Finding the right job after graduation is hard. You need a company that invests in new grads with training, mentorship, and growth opportunities that can inspire you to excel. That can be a tricky bill to fit. But what’s even harder is finding the right job in the right city.
If you’re not looking to live in a big coastal city, it can seem like finding a job that can become a career is a major challenge. However, there are actually tons of companies that hire top talent outside of New York and San Francisco, among them: National General Insurance.
NatGen is constantly growing, which is why they hire so many new grads, especially for sales roles. The company offers paid, state-of-the-art training; one-on-one coaching; and a clear career path up through its organization. Essentially, they invest in new grads to ensure their success.
We spoke to one of their recruiters, David, to get a better sense of what’s so special about their four major hub offices in Dallas, Cleveland, Portland, and Winston-Salem—and why they offer such amazing opportunities to new grads.
1. Dallas
“The Dallas office is really cool because we have a couple different companies inside each of our offices, all underneath that NatGen umbrella,” David explains. “We have our property and casualty insurance business, accident and health insurance business, lender services, and more. And then you have our operations, IT, legal, actuarial and many other support units—all in there just from NatGen companies.”
The Dallas office—apart from being in a city that’s home to six major professional sports teams—offers new grads the opportunity to learn from a variety of business leaders and mentors, which can help them make decisions about their career path.
“You get a real think-tank going on. You get experts on that side who are able to share their experiences, their opportunities for growth, and where they’re succeeding with the other team leads,” David explains.
This type of collaboration and communication is present at all NatGen offices, but the combination of so many specialties in Dallas makes it a great place for those hoping to learn from a wide array of experiences.
2. Cleveland
The Cleveland office is one of the company’s most established sales hubs. David and his team work out of it, and their love for the city really shows.
“Cleveland, you work downtown, right in the heart of it,” he tells us.
“We’re between the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and an MLB ballpark and Quicken Loans Arena”—where the NFL team plays, “and we’re invested in this site. If you know anything about Cleveland, there’s a lot of pride for the city.”
The company’s presence in the city’s commercial and cultural hub, David says, generates a lot of enthusiasm for the business.
“There’s a lot of positive energy you get from being downtown,” David says.
At the Cleveland office, David notes, talking about his own story, you have the opportunity to learn from a team of sales leaders who all started in the same role. This is due to the company’s culture of promoting from within, which both allows new grads to learn from people with “in-the-trenches knowledge” and gives them a framework for their own success.
3. Portland
“The same,” David says, “goes for our Portland office: All of the team leaders are so involved.”
Portland has its own brand of pride: sports teams, incredible hikes and natural sights, and a huge “foodie” culture. The city’s booming economy and cultural scene has led to a similar sense of enthusiasm in NatGen’s sales hub.
“It’s awesome,” David says. “There’s such a high, positive energy. They really separate themselves there as a high-octane office. They’re moving. They’re having fun. They’re smiling. And they’re getting business done.”
If you’re looking to live in a trendy city while maintaining the ambitious energy of a sales office, NatGen’s Portland hub is a perfect opportunity.
4. Winston-Salem
The Winston-Salem office is the newest sales hub for NatGen. It’s also one of the best to work in, according to David, because it’s home to one of the company’s main corporate offices, with close to 900 employees, as well as the new sales hub. This has given the Winston-Salem sales center a leg up.
“We’ve always had our service, our claims, and a lot of back-office stuff there,” David says. “But we opened the sales center there recently, and we’re growing like wild.”
The NatGen brand has a strong presence in the region, and its familiarity can be a major plus when you’re selling the company’s products.
“We have such a strong presence down there. People know about us. They either have a policy with us or their family member works with us, and we’re getting great talent in that area to grow with it,” David says.
The new office also has the added benefit of pulling from every hub’s collective learnings.
“We started from scratch and used everything that’s worked for us there,” David explains. Some of that stuff includes their state-of-the-art training program, which pairs top-performing agents and experienced mentors with new hires to ensure their success at the company.
Sold on a career with National General? Check out opportunities in these four cities (and way more) with National General on WayUp!
