Celebrating Insurance Careers Month 2020
When today's insurance professionals were kids, here's how most of them answered when asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'
Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker…
When you were in elementary school, how many times did someone ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My honest answer at the time was a nurse or a flight attendant. I’ll bet few of you answered an insurance agent, underwriter or actuary.
Some insurance professionals are in the industry due to family connections. Their parents owned an agency, or another relative worked for an insurance carrier. My nephew became an underwriter because his mother was a carrier executive, and he had heard about the benefits of the job while growing up.
More often, insurance professionals admit that they’re in the industry because it was their first job out of college or they worked part-time while going to school. When you ask why they stay, they explain that it’s exciting and allows them to help people.
In insurance, as in all industries across the U.S., the baby boomer generation, one of the largest in history, is ready to move on. We’re concerned about a “brain drain,” as the institutional memory heads out.
Although millennials have replaced baby boomers as the largest generation in the workforce, too few others have found their way to the insurance industry to replace those leaving. Those that do happen to join the industry — whether by accident or by design — may not bring the right skills with them, creating the talent gap that today’s employers are looking to fill.
Campuses take the lead
For a variety of reasons, colleges and universities are starting or expanding programs to help their students fill these gaps. As this month’s cover story shows, getting the word out to the undecided undergrads is a challenge. But the insurance industry is rising to the challenge.
Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS), the industry’s collegiate talent society, partners with insurance companies to reach students at campuses around the country. Insurance professionals are encouraged to visit colleges and universities — those without formal risk or insurance programs as well as those that have such programs — to explain what insurance professionals do and the many ways the industry is changing. The explosion of technology, including autonomous vehicles, for example, attracts computer science majors as well as engineers and budding data analysts. For math majors, actuaries explain how their roles fit into the bigger picture.
Insurance Careers Month
In celebration of insurance career month, now in its fourth year, NU Property & Casualty, along with our site, PropertyCasualty360.com, will publish more stories highlighting career development tips and the various career options in the industry. I encourage everyone currently working in insurance to share those stories and talk about what they do every day.
We know that many recent college graduates are looking for jobs that will allow them to make a positive contribution to their local communities as well as to society at large. The insurance industry gives them that chance, and we need to spread the word.
I also urge readers to check out the ALM Young Professionals Network on LinkedIn. I’d like you to join the group and contribute your thoughts about how the insurance industry provides such great professional opportunities. We welcome members of all ages, and I think you’ll find the exchange of ideas to be interesting and thought-provoking.
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Last but not least, I’d like to know your thoughts on the state of the insurance industry in 2020. You can send comments to me at rdonlon@alm.com. The best ones will be published in a story on PropertyCasualty360 during February as part of Insurance Careers Month.
And that’s what is top of mind for me this month.
Throughout the month, visit our Instant Insights page “Insurance Careers Month: Bridging the Talent Gap” for articles, interviews and more on recruiting and fostering the next generation of insurance professionals.
Rosalie Donlon is editor-in-chief of insurance and tax publications, including NU Property & Casualty magazine.
Read more columns by Rosalie Donlon:
- Is the insurance industry in for a bumpy ride in 2020?
- Where have we been, and where are we going?
- Young insurance professionals clamor for career tips
Have you joined our group ALM Young Professionals Network on LinkedIn? We’re having powerful conversations that tackle the challenges we all face early in our careers. Request to join here.