How to get hired
First decide whether you want a salary or a commission, because insurance offers both and the ads don't always make clear which one you are reading.
Salaried sales: agency and bancassurance
Agency managers (titles like "Assistant Agency Manager", "Manager – Open Market Agency") don't sell policies themselves; they recruit, license and coach a team of agents, and are measured on the premium those agents bring in and on how many new agents they activate. Insurers want graduates with a year or two of any sales experience and a wide local network.
Bancassurance roles ("Deputy Manager – Bancassurance", "Relationship Manager – Virtual Bancassurance") place you inside a partner bank's branches, where you work with bank staff to sell the insurer's policies to the bank's customers. You need to be good with branch managers as much as with customers. Virtual bancassurance does the same over phone and video.
Interviews for both are about numbers: how you would hit a monthly premium target, how you would recruit agents, what you sold before and how much.
Commission-only: agent and POSP
An individual agent is appointed by one insurer, which sponsors you for pre-licensing training and the agent exam conducted through the Insurance Institute of India. The insurer will tell you the current training hours and exam schedule. A POSP (point of sales person) can sell only simple, pre-underwritten products. Under IRDAI's POSP master circular for life insurance, you need to be 18, have passed 10th, and complete 15 hours of in-house training followed by an exam run by the insurer or intermediary.
Neither is a job with a salary. You earn commission on premium and renewals. Never pay anyone for a "licence" beyond the fees your insurer or intermediary tells you in writing.
IRDAI's consultation paper of 23 September 2026 (comments closed on 31 October) proposes regrouping agents and POSPs into a new class of insurance distribution persons, with Class 12 and at least 100 hours of training per segment (life or general) for new entrants. It is a proposal, not a rule: draft regulations are to follow with their own round of comments, and the paper talks of implementation in 2027. Check irdai.gov.in before you start.
Claims, underwriting and operations
Health insurers and TPAs hire BAMS, BHMS, BDS and BUMS doctors and nurses as medical officers to check hospital bills and decide claims; it is a well-trodden route for doctors who want regular hours. Motor and property claims use surveyors, who need their own IRDAI licence. P&C underwriting associates (often at insurers and at service firms like EXL and Capgemini) read proposals and risk reports, and want graduates comfortable with Excel and reading documents closely. These desk roles are where Insurance Institute of India exams (Licentiate, then Associate and Fellowship) count most for promotion.
Growing in insurance
On agency: agency manager, senior agency manager, then branch or channel head. On bancassurance: managing a bigger bank partner, then a region. On the desk side: associate to underwriter or claims manager, with III exams marking each step. Moving from sales into product, training or distribution strategy is possible after five or more years.
The month in insurance sales
Insurance sales is lumpy. January to March is the busiest quarter because people buy tax-saving and renewal policies before the financial year ends, and targets rise to match. Persistency (whether customers pay the second and third year's premium) is measured as closely as new premium; mis-sold policies come back as cancellations and complaints against your code. On the desk side, claims teams for health insurance often run rotational shifts, because hospitals send cashless requests at all hours.