Angie Childers

February is Insurance Careers Month, and there are exciting opportunities available in our innovative and growing industry. As a recipient of Business Insurance’s Best Places to Work Award for five years in a row, Tokio Marine Highland fosters a culture and environment where employees with diverse skillsets can thrive and grow their careers.

Here’s why Julie Costa-Malcolm, Director of Solutions Delivery, chose a career in insurance.

Why did you choose a career in insurance?

My mom worked in insurance, including in Insurance Information Technology. She’s been my inspiration for a lot of the good decisions I’ve made in my life. I worked part-time in insurance agencies through high school, college, and graduate school, and I always appreciated the fact that insurance people often come from unexpected backgrounds. So many people I know in this industry took a job in insurance thinking it was temporary, then never left because it turned out to be exactly the right career for them. I did the same thing, just more slowly. I tried a couple of other career paths, but I’ve always come back to insurance.

What do you find most interesting or rewarding about your role?

The most rewarding thing about my role is working with the business units I support. They are so invested in finding new and better ways to do their work; every day is a new adventure. Plus, the nature of my job is that I have to keep growing and adapting as the business changes, and I love learning new things. I pretty much never stop learning in this role.

What would you say to someone who may have never considered the insurance industry for a career?

Working in insurance is nothing like you probably imagine. I think there’s this picture of insurance folks as sort of stodgy and boring people in suits who sit behind desks and crunch numbers all day, but that’s pretty far from the truth. There are so many directions you can go in insurance – from directly serving customers, to designing new insurance products, to working with data and finding new ways to prevent loss – there are a lot of different personalities working in the industry. We take our work seriously, but a lot of us are creative types who love to work collaboratively, and we absolutely have to be adaptable because this industry changes all the time.

Discover how you can join our team and grow your career like Julie at Tokio Marine Highland. Visit our Careers page to learn more.

February is Insurance Careers Month, and there are exciting opportunities available in our innovative and growing industry. As a recipient of Business Insurance’s Best Places to Work Award for five years in a row, Tokio Marine Highland fosters a culture and environment where employees with diverse skillsets can thrive and grow their careers.

Here’s why Brenda Ho, Senior Divisional Accounting Manager, chose a career in insurance.

Why did you choose a career in insurance?

Insurance accounting is something that you sort of fall into. My background is in accounting and finance, and when the opportunity first arose for me, I jumped at the opportunity to learn about the industry.

What is the role/importance of accounting as it relates to insurance?

General Ledger, or “GL” Accounting, is the typical GAAP accounting. Premium accounting is very different – we are not managing our own funds, but instead we are the custodians of funds that are entrusted to us for a specific purpose. There must be an understanding of the purpose of the funds and our fiduciary duties for the management of the funds. My role as the Premium Accounting Manager is to not only manage the movement of the funds, but also the reporting of the activity. We report on the monthly activity to our clients using the carrier and claims bordereaux.

What do you find most interesting or rewarding about your role?

When I first entered the insurance industry, it was very fascinating to me. At that time, I only knew about auto insurance and health insurance. I’ve learned that you can basically insure anything, from body parts to alien abduction. Of course, here at TMH we focus on Flood, Lender-Placed, and Fine Arts. Insurance is something that we don’t think about until you need it and then wish you had it. Working in the insurance industry and seeing how disaster can strike anyone anywhere is a constant reminder that we need to be fully prepared for the unknown.

What I find most interesting about my role, or the role of the premium accountant, is that we must understand the operations of the business and how money is supposed to flow. Accounting is the last line of defense before the funds are out the door, so we need to be diligent in making sure our funds are property accounted for prior to releasing it to the carrier or the back to the client.

What would you say to someone who may have never considered the insurance industry for a career?

Insurance is a very big industry, but insurance accounting is very niche. Understanding premium is crucial to be successful in this role. What I would say to someone who has never considered a career in insurance is if you have relevant experience, the opportunities are bountiful – give it a try!

Discover how you can join our team and grow your career like Brenda at Tokio Marine Highland. Visit our Careers page to learn more.

February is Insurance Careers Month, and there are exciting opportunities available in our innovative and growing industry. As a recipient of Business Insurance’s Best Places to Work Award for five years in a row, Tokio Marine Highland fosters a culture and environment where employees with diverse skillsets can thrive and grow their careers.

Here’s why Mandy Sokolowski, Senior Director of Human Resources, chose a career in insurance.

Why did you choose a career in insurance?

When I first got into Human Resources, I didn’t set out planning to get into the insurance industry. However, having spent such a large part of my career at TMH, I have learned that this field is always evolving, which is exciting to me. It has exposed me to a lot over the years – not just on the HR side, but also seeing the changes in technology and regulatory areas. The type of roles that we were looking to fill 10 or 15 years ago are very different from the roles we are filling today.

What do you find most interesting or rewarding about your role?

I like the variety of people I work with, and the different projects and activities I’m involved in – whether it’s updating and communicating an employee program, helping someone navigate a benefits issue, or benchmarking compensation information for a new role. I like being able find solutions that help our employees. I also enjoy being part of the larger Tokio Marine family and seeing what others in our industry are doing.

What would you say to someone who may have never considered the insurance industry for a career?

I think that it can offer a pretty big range of opportunities for people interested in a long-standing industry that is both complex and dynamic. We’ve filled roles not just in the standard areas that you’d associate with the insurance industry, like Underwriting and Claims, but also in I.T., Finance/Accounting, and Marketing to name a few. It definitely has the potential to offer a long and varied career path.

Discover how you can join our team and grow your career like Mandy at Tokio Marine Highland. Visit our Careers page to learn more.