Open Letter to College Graduates – 2019

Dear Recent College Graduate:

Congratulations on your graduation! As you reflect on this accomplishment and prepare to launch your career journey, I offer you some advice before this next adventure begins.

Be eager to learn. Regardless of where you begin your professional career, you will not know everything from day one, and you’re not expected to. The best way to grow in your profession is to build your knowledge of the industry you’re working in, constantly ask your colleagues questions, and get familiar with the common tools used to deliver daily tasks.

Embrace failure. Just like Dr. Seuss, you will not always get the desired results from your career. View disappointments as learning opportunities and aspire to produce better results the next time around. If you don’t fail, you don’t grow, and then you’ll never know the places you can go.

Give new ideas. Look for opportunities for a business process to be fixed, to generate more sales, increase employee participation in meetings, etc. Bringing new ideas to your company will show that you are engaged in your work, and actively looking for ways to make it better. Not a bad way to stick out. 

Bring a positive attitude. Laughter is infectious, and so is a cheerful personality. By simply showing up to work with a smile, people will be happy you’re on their team. Especially as you start your career, the attitude you bring to work is a great way to create a reputation for yourself.

As you begin to look for potential opportunities to start your career, it may help to know of the infinite career paths in insurance. There are the obvious career tracks in insurance – underwriting, claims, broker professionals. However, just like any other corporate operation, insurance companies need people to fill their marketing, human resources, finance, and so many other roles that often we don’t think about when thinking insurance! There is place for every candidates’ unique skills set within the industry.

Fun fact: 25% of the insurance workforce will be retired by 2020. What does that mean for you? The chance to learn from industry titans and to transform the future of insurance. The best part? You don’t have to have a background in insurance, just an interest in the industry itself. A career in insurance can vary from identifying gaps in client’s coverage, analyzing legal contracts, searching for ways to save clients’ money, cross-selling, and so much more.

If a career working with massive global insurance accounts in a variety of different roles interests you, please contact me at hlester@questpro.com.

I wish you the best as you embark on this new journey and hope you will choose insurance as a career!