Insurance industry offers vast array of career paths

Ciara Weldon is a development underwriter with Hiscox, an insurance company. That's a job title that didn't exist until recently.

“Traditionally the underwriter worked alongside a business development executive. Today we have development underwriters doing both the underwriting and the relationship management. It adds value to our clients, the brokers,” she explains.

Weldon has been at Hiscox for just under three years and, prior to that, worked in an insurance broker’s office. She came to the company as a fully qualified accredited product adviser (APA), the entry-level qualification on the Insurance Institute’s framework.

She is continuing her studies at Hiscox through “bite sized” app-based e-learning, which enables her to learn via a simulated insurance world.

“It’s designed like a game. It’s very engaging and moves you along quickly,” she says.

The company has a strong career-mapping system in place to help her identify progression routes within the company.

“Hiscox is very supportive of everything to do with career development. If you want to figure out where you want to be, they’ll support you,” she says.

The sector has benefited too from the revolution taking place in relation to apprenticeships. Previously the domain of craft workers, typically in the construction sector, today’s apprenticeships offer a way to progress in financial technology and insurance too.

Currently some 200 insurance apprentices are employed by 50 Irish companies. It’s worth noting too that, while apprenticeships have traditionally skewed male, 41 per cent of insurance apprenticeships are female.

They allow practitioners to earn while they learn and can lead to a BA honours degree in insurance practice, so you no longer have to choose between a practical skill and an academic qualification.

Once in, the industry offers a vast array of career paths. These range from dealing with people through sales and customers service, to traditional actuarial and accountancy, which require numeracy skills, as well as business analysis and management roles. Increasingly the industry offers great careers for technologists too.

"All insurance companies handle lots of data and produce information both from very sophisticated IT platforms at the back end through to reaching out to customers at the front, and all the associated cyber risk that goes with that. As a result, the industry provides great careers in technology," says Olive Gaughan, head of actuarial and director of life actuarial services at Mazars.

That is reflected in the prevalence of the chief technology officer within the industry, a role that now sits at the ‘top table’ in insurance companies, despite hardly existing a decade ago.

The industry has always sought out candidates with strong maths competencies, she points out, including pure maths, computer science and engineering graduates, as well as those who have completed specialist actuarial degrees.

Degree students

Insurance companies often take degree students in for placements too, in third year, during which they get paid, and will in some cases go on to hire those candidates full time when they graduate. Employers in the sector will typically pay study fees and give time off for study leave.

“The professional path is very clear and structured and, not only have we a huge insurance industry in Ireland, but a cross-border one across Europe which people might not be aware of. The industry is much bigger than people may realise locally and can appeal to anyone from any background, simply because there are just so many roles within it,” says Gaughan.

As well as spanning life, general and healthcare, there are sectorial specialisms too, from aviation finance to data analysis.

There is also a small but fast-growing cohort of insuretech companies. These, mostly start-ups, are developing technology-based solutions which are being applied to the industry, spanning everything from customer service to regulatory and compliance controls.

“They are also developing highly innovative solutions focused on reaching the market in faster and more efficient ways,” she points out. Such companies require not just a strong complement of technology skills, but also people with a strong understanding of the insurance industry too.

All in all, technology is helping to redesign work within the industry, with automation in particular helping to drive costs down and stripping out the most repetitive tasks. That’s good both for the company and the employee. “It’s a win win,” she says.