Jobs and Careers with James Caan 2012 - (Page 88)

INSURANCE Risky Business Caspar Bartington, CII, looks at the merits of a career in insurance and how it could carry you around the globe Stability is a word that few sectors have experienced recently. High-profile business failures regularly hit the headlines and previous glories count for nothing. But one sector that has experienced relative stability is insurance. With minimal business failures throughout the credit crunch, it remains strong in the face of challenging market and climate conditions. Looking beyond the TV adverts is key to grasping the breadth of opportunity in insurance. It is a profession that understands how to manage risk, whenever and wherever it may be. This is one of the reasons why so many people stay in insurance for their entire career. This coming year will no doubt be an eventful one – let’s look at just one example. London 2012 is not just the world’s largest sporting event; it is also a huge series of insurable activities. To give you a sense of the scale of it, the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa was insured for a cool $6.2bn. There is little doubt that London 2012 will far exceed this figure. Let’s examine just some of the risks associated with a major sporting event: Construction – however unlikely, the venues for the events will need to be insured against damage or structural faults. Climate – as well as the weather potentially affecting the 100m final in London, storms elsewhere in the world could prevent images being beamed to hundreds of millions of TV screens. Terrorism – as has been seen through the 7/7 attack, London is viewed as a terrorist target which affects the risk profile of the event. Logistics – anyone familiar with the London underground network may wonder how it 088 www.jobsandcareersmag.com will fare during the games. These just scratch the surface of the diverse risks associated with the event, and don’t take into account the individual policies for each athlete which often run into millions of pounds or dollars. Are you a graduate? If you are an undergraduate applying for graduate schemes in the finance sector, you should consider the insurance profession. In the UK alone there are more than 275,000 people working in the field, from brokers in small towns to major insurers in the City of London. The latter is not just the largest insurance market in the country; it is the largest international insurance market in the world. It remains the pre-eminent market for a whole host of risks, including the so-called ‘special risks’ that make the news from time to time – the American footballer’s hair insured for $1m, the chief coffee-taster’s tongue insured for £10m and so on. Insurance offers the same career benefits as any other commercially focused sector. If you are seeking a career that can take you places – literally, as well as metaphorically – there are few better than insurance. For instance, 2011 gave us sobering images of floods in Thailand, earthquakes in New Zealand, a tsunami in Japan and riots in England. In each case, insurance is there to support those businesses and individuals who have suffered. This includes sending loss adjusters from the UK to work locally, often for months at a time, visiting scenes of devastation and working with authorities to compensate those affected and return them to a state of normality as soon as possible. It is not just loss adjusters who get the opportunity to travel. Brokers may also spend time abroad – there are several examples of those with language skills who service clients in other continents. Insurance is a meritocratic profession. It offers you the opportunity to climb as high as you like, and acquire the more generous salary that goes with this, not just in the UK but in many other key financial centres. This is thanks to globally-recognised professional qualifications in the field, such as those offered from the CII – the Advanced Diploma in Insurance (known by its designatory letters ACII) is the most recognised sector qualification in the world; achieving this is like having a second passport in the insurance arena. To get into insurance, you will not be expected to bring a comprehensive sector knowledge to your first employer. You will not even need to hold, or be studying for, a business-related degree in most cases. The profession contains people from all subject backgrounds. What links them is strength in the following soft skills: communication; problem-solving; negotiation; influence; analysis; commercial awareness and language skills a bonus Find out more How do you find out about the opportunities and maximise your chances of success? As you would expect, there are several ways to do this. Here are some of the best ways: ✱ Research on the web. For example: www. discoverrisk.co.uk – a site developed by the CII to provide information on the profession and the roles within it, as well as to list graduate jobs from the key employers. ✱ Become a member of the professional body, the CII – employers are receiving so http://www.discoverrisk.co.uk http://www.discoverrisk.co.uk http://www.jobsandcareersmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Jobs and Careers with James Caan 2012

Career bites
What really counts
Weighing it all up
Around the world
Ask the experts
Growth sectors
Train your brain
Homework
Carve a career in care
Here come the girls
Mum’s the word
An apple a day
It’s for you-hoo!
A step forward
His & hers
Bank on it
Risky Business
In the money
3 Specialist medical jobs
The stuff of life
Power on
Engineering heroes
Outside the box
Keeping it clean
Your Business with James Caan
Go Go GadGets
On trend office
Take my advice
Getting Going
The bank job
Make the most of your assets
Back to business
The law and you
HR Matters
Make it work
Into the cloud
Design & shine
Reach out
Gorkana and Gurkhas
Protect and prosper
Making it count
Your business or your life?
Nice supplies
Beginning business
Ship it
Ethical business
Backing business
Standing together
Top 10 hiring tips

Jobs and Careers with James Caan 2012