Editor's Note: This article was contributed by Harold A. Weston, CPCU, ARM, a clinical assistant professor of Risk Management and Insurance in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

What do students looking for jobs in the risk and insurance fields expect of their future employers?

Among the many factors that affect the success of the employment relationship are expectations and perceptions.

While compensation, work load, responsibility, and support of various types all are vital to the total relationship, the happiest employees are not necessarily the highest paid. Moreover, highly paid employees are not necessarily happy or loyal. Add in generational differences between management and employees (the newest generation is never as good as the last one) and work experience (for new hires about zero; for lateral hires a different culture), and the possibility for misaligned expectations and perceptions is a major factor that employers and employees have to surmount.

The risk and insurance fields are keenly aware of the need to recruit young staff due to the aging workforce, as many studies and articles have shown. The recruiting practice for a century has been to hire recent graduates of any college major. Most people in the industry admit they majored in anything but insurance and that they stumbled into the field late. In fact, the current president of RIMS told the audience at the annual conference that she was an art history major.

Providing a Head Start
The expansion of college curriculums to offer at least some courses in risk and insurance gives college students an early awareness of the fields. There are a few colleges with large, well-regarded and long-standing risk-management programs that grant a degree in the field—and these have always been a source of new talent with a head start in the subject matter. There are ever more colleges with small programs, often within other business majors like finance and real estate. A few colleges dropped their small programs following the economic collapse in 2008—exactly when many people first starting wondering about risk management in business and economics.

If there are more college students with at least an awareness of—if not a dedication to—the career possibilities in risk and insurance, then it is fair to ask what the students expect in their first jobs. From the other side, what might employers anticipate of their new recruits?

An informal survey of some students in the large risk-management program at Georgia State University (GSU), and the small program at University of Colorado-Denver, gives a little insight of student expectations.

Please keep in mind this was a conversation, not a study. Furthermore, not all of the questions were exactly the same between the two groups. Students were told that Claims magazine was interested in their views about future employment and that the student comments would be without attribution. With these limitations, the comments are a useful insight as to what students expect as they search for jobs in the risk and insurance fields.

Perceptions and Expectations
College students often press themselves to map out their entire careers and get their first jobs exactly right. Usually they seem to shoot at multiple targets because they do not yet know which one will suit them best. Sometimes the targets are in different fields entirely (finance and insurance and real estate), sometimes in different roles in an industry (broker, underwriter, risk manager), because the students usually are unaware that life will probably shift them around with several jobs and perhaps a few different careers over their 40+ years of work.

So we started our questions on this topic: Do you need to get your first job exactly right? The responses showed students put a little less pressure on themselves toward this notion than customarily thought, although the age of the students seems to play a part in their perception. Several students said they had to get the first job right and that it would “map out the career,” but most were flexible on the point. Many said the first job would “set the tone” for one's career, at least as to contacts later or as a foundation “to learn and develop skills,” or because it is “important to do well and make a good impression.” A few students seemed more aware that the first job would show them possibilities within the field, whether the particular work they were doing was interesting to them or whether some other aspect might be more appealing.

When pressed on the number of careers and jobs they expect, answers ranged from 2 to 3 careers (one person went to 5), and 3 to 7 employers. Retirement age is likely to be 70 years old.

Starting salary expectations seem reasonable, based on published salary ranges that some students cited. At least in the risk and insurance fields, students interviewed are not expecting to hit $100,000 in annual compensation too soon, although a few students had the idea that prompt raises would bring them to near that level within 5 years.

Students who are working now are dissatisfied with raises. They recognized the reality that raises, if any, are maybe matching inflation and that businesses are still shaken by the economic collapse of 2008, but they did not think this compensation adjustment is fair.

Benefits were also important—and not just the usual health-dental-vision package. Fitness centers, child care, and work-at-home options (at least for family reasons) were mentioned. Interestingly, some students listed mentors and other types of fellow employees as guides to be valuable benefits. Whether this is in line with the oft-remarked observation that the new generation is used to having their parents and teachers show them how to do everything, or a recognition of the long-standing truism that a mentor relationship advances a career by helping the young worker learn the ropes and avoid the dumb mistakes, is hard to say. Either way, it is an employee benefit they recognize—and one that is inexpensive and valuable to both employers and employees.

Some students remarked on the need for obtaining further credentials such as the insurance and risk-management designations, although sometimes the tone of RMI students seems to be a credential per se, to be acquired as easily as possible, rather than an acquisition of detailed knowledge that the credential reflects. A few students mentioned obtaining MBA or other master's degrees.

When asked how they would respond to the perception by employers that the new generation has a sense of entitlement, meaning they are entitled to jobs and to rewards for doing their jobs, some students were aware of the perception of their generation. The queried students disowned this notion, saying “if you do your job, that's what they pay you for,” and in this economy “the only thing you can ask for is more work.”

Relocation brought a variety of responses. Many were keen on an employer offering them relocation, or students seeking out employers in other cities or countries they might like to try, including some international opportunities.

None of the students mentioned Silicon Valley-type perks like sushi on-site, dogs at work, or play rooms.

The Role-Hedging Debate
One of the things that comes across is that risk and insurance majors seem to have a decent idea of wanting to be in the field. They should—one does not stick with risk and insurance without some sense of what is ahead, even if the specific role is yet to be chosen.

There is also the role-hedging debate, which is probably true for all new college majors. That is, should one start in underwriting and then go to brokerage, or the other way around? Or if corporate risk management is the goal, then where should one start, assuming a direct opportunity is not available? These questions are probably comparable for most majors such as accounting and finance. Ask experienced workers for advice on this and the answers will likely be as varied as the number of respondents.

While there are some generational differences as the new graduates move into the work force (as employers always discover), overall, it seems, risk and insurance employers should be harnessing the strong interest of candidates that comes with the dedicated course of study of a risk and insurance major. Unlike the usual broad array of students who have traditionally entered the fields, this group will not mishear “underwriter” as “undertaker” or confuse “enterprise risk management” as an office pool for betting on football teams or buying lottery tickets.

Special Reports /

Envisioning A Future In Insurance, Risk Fields

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