Company details

Toronto, Canada

HEADCOUNT

10000+

ORG TYPE

Corporate

SECTOR

Finance

WEBSITE

https://www.manulife.com/

About the company

Manulife is a global financial services group offering insurance, wealth and asset management, and group benefits services. Manulife operates under the Manulife brand across Canada and Asia, and primarily under the John Hancock brand in the United States. Manulife also serves institutional investors through Manulife Wealth & Asset Management. The company serves individuals, employers, and institutions across multiple markets.

Locations and presence

Manulife’s global headquarters is in Toronto, and public filings describe operations across Canada, Asia, and Europe, plus U.S. operations under the John Hancock brand. Early-career program pages list common hubs such as Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Halifax, and Boston, and many roles are advertised as hybrid with some teams offering in-office, hybrid, or remote options depending on role.

Palpable Score

76.5

/ 100

Manulife is a strong early-career option because Manulife runs a named early talent umbrella (GRO) that covers internships, co-ops, and multiple structured new graduate tracks with rotations. Manulife also shares practical support signals like mentors, exam and study support for certain programs, and a big internal learning platform footprint. The score is held back by limited public detail on early-career conversion rates, promotion timing, and cohort outcomes, plus hiring process transparency that varies by team.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

17.5

/ 20

The company runs Graduate Recruitment Opportunities (GRO) as a flagship early talent umbrella that includes internships and co-ops across multiple disciplines and regions.

Manulife publishes multiple structured new graduate tracks with defined program lengths and rotations, including START (Technology), CPA Development (Accounting), Actuarial rotations, Digital Marketing rotations, HR rotations, and Investment Management rotations.

The company promotes early-career entry through a dedicated students and new graduates hub that links to upcoming campus-style events and a central job portal for internships, co-ops, and new grad roles.

‍

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

13.5

/ 20

The company builds accessibility into hiring by stating in job adverts that a Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process.

Manulife publishes a recruitment privacy statement that spells out the types of data that may be collected during hiring, including assessment results and background check information, which helps candidates understand what they’re agreeing to.

The company shows mixed consistency in candidate-reported processes, including examples of multi-round interviews and take-home tasks for some roles, without a single official early-career “stages and timelines” guide across programs.

‍

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

17.0

/ 20

The company describes GRO internships and co-ops as supported by leadership and mentors, positioning the experience as guided rather than sink-or-swim.

Manulife’s new graduate program pages repeatedly include structured development features like rotations, professional development events, mentorship, peer community, and leadership exposure across multiple streams.

The company reports heavy use of internal learning infrastructure and also calls out concrete professional-qualification support for some early-career paths, including financial assistance for study materials, exam and registration fees, and paid study days for exams.

‍

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

15.0

/ 20

The company frequently includes salary ranges directly in job adverts in the U.S. and Canada, which gives early-career candidates a clearer pay floor and ceiling before applying.

Manulife states on the internship and co-op program page that some tracks come with competitive salary progression, and the actuarial pathway is described as including support for actuarial exams on top of pay.

The company advertises stability-focused benefits that matter early-career, including flexible work options (in-office, hybrid, remote depending on role) and wellbeing supports, but not all early-career postings globally provide the same level of pay transparency.

‍

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

13.5

/ 20

The company creates career-shaping outcomes through fixed-length rotational programs (for example, START at 24 months with two rotations and CPA Development at 30–36 months with two rotations), which are designed to broaden experience before moving into a longer-term role.

Manulife shows early-career progression signals in public LinkedIn content discussing START program rotations and cohorts completing the program, which points to real movement from new graduate entry into substantive engineering roles over time.

The company has solid but not standout external sentiment on progression, including company-wide “career opportunities” ratings that sit around the mid-to-high range on major review platforms, while Manulife does not publish intern-to-offer rates, retention by cohort, or time-to-promotion benchmarks.

‍