One of the amazingly beautiful things about insurance is that regardless of what you’re passionate about, we have a career for you. Let’s say you’re a nurse who is tired of direct patient contact – claims or professional underwriting would be perfect. Or maybe you’re an aviation enthusiast who couldn’t become a pilot because you have bad eyes – no problem, you’ll be very happy as an aviation underwriter. Or maybe you’re a young retired military vet looking for your post-military career – lots of work for you here and lots of opportunities to use your leadership skills!
It might take a little creativity but regardless of what you (or your kids) majored in, we have a great role for you in the insurance industry. It just
takes a little creativity to find it. But there’s a few challenges we have to navigate first. The first challenge is that you’re simply not aware that we have use of your skills and passions. The second issue is that even once we help you identify that there’s a great role for you in insurance, there’s a good chance that role is not an entry level job and thus you’ll never get there unless we get you started in insurance, guide you into getting some insurance experience and, most importantly, mentor you on how to reach the role that can really use your skills.
Let’s look at the example of the kid who grew up dreaming of being a pilot.
He played flight simulator for hours on end and obsessively read everything he could find get his hands on that was even marginally related to flying a plane. Unfortunately, just before enrolling in college to study aviation he found out that his vision is so bad that he would never be allowed to fly a commercial plane. He ended up majoring in something random and has no idea what to do for work, and his passion continues to be aviation. Luckily, we have the perfect career for him: Aviation Underwriter. He’s a natural for the job. And we’re also lucky enough that his mom’s friend works in insurance and knew about this small niche of the industry and got him interested in it! But there’s no such thing as an entry level aviation underwriter – you have to get some solid underwriting experience before we let you underwrite something as high risk (and high severity) as aviation! He’d apply for a few aviation underwriter roles, ignoring the “3 years of commercial underwriting experience required, preferably in aviation” requirement on the job description, and he’d be summarily declined without an interview. Then he’d figure out that the advice wasn’t very good and he’d move on to another, less rewarding industry.
But it doesn’t have to go that way! Instead let’s identify that kids early; let’s get him 
excited about insurance from the beginning. Help him major in RMI and then help guide him into his first underwriting job and then later on to the aviation underwriting job. Even if we didn’t reach him in time to get him to the right major not all is lost, it’s just a longer plan to get there. Explain to him that getting him to the job will take a few years. First help him get a job in an insurance call center and encourage him to get his AU while he’s there. Then mentor him into a commercial underwriting role for a couple of years and finally after that help him get to the aviation underwriting dream job.
There are literally hundreds of similar potential stories just waiting to happen, all it takes is for YOU to stand up, get a bit creative and help passionate kids in your circle of influence find their way to insurance jobs they’ll love. Why not you? Why not now?
About Antonio Canas
Tony started in insurance in 2009 and immediately became a designation addict and shortly thereafter a proud insurance nerd. He has worked in claims, underwriting, finance and sales management, at 4 carriers, 6 cities and 5 states. Tony is passionate about insurance, technology and especially helping the insurance industry figure out how to retain and engage the younger generation of insurance professionals. Tony is a co-founder of InsNerds.com and a passionate speaker.
Tony started in insurance in 2009 and immediately became a designation addict and shortly thereafter a proud insurance nerd. He has worked in claims, underwriting, finance and sales management, at 4 carriers, 6 cities and 5 states. Tony is passionate about insurance, technology and especially helping the insurance industry figure out how to retain and engage the younger generation of insurance professionals. Tony is a co-founder of InsNerds.com and a passionate speaker.
