What's your job about?
I am employed by a reinsurance brokerage where my responsibilities include reinsurance broking and account management.
Daily work includes work on specific projects that come up – this work would consist of cleaning, analysing and presenting data, creating presentations and information submissions, as well as learning about the client and markets. This would also include meetings with clients and reinsurance markets. Broking projects involve setting up meetings with clients, digesting and knowing the portfolio of business, developing relationships with markets.
Another part of daily work includes assisting with various client management activities. This includes answering emails from markets and clients, and managing reinsurance deals from beginning to end, which includes contracts and accounting responsibilities.
What's your background?
I grew up in Carlingford during my childhood and moved to Pymble when I started high school. I went to a selective all-girls school – North Sydney Girls High School, where there was a focus on excelling in education. After finishing high school, I started my Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Sydney. During uni, I started an internship at Steadfast Group where I was exposed to corporate life and culture for the first time. I finished my degree at the end of 2018 and was offered a position in the Steadfast Graduate Program in 2019. My last rotation was Reinsurance, where I was offered a job at the beginning of 2020.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Definitely – my company employs people from a wide range of backgrounds – from people with zero reinsurance or insurance experience to people with decades of insurance experience. We have background degrees of Law, Arts, Commerce, Actuarial and some with no degrees. Key characteristics when it comes to my job include analytical thinking, attention to detail, and the ability to establish and maintain relationships with clients and markets.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The ability to take ownership of tasks, projects and responsibilities. My day is set by me and it is up to me to decide when and how I am going to complete my work.
What’s the coolest thing about working for Steadfast?
The opportunity to travel is very cool. Steadfast also has a London office and there is an opportunity to work there, as well as to travel abroad.
What are the limitations of your job?
There is a lot of responsibility, meaning that you are often held accountable for your work. This means that working later hours or occasionally during holidays is possible. There is no one else that can slot in and take over your responsibilities. A limitation is, if you have to clock off every day at 5.00 pm or start exactly at 9.00 am every day, you might miss important discussions and meetings with overseas markets in different time zones.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
The first would be to attend lectures in person - just because you can watch lectures at home, doesn’t mean you should! Take the time to go in person and actually explore your campus and meet new people. The second would be to go to all the pub crawls, O week events and first-year camps offered – it’s a lot of fun and sets the tone for your uni experience. The third would be to attend study groups – these are groups offered by tutors outside your normal tutorials – these are invaluable to learning, especially if you miss certain points covered tutes and lectures.