For those of you just starting out in your “finance careers”, welcome to the worst situation we’ve possibly seen since the late 70’s where unemployment lingered around 11%. Remembering however, that the scope of this blog is not to talk about Financial Markets (read Bloomberg for that!), because I’ll leave that to the experts, like Maria Bartiromo (who is also Italian-American, making her even more brilliant). The scope of this blog is to talk about careers and career possibilities in Finance. Here for a moment I’ll agree with my predecessor- if you have a job that’s steady (i.e. - you don’t work for Lehman brothers three weeks ago) - now is probably not the time to ask for a 200% increase and 9 promotions.
Instead let’s look at those new graduates, or the ’07 class of graduates who found themselves wading in the beginnings of a financial tsunami. Consider insurance. Perhaps you had dreams of analyzing companies’ financial soundness or business structures, making your evaluation and turning it into dollars and cents for your employer. Well, the good news is- you still can.
As the financial crises in the Wall Street area progress, there is one thing that all these companies have in common or are wishing they had in their portfolio- and that is Directors and Officers Insurance. Directors and Officer’s insurance- or D&O as we call it, is a financial insurance product in which we (the Underwriter) evaluate a company based on their finances, but also the Board of Directors makeup, structure, experience, and business sector. Essentially what D&O covers is financial loss (either to the company (referred to as “Side B”) or to the Directors themselves (referred to as “side A”)) in the case that an Officer is held accountable for a wrongful act in their capacity as Director/Officer of a corporation. Claims frequently come from, well shareholders…
What does all this mean? In light of everything going on now in the financial world, D&O is quickly becoming and has been since the days of Enron and Parmalat, an invaluable Insurance coverage. And now, as companies begin to suffer, these claims in upcoming years are inevitable. For recent graduates however, it may be a golden opportunity to join one of the most consistently secure (and profitable) industries out there!
Alive since the days when men would essentially bet if ships would make their journeys home or not, Insurance has been a primary risk hedging tool since the 1600s! If it was good enough for James the First, why not you!
Can't get a job? Try Insurance!
European Market takes over Finance blog! BOOYA
Hello New Readers!
I’m Lydia, formerly of the Ventures Abroad blog and now of Finance central! I’m going to start by laying a few ground rules for this new chapter of the Finance Blog at Experience.com.
Actually, there is only one rule: ASK ME QUESTIONS!!!! If you guys don’t ask me questions, I will inevitably ramble on for WEEKS about my specific field: Financial Lines Insurance. You will be bored- and I will get fired. So, ASK ME QUESTIONS!
That being said, for those who didn’t follow my Ventures Abroad blog, I work in the Financial Lines Department of a major Multinational Insurance company. I also happen to work in their Milan, Italy office where I wound up after 2 years in Manhattan. So, we can talk about that.
Additionally, unlike most of you who are probably reading this blog, I did NOT major in business. I didn’t major in Finance, or Economics, or Marketing nor did I study in one of the many fantastic Risk Management programs that there are around US Universities. No, silly me, I majored in History and Italian Literature and Language- and despite the fact that this didn’t necessarily put me on the fast track to Wall Street- I wound up there within weeks of my college graduation.
This brings me to my first point: YOU ARE NOT YOUR MAJOR. Especially in this tumulus job market, a recent grad may be asking themselves “How can I turn an English Lit degree into a fruitful job?” The answer is: Don’t think of your degree literally, but rather think of the skills you can offer. For instance, an English major knows how to write exceptionally well (not to say that business majors don’t, but I have seen some atrocities coming out of the industry). Communications majors understand- well, communications- which to a corporation is invaluable.
So lets get a dialogue flowing, because in the absence of questions- my next blog is going to be about D&O insurance in the 21st century…
