Make a career in Insurance

“When the HDFC job offer came, I couldn’t refuse,” says Economics student Taruna Thadani who graduated from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi University in 2010, and was offered a job by HDFC Life Insurance. “It was, after all, a brand,” says the 20-year-old, who was enamoured by the offer, and is now pursuing an MBA from Symbiosis Institute, Pune. Whether she would display the same sentiment had the offer came from any public sector insurer, is doubtful.

Private players brought cachet and multiple job options to the otherwise drab sector. Before they joined the fray, there was a time when insurance industry was tightly regulated, with just a handful of public sector insurers. But till today, the homegrown LIC remains the largest entity in the life insurance segment. According to a recent ICRA report, LIC contributed 74.39 percent to the total life insurance premium collected. Regulatory body IRDA states, it is growing at a rate of 15-20 percent. Together with banking services, insurance services add about 7 percent to the country’s GDP.

The ABC of insurance
Insurance is a contract between an insurance company and you, wherein you agree to pay a sum of money (called premium) to the company (the insurer) who provides you (the insured) or your insured items, financial protection from uncertain events. The uncertain events could be loss/ damage of health, auto, property et al or life. When you pay a premium, you are basically generating a pool of funds from which you can claim at the time of any untoward incident. And the frim makes money if the claims are less than the premiums made.

Insurance has two sub-segments, Life Insurance and General Insurance. Life Insurance provides protection and financial stability to beneficiaries financially, in case the owner of the policy dies. Under this segment there is Term Life Insurance and other options. Under General Insurance, most companies offer products like home insurance, car, auto, fire, burglary, travel, liability and health insurance. Health Insurance and Automobile Insurance are the other two major segments in General Insurance that is expanding.

According to RNCOS reserach report: The Indian health insurance market recorded growth in the last two fiscals (2008-09 and 2009-10). As per the company’s estimate, the health insurance premium is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 25 percent for the period spanning from 2009-10 to 2013-14.

Assurance in marketing
Taruna started out selling insurance policies and recruiting financial consultants (agents) for HDFC Life Insurance, soon after the company trained her and her batch of 20 during the course of the two-month period.

“The marketing function plays a pivotal role in establishing company’s credentials and in branding,” says Judhajit Das, Chief HR, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.  Life Insurance as a product is rarely bought. Therefore, insurance companies have to aggressively sell it. Ergo, companies maintain a strong distribution channel and a dynamic marketing division. So, it is small wonder that marketing employs maximum number of people (see table: Employment Assurance).

The Life Insurance sector employed 0.3 million people directly and 2.9 million people as individual agents in 2008–09, says www.ibef.org, a website run by Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the CII, jointly.

Insurance job profiles
Apart from agents and advisors who require basic knowledge in insurance, finance and selling skills, the sector demands employees with specific skills. CAs and MBAs are involved in product development, management, marketing and asset management. Asset handling requires the professional to have an apt understanding of risk appetite of the company, its liquidity requirements besides possessing the ability to determine a proper asset mix. This function is allocated to portfolio managers.

Graduates and below join Claims Management, Operations and Sales functions. The administrative side has people with a flair for documentation, and IT professionals troubleshoot for IT-related glitches (see table: Insurance Sector). Actuaries are highly skilled, and are responsible for product development and pricing.

This is another key function, where you are responsible for designing customer-friendly products catering to a person’s needs such as health, wealth and retirement. “They are also responsible for product pricing and product profitability,” says Judhajit. The other divisions in the sector are product development, asset management, and operations . But all demand a healthy passion for risk.  

Judhajit Das, Chief-Human Resources, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance In transit: Student to executive Q:  What are the function areas for which campus recruit is done? A:  We recruit students from MBA institutes for sales and distribution, business intelligence unit, marketing, investment, finance, customer service and operations, actuarial and HR. We have a segmented approach to MBA campus hiring. Classification of campuses is based on the quality of faculty, curriculum, and other parameters. Q:  In what areas do you feel fresh hires have a hard time adjusting? A: The greatest difficulty is transitioning from student life to a corporate life. In an academic institution, you are made to go through a pre-determined learning plan, and the professor plays the role of providing capsulated learning inputs. The learning in organisations is more self-directed and self-driven. While the manager is always there to facilitate your development, it is for the employee to capitalise on the opportunities and develop himself. Q: And your training programme? A:  Each trainee undergoes a rigorous one week/15-day induction programme, which provides him with  necessary skills to make a seamless transition from campus to corporate life. Some of the key aspects included in the induction are  vision & values, overview of functions, branch-walkthrough, and a mentoring session. Insurance domain knowledge and skills like – Financial planning, products, underwriting norms and regulatory compliance are also imparted as part of the induction programme.

INSURANCE SECTOR