Insurance is a mysterious thing. We rely on it, we expect it to be there when we need it, but most of us don’t really spend much time thinking about it. Heck, my father and grandfather worked in insurance for years, but if they get talking about the ins and outs of the business, even I’m almost completely lost.
When looking for a career that doesn’t require a degree, understanding how the insurance industry can potentially pay off in the form of a good job is a vital field.
Perhaps the only job you know of in insurance is your local agent who sold you an auto policy. While that’s an important and visible job, it’s far from the only job in the field. If you’re curious about what else insurance has to offer, read on about six careers in insurance that don’t require a college degree. I think you’ll find there’s much more to it than just selling car insurance.
Sales
Okay, jobs in insurance might not be all about sales, but we probably shouldn’t forget about the opportunity a career in sales has to offer either. In fact, like many sales positions, the commission-based pay structure opens the door to non-degree holding Americans to make very good money.
The median annual pay for insurance sales is over $50,000, and the top ten percent of earners make over $120,000 per year!
Some people don’t like the idea of trying to sell people on insurance, and while it’s true that sales isn’t for everyone, keep in mind that a good insurance policy can sometimes mean the difference between a minor inconvenience and complete financial ruin for policy holders. A good insurance salesperson knows his or her product and how to best serve the client. A good, steady paycheck is just icing on the cake.
Insurance Underwriters
For most people, the behind-the-scenes work of the insurance industry is a mystery. We know the person selling us the policy and, if we’re lucky enough to never need a claim, that’s the end of the relationship. Though rarely seen by customers, the underwriter is a key cog in how the insurance industry functions.
The underwriter is the person who crunches the numbers to determine if a policy is a sound investment for the company. Through arcane means beyond our comprehension (note: this is actually probably math, though I cannot directly confirm), an underwriter balances the premiums of a policy with the likelihood and financial consequences of a future payout.
Claims Examiner
The claims examiner has an interesting and under-appreciated job: to determine if the requested insurance payout is justifiable given the circumstances of the claim.
This is most common in health insurance policies, since the complexity of the human body seems only to be rivaled in the universe by the potential range of diseases, treatments, and claims submitted by doctors.
To put it plainly, the claims examiner is the person that is probably going to nix your idea that the insurance company should pay you for a two-week vacation to the Bahamas to clear up that pesky athlete’s foot. In short, it is the claims examiner’s job to ensure that the money the company is paying out is actually justified and not waste or fraud.
Auto Damage Appraiser
The auto damage appraiser lives in the thin line between blue and white collar work. In theory, he or she could get their position through a degree or certificate program, but often, an auto damage appraiser gets the job simply by understanding cars and their components.
The reason you need people who know cars is that it’s a heck of a lot easier to train a mechanic to input accident data into a form than it is to teach an expert in insurance forms the parts of a car.
Aside from a need to know a spark plug from a catalytic converter (and I have been informed that these are, in fact, not related parts), the auto damage appraiser’s job is relatively straight forward. He or she will inspect a damaged vehicle and estimate how much it will cost to fix.
Insurance Investigator
If you’re dealing with an insurance investigator, you might be having a bad day. If your insurance appraiser thinks something is off about your claim, they may forward the case to an investigator to look into the possibility of fraud or waste.
As a job, working as an insurance investigator requires flexible thinking, as each case might be completely different from the last. Sometimes, a claim may be illegally inflated or flat out fabricated. Other times, it might just be a case of a procedural error or paperwork mistake.
In any case, it is the job of the investigator to look out for the company’s interests by examining any claim that has the potential for improper payout.
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