Title: Senior consultant within the insuranceadvisory practice, EY

Time at company: 6 months

Going pro in something other thanfootball:

I was an athlete at St. Joseph's College in Indiana, and ateammate of mine referred me to his employer, the insurance carrierFederated Insurance, back in 2010. The hiring manager requested myresume and I had an on-campus interview with the VP of claims andreceived a job offer in that division before my graduation in Mayof that year.

When I realized the impact the insurance industryhas:

In the fall of 2012, there was a large storm event in theMidwest. I went on a loss call for one of our policyholders whoowned a large car dealership with multiple locations across a20-mile radius. Every asset—located outside—sustained damage. Thiswas a family-owned, decades-old business, and it was nearlycatastrophic for this customer. This claim situation helped merealize how insurance companies can help their customers recover.The biggest challenge was coordinating a claim of this size—themultiple locations, the amount of loss and the project management.We were there for about two, two-and-a-half weeks, but we got ourpolicyholder back into service.

Onward and upward:

As a claims adjuster I was handling a wide variety of cases andcould really dig into policies and learn coverages. This helpedmake a smooth transition to underwriting, which happened in 2012.My passion is in the underwriting sector. You apply your knowledgeof insurance and combine that with what you know about thecustomer's business. Do I want to accept the risk, do I want toprice it? How should I position myself? It's a good mix ofrelationship management and understanding risk. I don't thinkunderwriting challenges will ever go away.

But those 3:30 a.m. alarms:

Now I'm at EY, in Chicago. I work with our P&C clients.These are insurance carriers and I consult with them to improvetheir underwriting practices. This can be from a technologystandpoint, where we assess the current state of products, policyadministration and underwriting tools, and develop a roadmap forthe client's future state. We map out everything from an agentsubmitting a quote to getting a policy bound and issued. I fly outof Chicago early on Monday mornings and I'm on the road for fourdays a week, sometimes five. The travel is great because I workwith business leaders from across the country. My favorite place tovisit is the EY office in Times Square.