Why did you choose an insurance or risk management career?
I stumbled into the industry. My mom recommended a job opening to me after I graduated college, and coincidentally enough it was in the insurance industry. It was a great opportunity, and to this day, the insurance industry continues to provide me with new and exciting opportunities!
What have you learned during your time in this industry?
As crazy as it sounds, a simple introductory college course can change your life.
Risk management requires constant critical and creative thinking, and just like che
Lia Varga has known she wanted to work in the insurance world since she was 10.
That’s how old she was when her parents bought their insurance agent’s house. In the move, Lia gained a lifelong mentor and an inside connection into the insurance industry. As she got older, she jumped at every chance to learn more, from job shadowing with her mentor to helping her dad select workers compensation coverage for his business.
Gabrielle Cappadona and her twin sister made a pact to go to college together and study business. While her sister decided to major in accounting, Gabrielle had trouble making her mind up.
She knew that she didn’t want to study accounting, and she wasn’t that interested in finance, either. Then a campus tour guide at St. John’s University who first suggested that she check out the school of risk management. The rest, Gabrielle says, is history.
Gilberto Solbes swore that he wasn’t going to work in insurance.
“All my life, I’ve been surrounded by the insurance industry because my parents are insurance brokers,” he said.
He still loved math, though, and made plans to pursue a career in finance. But in college, he wound up taking a course on insurance, and to his surprise, he “totally loved it.”
Sarah Rumon has a lot of reasons she loves being in the Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS) international business fraternity, like connections to fellow students and alumni around the country.
“I can still think back to my first international conference where I met a few people from St. John’s University, and I still talk to them two years later. I never would have met them if it were not for GIS,” says Rumon, a senior at the University of St. Thomas — Minnesota. “So I really enjoy that feeling of community and camaraderie.”
What’s the one class every undergraduate should take? Where will you learn the stuff that will help you to not just get a decent job but win at life?
Public speaking seems like a good bet, and maybe a business writing course isn’t a bad idea. Wine tasting or ballroom dance? Definitely fun but not quite as pragmatic.
Here’s one you’ve probably never considered: “Intro to Risk Management and Insurance (RMI).”
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Along Came Polly,” there’s no doubt you remember Ben Stiller’s character Reuben Feffer, the neurotic but successful risk manager at a life insurance company (technically he’s a senior risk assessment analyst), who lives a predictable life and is terrified of taking risks. In real life, would that risk aversion actually make him good at his job?
Author Kayt Sukel recently published “The Art of Risk: The New Science of Courage, Caution & Chance,” which looks at the science behind why people take risks and how we can all become better risk takers.