Insurance
Anything can be insured. Insurance is a legal contract where regular premiums are paid in exchange for financial compensation should predefined negative consequences occur. Insurance companies hedge – essentially, they accept a bet that things will go badly, knowing that the premium is high enough over their entire client pool to cover those occasions when they need to pay out.
There are many roles within the insurance sector and graduates from most disciplines can apply. The professional body is the Chartered Institute of Insurers which is responsible for exams and regulation.
What jobs are there in insurance?
See Insurance jobs and Prospects for more detailed information on the following job roles.
Catastrophe Modeller
Natural (earthquakes, hurricanes) and manmade (cyber-attacks, terrorism) catastrophes are modelled in this role with respect to hazard level, vulnerability to damage of the insured item and loss calculations (actuarial), in an attempt to manage the financial consequences of risk. Clients range from insurers and businesses to government agencies and the roles are likely to increase with new risks and new methods of working as technology, especially AI progress. There are some graduate training schemes and entry level roles with progression for this lucrative role, but applicants need maths, statistics or geography degrees.
Claims manager
Claims managers process insurance claims. This role includes evaluating whether the claim is valid, consulting loss adjuster to verify amounts, and processing the claim for the client. All graduates enter this role, although accounting and finance, business, economics, law, and maths degrees can facilitate entry. Graduate training schemes are run by larger companies.
Insurance agent and insurance broker
Insurance brokers find the best policy from a range of insurers for a client: insurance agents represent their insurance firm and specifically sell the best product from their range. Insurance broking is an expanding field. All graduates can enter these roles, although being numerate helps. Graduate training schemes in larger firms tend to involve rotation around the various types of brokering.
Loss adjuster and loss assessor
Loss adjusters evaluate claims and ensure that the amount paid out is fair. They make sure the insurance company do not pay out exaggerated claim amounts. An emphasis on impartiality is important. Loss adjusters work on behalf of the insurance company: loss assessors in contrast do the same roles on behalf of the insurance company’s client and are sometimes used to prepare claims. Graduates of any type can enter the profession and typically take part in graduate training schemes.
Reinsurance
Reinsurance provides a mechanism for hedging risks to insurance companies, in doing so they are protected from extremely rare events by large multinationals such as Lloyd’s of London or Munich Reinsurance Company. These large companies have graduate training schemes.
Underwriter
Underwriting includes evaluating the risk of insurance policies, deciding whether to offer the product and setting appropriate premiums if they are offered. In some simple cases (cars, travel, among others) this can now be done automatically, in more complicated cases trained professional are deployed to explore a range of factors, partly by liaising with a range of professionals associated with the case such as doctors, surveyors and others.
Underwriting training schemes are open to all graduates, during training they take exams towards the CII advanced diploma in insurance.
Risk manager
Risk management is not only part of the insurance world but also is an essential part of many other business activities – primarily banking and the finance industry, but also construction, infrastructure, energy, healthcare and IT.
Risk managers minimise organisational vulnerability to financial, reputational or existential threats whilst ensuring compliance within legal and regulatory frameworks. To achieve this they evaluate, plan and implement strategies to avoid, reduce or transfer risks.
Although there are degrees and post graduate conversion degrees in risk management, most entry occurs from mature applicants with significant risk analyst/underwriting experience.
Entry into the profession - where could I work
Insurance company vacancy boards offer opportunities for people at all educational levels – from school leaver to post graduate degrees:
Summer internships and one-year placements are advertised for many positions from the start of the second year and can lead on to job offers
Graduate training schemes are advertised at the start of the final year on CII’s jobs board
Apprenticeships offer an alternative pathway, especially if for those with less numerate degrees, details of these can be found on the CII's apprenticeships page.
What does the future of the sector look like?
The Future Of Insurance: A Career That Matters describe insurance careers as an attractive prospect, especially for those with good interpersonal skills, which will become more relevant as AI replaces the more mathematical functions of many roles.
2024 global insurance outlook reinforces this but highlights the need for insurance companies to evolve to meet the new challenges of an increasingly complex and vulnerable world (cyberattacks, climate change and more) and also highlight the challenge of potential increases in those who choose not to insure.
Claims workforce of the future evaluate how insurance might fare depending on different societal trajectories.
What can I do at Nottingham?
Gain as much work experience as you can including customer facing roles
At the start of your second year, look for summer internships on MyCareer, student job boards or individual insurance company sites, as these are often a pipeline into graduate schemes.
At the start of your final year, look for graduate training schemes. You will need to start applying for these in the autumn term of your second year.
Attend the Management, Finance and Consulting Fair (held annually in October)
- Sign up and attend employer workshops and presentations
Join NEFS (Nottingham Economics and Finance Society) and attend networking events
Try online work experience such as Forage
Practice psychometric tests as much as you can and contact the careers service to make an appointment with a careers adviser to perfect CVs, application forms, interviews etc – these all take practice, people often fail first time around.