Join us at 2:30pm EST on January 17 for the next installment in the 2012-13 Webinar Series. Representatives from CRC Insurance Services will summarize the E&S industry and discuss where the industry is headed in the near future.  In addition, they will discuss ways in which students can get involved now and during their professional careers.

 

CRC Insurance Services, Inc.™ is the leading wholesale broker in the nation with offices across the country. Despite their increased size, CRC remains dedicated to a commitment to set the bar ever higher on both service and performance. Their extensive market experience allows them to draw on a wide range of resources from across the country and around the world. This broad reach enables CRC to create better, smarter insurance solutions faster than their competition for virtually any risk imaginable.

 

This webinar is brought to you by GIS and the Derek Hughes / NAPSLO Educational Foundation, which is dedicated to encouraging the educational development of all those interested in the excess and surplus lines business, to creating an understanding, and overcoming the misperceptions of the misunderstood market - the excess and surplus lines market. Register here.

 

Catch the replays of the most recent webinars:

• Introduction to Catastrophe Modeling, which used Hurricane Sandy as an example to outline how catastrophe models work and their value to theindustry, presented by GIS and the Casualty Actuarial Society.
• Global Business with Local Expertise, an exploration of what it takes to do business on a global level, presented by GIS and Assurex Global.

It's hard to think that it's already been eight months since I graduated college. There have been so many changes over that time span and yet it feels like I was ironing my gown and walking across the stage to collect my diploma last Sunday. I can't speak for other graduates, but I have this terrible anxiety that I'm growing up too soon and at such an accelerated pace!

The past eight months have been a roller coaster for me. After graduation, I went on vacation and got engaged. When we got back, my car's lease was up and I had to buy a new one. For the first time in my life, I couldn't be covered under my mother's car insurance, so I had to get my own. I started a new job, spent a month in Zurich, Switzerland, traveled to Missouri, Illinois and Rhode Island the following two weeks and the next thing I knew it was Thanksgiving. Phew. Is your head spinning now as fast as mine was then? Everything I had taken for granted began falling on my lap: paying bills, consolidating loans, setting up my own health benefits. I was slapped in the face with the reality of being an ACTUAL adult. I can't comprehend how I actually believed I was an "adult" at 18 and then felt even more like an "adult" at 21.

Like any changes in life, starting a full-time job with Swiss Re was emotional, too. I was excited to start, anxious to know how I'd fit in, nervous to make a good impression, scared that I wouldn't understand my daily tasks, and confident that I could succeed (yet worried of judgment if I didn't). I felt like I was back to square one: I was starting all over again. When you start college, no matter the size of the university, you can feel like a small fish in a big pond until you start paving your way. You learn about scholarship opportunities, internships, professors, exams, your way around campus. You make friends that you'll keep and ones that you'll lose; you learn your contact people for different questions you may have and you find your footing. And by the time you're a senior, you are the person underclassmen are asking for advice and directions to a building. Well on my first day of work, I found myself there again: a small fish in a big pond. I'm a freshman in college all over again, only now I'm learning about training opportunities, rotation programs, mentors, designation and professional exams, and how to find someone's desk assignment.  I'm meeting people internationally (and still forgetting names) and bothering Human Resources about benefit packages that I don't know if I should be signing up for. There aren't any more scholarship applications, library days, lounging mornings or "mental health" days. It's a shock, one that we go through multiple times in our lives, but never get accustomed to.

Personally, the biggest adjustment to make is that there aren't scheduled days off anymore; you plan them yourself. A piece of advice that was given to me at graduation was, "Every month, give yourself something to look forward to: a movie release date, a long weekend, a vacation, a spa day, a special dinner, something not work related." The concept is simple, but I've found that we can get so caught up in our new working ADULT lives that we forget to schedule time for ourselves. When we were in college, it was scheduled for us, probably the last "hand-holding" we will be able to remember now as college graduates.

Just like we figured out throughout our college days, if you keep working hard, it will pay off.  We will have many transition periods in our lives: graduating college, starting to work full-time, getting married, having children, changing jobs. Whatever it may be, embrace it with a full heart and an open mind (and Gamma pride too, of course!). You will find that no matter how bad the beginning is or how small of a fish you are, it will end up being an experience that you can continue to learn and grow from.