Insurance Careers abound, but have you ever considered one?

I've said this before and its probably self-evident - when you were in the fifth grade and the teacher asked what you wanted to be when you grew up you most likely didn't even think of insurance as a potential career path. When I was at that age everyone wanted to be astronauts, rock or sports stars, the President, etc. I've worked in the insurance industry for 18 years and have found it to be an exceptionally rewarding career path not only for myself but for those I have helped get into the field.

The sad thing is that most people don't know enough about an insurance career to consider it as an option and that is a problem for the insurance industry. I was reading an article from Nielson Marketing Services this morning that was discussing the fact that the insurance industry continues to struggle to attract talent. 

As the article points out the median age of insurance industry workers in 2013 was 44.7 years old; for all industries, it was 42.4 years old. Of the 2.6 million insurance industry workers, only 131,000, or roughly 5 percent, were 20 to 24 years old. In contrast, 640,000 insurance industry workers were age 55 or older, which means roughly one quarter of these workers are nearing retirement.

Insurance careers are some of the most stable careers available as everyone needs coverage whether for auto, home, health, life and yes, workers' compensation coverage. Forecasters predict roughly 200,000 new jobs in the insurance industry by 2022 (hard to believe that's only 7 years away!). These jobs cover a wide variety of opportunities in everything from Claims and Underwriting to Information Technology, Safety Services, Actuaries, Business Intelligence, and Nursing. 

Millennials, like their predecessors, likely have not put much, if any, thought into exploring insurance as a career option. The article mentions a survey by the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation that found only 5 percent of millennials were familiar with careers in insurance. Some insurance companies, including Pinnacol, are recruiting future workers while they are in college or even high school and Pinnacol has actually endowed a Risk Management program through the University of Colorado at Denver Business School to help introduce the industry to a new generation.

If you are in the insurance industry, take some time to talk to others about what you like about your work. If you are not familiar with insurance as a career option, you owe it to yourself to check it out!