Insurance sometimes gets a bad rap. Many think of it as dull or nothing more than sitting behind a desk flipping through paperwork. In actuality, insurance can be a fascinating path with many rewarding aspects including flexibility, creativity, a challenge, and a chance to make a difference.
If the COVID-19 pandemic inspired you to reconsider your career, you’re not alone. The upheaval of the last few years seems to have inspired “the Great Resignation,” a phenomenon that saw nearly 47 million Americans leaving their jobs voluntarily throughout 2021, according to the Harvard Business Review and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If you’re considering a shift, an insurance career could be the solution.
We Will Look at the Following:
- Compelling Reasons for an Insurance Career
- Skills to Develop for a Career in Insurance
- How Do You Get Started
Here are 10 Compelling Reasons Why You Might Enjoy an Insurance Career
1. You Can Help Others
A good insurance professional has the potential to help those in need, such as victims of natural disasters and people enduring a health crisis. Insurance professionals also help make it possible for an individual to buy a home or start a business. Wherever there is value, you can help protect it.
Insurance work is also an excellent opportunity to help those who help others. International insurance coverage helps support humanitarian work by providing necessary protection for international teachers, military abroad, social workers, and the Foreign Service.
Insurance coverage helps non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expand their footprint and provide them with the necessary resources to make a significant global impact. Insurance professionals often work with organizations to find and customize coverage, even in high-risk areas, to ensure staff and assets are protected while also keeping costs down.
2. You Can Enjoy Increased Job Security
Nothing is guaranteed in life, but some professions have more stability than others. Insurance is widely considered an “evergreen career,” one which typically offers excellent job security. Bureau of Labor Statistics research predicts that positions for insurance professionals will likely grow by 6% from 2021 to 2031, with approximately 32,900 new jobs per year.
3. It’s Engaging Work
Insurance offers the right combination of technical knowledge, mathematical skills, and interpersonal know-how to ensure that every day differs from the one before.
For instance, insurance underwriters determine and assume risk, then decide whether to provide insurance and what the terms might be. This process involves combining critical analysis and statistics to assess situations.
“Overall, it is an intellectually rewarding experience. In underwriting, there are daily exposures of interesting risks/clients. We are challenged in utilizing our critical thinking skills while also being able to make tough judgment calls. By providing risk assessments, we are able to develop innovative solutions based on our client’s unique risk profile.”
says Veronika Sudnik about her job as a Special Risks and Underwriting Manager for Clements Worldwide.
Insurance professionals may also mitigate claim disagreements between two corporations or devise a new insurance system for revolutionary technology, which is discussed in the following section. In short, insurance may be a good option for those who enjoy an intellectual challenge.
4. You Gain Transferable Skills
Since an insurance career requires a broad array of knowledge, you likely already have relevant skills. For example, someone who performed medical billing for a doctor’s office can easily transition into a job in the finance aspect of insurance or to claims, and those who have worked in the hospitality or restaurant industry have honed their people skills.
Conversely, if you decide to change careers and move away from insurance, your time in the industry will likely have helped you prepare for your next career move. You might gain sales skills as an insurance salesperson, then realize you have a talent for it and find a role as a full-time salesperson for a different product. With the experience you gain from a career in insurance, you might develop other transferable skills, including data analysis, risk management, marketing, and computer programming. These are all multifaceted abilities that can continue to serve you well throughout your professional life.
With the experience you gain from a career in insurance, you might develop other transferable skills, including data analysis, risk management, marketing, and computer programming. These are all multifaceted abilities that can continue to serve you well throughout your professional life.
The way in which consumers purchase insurance is advancing. Insurance is one component of “fintech,” the intersection of finance and technology. This evolution creates a need for all types of skills and abilities with a need for individuals from all professional backgrounds, including tech, finance, software development, and more.
5. Connect Your Career to Your Passions
Nearly everything is insurable, and as a result, insurance offers a broad spectrum of specializations, allowing your interests and paycheck to intersect. For instance, if you’re a sports fan, you might specialize in sports liability insurance or equipment insurance. If you’re interested in social justice, a specialization in disability insurance or humanitarian organizations might offer a rewarding career path.
6. Good Work-Life Balance
Many insurance companies offer flexible hours, work-from-home, or hybrid options to help employees find a work-life balance in their favor. This flexibility can help you escape the monotony of office life and avoid burnout by balancing your priorities effectively while maintaining a career that excites you. Some roles may also involve traveling, such as insuring international schools, which can offer exciting opportunities to discover new places and people.
7. Diversity is Welcome
Diversity is important in the workplace, regardless of the field. It enhances innovation, provides a range of skills and talent, and promotes an inclusive atmosphere. These traits are not just desired but necessary when working in a business, such as insurance, that serves a wide array of populations and professions across the globe.
Diversity is a necessity and highly attractive for employers within the international insurance industry seeking a well-rounded workforce with a broad array of language skills and cultural competency to serve a broader worldwide customer base. Diversity also enables a workforce to better understand its customers’ needs and crowdsource solutions.
8. A Chance to Flex Your Creativity
Many are surprised to find that insurance often requires creativity. In fact, Clements Worldwide was founded on creative problem-solving. In 1947, the Foreign Service had no personal insurance coverage overseas, so the company founders, Robert and M. Juanita Clements, built the policy by hand on sheets of butcher paper in their home and then convinced an insurer to go where none had gone before, producing the first insurance of its type, which provided coverage to Foreign Service employees working overseas.
Today, insurance professionals still build international insurance products and programs to serve clients and often work with organizations, such as nonprofits, to insure staff and assets worldwide while keeping costs down. Creativity is a crucial skill for insurance professionals, and their innovation keeps businesses and organizations running smoothly by providing good coverage and risk mitigation.
9. Every Skill Set is Needed
Joshua Jacobs, a Global Recruiting Manager, came to work at Clements Worldwide after serving 20 years in the U.S. Army and was surprised at the diversity of skills he encountered.
“They have many different teams that operate to make a strong company,” he said, pointing to the different groups and divisions that support individuals and organizations living and operating globally, such as global businesses, international schools, and government contractors as well as support roles like operations, human resources, marketing, and information technology (IT).
After 20 years in the U.S. Army, I wanted to continue helping people. When I learned about Clements and the way they protect people around the world, I knew it [was] the right fit… I haven’t looked back since.
Joshua Jacobs, Global Recruiting Manager
10. Having International Impact
Insurance is a global phenomenon, especially here at Clements Worldwide, where our professionals work on international business insurance and global personal coverage programs which require broad thinking, high-intensity risk analysis, and creative solutions.
Our professionals might:
- collaborate with diplomats,
- help create an insurance plan for an international humanitarian organization,
- policies for contractors operating overseas,
- coverage for international school,
- or institute strategic partnerships between organizations that are oceans apart.
If you’re ready to be part of a global conversation, an insurance career might be for you.
Skills to Develop for a Career in Insurance
As an insurance professional, you may develop and benefit from various skills during your career. Learning about these skills can help you prepare and decide whether insurance is the right career path to fit your interests. Insurance specialists might use the following technical skills:
- Customer service
- Sales
- Data analysis
- Risk assessment
- Writing and editing
- Mathematics
- Probability
You can also benefit from soft skills, or personality-based abilities, such as:
- Critical thinking
- Organization
- Communication
- Problem-solving
- Teamwork
- Attention to detail
- Focus
So How Do You Get Started with an Insurance Career?
If you’re interested in starting a career in insurance but aren’t sure how to begin, it may be helpful to review the following tips:
What are Your Goals?
Before you commit to your insurance career, reflect on your goals. This reflection may help you find professional success in the long run. Think about why you are interested in an insurance career. Is it the appeal of the work itself? Are you interested in the salary or the flexibility? Whatever you decide, you can create a list of goals for yourself regarding your new path. This list can help you determine the jobs to which you’d like to apply. For example, suppose you decide that one primary goal is to make a tangible impact on individuals. In that case, you may apply for insurance jobs involving first-hand client interaction.
Learn the Different Insurance Positions
What is the best position within insurance? It depends on your interests. Start by learning more about some careers in insurance and what they entail. Some common positions include:
Insurance Agent: This professional helps sell clients, such as individuals or businesses, insurance policies on behalf of an insurance company.
Insurance Broker: An insurance broker helps buyers navigate their insurance purchase options and choose the best possible plan to fit their needs.
Insurance Claims Adjuster: Insurance claims adjusters review individual insurance cases to decide how much money the insurance company should pay a client, given the individual’s existing insurance plan.
Insurance Claims Investigators: These professionals investigate suspicious claims on behalf of insurance companies to identify insurance fraud. They may also determine how much the perpetrator must pay.
Marketing Specialists: These individuals develop and implement advertising strategies to convert potential clients into paying customers. Other marketing roles that may work on insurance include copywriters, social media marketers, email marketers, and business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C) marketing specialists.
IT Specialists: Information technology (IT) specialists help ensure all the digital and electronic information systems in place at a company function properly. IT specialists supporting insurance companies may speak to other company members or directly to clients to help solve technical issues.
Underwriters: Underwriters use a combination of professional judgment and various tools (like statistical models) to evaluate insurance applications for individuals or organizations. They determine the level of risk based on the information provided, and if the risk is acceptable, they calculate an appropriate premium and the policy’s terms and conditions.
Risk Analyst: These professionals assess and analyze potential risks regarding the insurance of individuals, businesses, and organizations. They advise leaders on how to mitigate risk and avoid coverage gaps to keep assets and staff protected. They look at industry trends, economic and geopolitical conditions, and historical data related to claims.
Customer Service: This person is responsible for providing support to customers (policyholders) and providing information to potential customers. They may answer questions, resolve issues, educate customers, and provide a wide range of other support.
Operations Personnel: In insurance, the operations person is responsible for day-to-day activities, ensuring the company runs smoothly. They may improve efficiency, reduce operating costs, and ensure regulatory compliance.
This list merely scratches the surface of the positions available in the insurance industry. Professionals within insurance may choose to work directly with insurance products or work in a support role. This breadth means that whatever your skill or passion, insurance likely offers work that suits your preference.
Pursue Education
After researching whether insurance is a good career path, you can prepare for your new position by completing appropriate insurance career training. If you don’t already have one, you could pursue an undergraduate degree in finance, accounting, statistics, mathematics, or law.
You can also find certificate training or look into Clements’ global insurance internship program to help you gain specific international insurance-related skills that might help you land your dream job. Once you’ve done so, you’re ready to begin applying for positions.
Looking for a Fulfilling Career Change? Consider Insurance!
Despite its reputation, insurance offers a variety of rewarding aspects including helping others, job security, engaging work, transferable skills, and the opportunity to connect your career with your passions. Insurance also offers good work-life balance, welcomes diversity, and is projected to grow in the coming years. With a career in insurance, you can make a difference while also enjoying a fulfilling and exciting career.
Learn More
For more information, explore our website to learn about business solutions and personal insurance products. what agents and brokers do, read our resources about international living and operations topics and how we pursue creative solutions to support individuals and organizations living and working abroad.
Check out our international insurance job openings or contact us for more information.
Helpful Resources
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