How a mechanical engineer built a successful insurance career
This executive's career path illustrates what is possible when insurers purposefully recruit talent from outside the industry.
Recruiting talent from other industries has become more commonplace in the insurance space in recent years.
However, when I joined the sector as an underwriter nearly 20 years ago, this idea was a novel concept.
As a mechanical engineer by trade, my initial understanding of insurance was a visual of a door-to-door salesman looking to sell me a life insurance policy. However, after several successful years in the trucking industry, one conversation changed my entire perception of insurance and my entire career trajectory.
I was a mechanical engineer and spent 6 years working in that capacity. Shortly after joining CORPORACION POK in Guadalajara Mexico as a quality assurance manager, I met the president of a managing general agent (MGA) who explained more about the insurance space. As I learned more about insurance and how it impacts various industries, I became intrigued with the work.
Eventually, I was offered the opportunity to begin a new career as an underwriter in the transportation insurance space, given my many years managing logistics in that field. To this day, joining the insurance industry is one of the best decisions I have made. And now that I have made the leap successfully, I encourage people from other industries to do the same.
Gaining valuable cross-border experience
The manufacturing company I worked for in Central Mexico created complex castings and components for the oil, gas and mining industries. Our export team was responsible for shipping various components across the Mexico-U.S. border to the site of numerous multi-million-dollar projects.
At the time, one of the biggest hurdles we faced was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which today is known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). To deliver our shipments to our Houston customers, we had to meet certain regulations per the agreement or take the time to move all our goods from our trucks from Mexico into a truck with a U.S. license plate and a U.S. drivers license at the border. This required precious time we did not have, which also meant we had to get our trucks and our drivers certified in cross-border transit. It also meant we had to obtain insurance permits in two countries.
Compiling all the necessary paperwork took anywhere from three days to two weeks. Each delay cost thousands and, in some cases, millions of dollars. My job was to make cross-border deliveries as efficient as possible to reduce or eliminate delays.
It was in this role that I spent countless hours learning about and managing the particulars of the insurance process and bi-national permits. I became intrigued by the work. Although I knew about the importance of trucking insurance through my work in exporting, I quickly learned such insurance and certifications can help ease the burden of crossing the border. This was not only a cost savings, but it helped better insulate our company from complex risks involved in the nature of how we had to operate at that time to deliver the goods and services our customers required.
When the president of SGIS approached me in 2004 and asked if I was interested in joining his team, I decided to take the leap. I had been working closely with the insurers of our freight providers for years at that point and seen firsthand the good insurance could do. I felt my experience gave me a unique perspective that might serve me well working within the insurance industry.
Transferring skills across industries
It turned out that my UMSCA expertise wasn’t the only skill that carried over from engineering and fleet logistics to insurance. My propensity for math eased my transition into underwriting work. When I joined the industry, I was trained to complete premium calculations in a logbook. This process felt tedious and bulky, and I immediately worked to simplify the process by moving it to Excel spreadsheets.
Today, I still rely on my trucking logistics background to evaluate medium and large truck fleets and cargo risks from a firsthand perspective.
Actively seeking outside-the-box thinkers
If we rely only on current industry professionals and insurance graduates to fill our talent pipeline, insurance will continue to feel the effects of the talent gap. Looking for candidates with unique, non-traditional resumes can lend valuable experience that cannot be found in a textbook or college course.
We do this regularly at Across America. Our team includes people with insurance backgrounds as well as those from engineering, architecture, international commerce or international trade and other industries. We find the contributions of these nontraditional candidates benefit our business because they offer nuanced, insightful and fresh perspectives that are unique to those who have been immersed in those industries yet still have the interest and propensity to learn the insurance underwriting process.
While training may remain a concern for some insurers, at Across America, we have tackled the challenge head on. New hires begin in the most complex department — endorsements. There, they are exposed to numerous issues and develop a solid foundation in underwriting. When I first joined the industry, the biggest struggle I faced was learning all the technical terms and definitions tied to the work. Starting out in such a technical department provides trainees with the opportunity to learn as many of these terms as possible while also experiencing how they are used. Our theory — borne out over many years of practice — is that this gives new employees a practical, real-world understanding of the industry beyond simply memorizing definitions or applying classroom theory.
Once candidates complete a rotation in endorsements, we evaluate their skills to determine where they best fit in the organization. For some, that is a move into claims or underwriting. For others, it is a career path toward customer service. We individualize each person’s path to meet their unique strengths and personalities, giving our employees the best chance for success.
I have learned that nontraditional talent can bring valuable expertise to your company. While our industry is increasingly leaning into this recruitment strategy, there is still work to be done regarding integration and retention. When considering candidates from a nontraditional background, employers should embrace those differences and use them for the success of both your organization and the insureds you serve.
There is no substitute for experience. As the insurance industry continues to adapt to evolving risks and the needs of insurance consumers, employing a diverse array of experience while applying robust training in insurance fundamentals is the best pathway to meeting tomorrow’s demands with skilled talent.
Francisco Magallon (team@acrossamericainsurance.com) is the vice president of underwriting for Across America Insurance Services, a specialized wholesale insurance brokerage serving the commercial trucking and transportation industry.
These opinions are the author’s own.
See also: