Insurance offers many opportunities for professional development along with challenging careers and excellent salaries. The sector is primarily divided between roles in Brokering, Underwriting and Actuarial. With such a variety of roles, Insurance welcomes graduates from all degree backgrounds.

Many of the larger Insurance companies are in London, so candidates eager to work for one of the bigger organisations must be prepared to relocate to the city. Many firms offer summer programmes or internships, which are an excellent way for graduates to gain experience and make their applications stand out.

How to Get a Job in Insurance

There are three main areas to the Insurance sector: Brokering, Underwriting and Actuarial. Although these do not require a specific degree, Insurance companies do look for a high standard of academic achievement and may request GCSE and A level results.

While many of the skills required in Insurance are applicable across all three areas, each has its own specific requirements.

Brokering

Insurance Brokers are responsible for organising Insurance policies with clients and customers. Candidates for these roles need to be confident and capable salespeople, with excellent customer service skills. They need to be able to build and maintain client relationships.

Candidates should demonstrate an understanding of clients' needs and expectations. They need to be organised and capable of preparing reports and liaising between departments.

Underwriting

Insurance Underwriters produce policies for clients. They are responsible for assessing risks, deciding what a client will pay, how much coverage they will receive, and finally whether it is in the company's interests to accept the risk and insure the client. Each Underwriter is presented with a company-specific set of guidelines to help them.

For these roles, graduates need to be meticulous with their work. Candidates must possess sharp analytical skills and be able to thoroughly assess the positives and negatives of a particular policy for a specific client. Their communication needs to be perfect, with no room for lack of clarity in drafting policies.

Actuarial

Actuarial is concerned with calculating risks and uncertainties. Actuaries use probabilities, maths, economics, science, and computer science to determine the extent of the risk. Their work affects the premiums and overall cost of a client's policy.

It is essential that candidates demonstrate extreme accuracy and attention to detail. While an Actuary's work is mainly financial, there are opportunities to work in other areas such as risk assessment. All roles require precision work and an excellent grasp of numerical systems and formulas. Candidates should also demonstrate problem-solving skills and interpersonal skills to aid in dealing with clients.