients are owned by Sun Life. So in your beginnings, you have no leverage, it is always Sun Life that will have the big end of the stick. They will make you do things you don't want and you will have no choice but to listen, because you will be left with obligations and you will not see the exit door without a huge headache.

I suggest you consider career networks other than Sun Life. There is the possibility of being self-employed elsewhere in this sector of activity without having to pay exorbitant rent or office expenses as with Sun Life.

You really need to be dedicated to work this job. 
Most people look towards family and friends for meetings and sales - I don't feel comfortable pushing products on the people I know and love. Other ways of getting clients are trade shows, cold calling, or referrals. One thing you NEED to be good at - talking on the phone. 
The entire business is based around calling and booking appointments. The best times to call are 530-830 Monday through Thursday, when people are home from work. Be willing to work those times.
Some clients aren't able to meet during the day, so you'll have to book some evening appointments in the office or their home, or maybe even a weekend. Do NOT make a habit of meeting on weekends, otherwise your clients will grow accustomed to it and will expect it.
There are people that will help you in the job, and people who will bring you down (best to stay away from those). If you're a social person, and you want to make friends at work and travel and go to events with them, then you'll have fun here. 
You need the drive to get up and go to work every day. Being your own boss and owning your business is a big responsibility. The first 3-5 years of your career at Sun Life, you should be working 50 hours a week, having 10-12 appointments per week, and making a minimum of 2 sales per week, which is harder than it sounds. 

My piece of advice?
I came into this role right out of college. It works for some, but I wish that I had gone to a salary position first. When you're just starting out and you have bills and want to save up money, the office expenses and uncertainty of a paycheck will stress you out. 
Be willing to become mutual fund licensed, so that you can have a stream of income once you build up your wealth portfolio - which will take a little while.

I have been a Financial Advisor with Sun Life Financial for a little over 2 years now and I can honestly rate the role, most specifically the financial centre where I work, truly outstanding. Since starting 2 years ago I have had the opportunity to assist my friends, family, and anyone who have been referred to me with their financial planning. I asked myself "why not?" Every household needs the solutions Sun Life Financial provides anyway so I'd rather get paid for it instead of the banks. I'm so glad I made the move to pursue the Financial Advisor career as I have always wanted to run my own financial services firm. This role is not for the "employee-minded" individual. You've got to have the entrepreneurial mindset as the main objective to succeed in this role is effective business development. Otherwise, you would end up like the other individuals who have left negative reviews here on Indeed. It is a challenging role as there are some factors you cannot control (eg. cancelled appointments, declined/cancelled plans). However, the positives heavily outweighs the challenges and hence it makes it rewarding. Our branch has multiple Hall of Famers and that is a true testament to the great culture and support that we receive at our financial centre. Training & development programs from Sun Life are certainly industry-best and you won't receive this same treatment from any other independent/brokerage firms. Lastly, the members of our management team were former top performers themselves and so all I do is consistently apply the same effective strategies that my managers and senior financial advisors have been doing.

A typical day at work is about starting my day to prioritize work such as responding to my Client's needs through email inquiries, telephone messages, telephone inquiries & urgents request. At Sun LIfe & Great West Life, I learn to work closely with my team & independently with less supervision of my Manager. I accomplish my work in order & meets Client's needs & in order to be productive. I go beyond my work & recognized internally & Client's feedback at times, for example, when a Client request for their disability payment to be deposited directly to the account, I always make myself available to walk to the Bank to get this done. This is one of helping & responding to Client's needs. Work Management is also prioritizing day to day task, this involves turn around times & in order to assess claims within the standard procedure & process according to accountabilities. I am a team player, always make it a point to do my role helping with my team to be more productive, and this way, the team would always meet excellency in all aspects of the job. I have always been enjoying my job, used my knowledge and trained to do the best I could. The hardest part of the job is when waiting for information to complete a claim, the decission is being delayed beyond the turn around time and Client needs is not being met at this point. The most enjoyable part of the job is when you accomplish something special & beyond & working with the team and other employees, gaining knowlewdge & support.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The way Sun Life treats their employees. There are wellness programs and wellness days. There are opportunities to grow within the company and there is lots of flexibility around remote, hybrid work. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Some people managers are not people persons. That can get stressful if you happen to fall under such a manager. Out of almost a dozen managers I had one was not a people person and that was stressful. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Really good team members and you get good support from the team. Friendly people. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Before the pandemic it was like parking the car and getting into the building to a lot of friendly greetings from fellow sun lifers and security/ reception folks. Getting to the desk and settling down - checking the meetings for the day and going to get tea and breakfast from cafeteria to more friendly faces and greetings. The café staff are hands down the best employees ever. Then go on with the day until lunch doing work, collaborating with team members and working on my own. Then getting a healthy lunch from café- more friendly faces and greetings and back to work. When the weather is good I used to walk to uptown Waterloo to pick up a lunch that I can eat at my desk. Then continue work. At the end of the day if we wanted we could go to the gym in the building. We get a discounted membership.

Working for large corporations or small business, it has been a great experience and eye opener. 
Adapted and enjoyed each company I have been employed by.  I had different responsibilities and work environment. 
Seems I always deal with customers on the phones or face to face. 
With Toyota Credit Canada Inc, was involved in customer service, call centre. Helping or answering questions for customers /dealers of their contracts for loans or leases of a vehicle. 
At a work force we meet lots of people, co-workers and management. I have made long lasting friends,
As a personnel view, we all need improvement in one way or another. Could be structure of company, politics, way its managed .... to the small person in the front line. We all need to grow !
We do not go by a day, that we do not learn something new !
The hardest or enjoyable part of a job, is satisfaction. 
For me, as a customer service agent, its important that I have answered all questions and resolved the issue. At times we get that challenging customer ( as my years of experience), each one person is so different from another. My view at this is just breath and have the customer his/her time to speak out, than take control. Need to have good listening skills, patient and empathy. 
The most enjoyable part of my job, was working as a Team.... 
Learning/helping another co-worker .

I worked with Sun Life Financial as an assistant financial advisor. My supervisor and sales manager are very friendly and hard working individuals. They are not only working during office hours and they are willing to committed effort and time after work with clients. I usually arrived office around 9am in the morning. They provided me with coffee and snacks. My job was to conduct research of clients' satisfaction and preference about our insurance products, and I have to build and strengthen relationships with clients through phones to understand their specific needs. Every week, My boss will provide me with soft skills trainings. She is willing to share stories between her and her clients. This is the most enjoyable part of the job. I have found myself becoming more cooperative with my team members, and I have learned how to communicate properly with clients. This is also the hardest part of the job because different clients have extremely different demands. We need to understand their specific needs and provide preferable life insurance plans or financial service to them.

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