Buzzwords to ensure your CV is picked up by insurance recruiters

Insurance is still a relatively buoyant recruitment market, particularly when compared to the banking sector, but this doesn’t mean that demand is up across the board. Recruiters are being mandated for increasingly niche and hard to fill roles. What buzzwords are likely to make your CV stand out?

Specialist insurance recruiters tell us that firms are demanding the following currently.

1. Financial risk: Risk managers have been hard enough to find in insurance of late, but financial risk specialists are a rare breed, says Mark Dainty, managing director of insurance-focused recruiters High Finance Group.

“It’s related to Solvency II in that there’s a big focus on capital adequacy, and managing risk, and this role combines the two. Unfortunately, most people are being snapped up by the banks,” he says.

2.  Business partnering/stakeholder management: Yes, these may be buzzwords that stick in the throat of cynics of management jargon, but if you’ve liaised with senior management throughout the course of your job, this is something recruiters want you to emphasise.

“There is a requirement for more visibility across the business with staff at all levels having to work with senior managers in presenting key information, whether internally or externally,” says Matthew Strover, manager of the insurance team at Morgan McKinley. “Having proven experience in dealing with senior management is going to increase your chances of getting the job.”

3. Commercial/value add + accounting: It’s no longer enough for accountants working in insurance simply to be ‘producers’. Financial analysis is all very well, but do you have the commercial nous to cut it in today’s working environment. If so, you need to highlight this.

“Insurance firms want to recruit accountants who can demonstrate strong commercial experience, whether it’s a cost-saving programme or a revenue or profitability analysis exercise, it needs to be something that adds value to the organisation that will make a candidate stand out from the crowd,” says Simon Lindrea, regional director of Michael Page Financial Services.

4. Actuaries WITHOUT Solvency II experience: The Solvency II gravy train trundles on for the time being, but, when it comes to actuaries, insurance firms are focusing on bringing in people for business as usual roles.

“The Solvency II roles have started to dissipate and insurance firms are recruiting actuaries with more conventional valuation, pricing and capital management backgrounds,” says Steve Stubbings, managing director of insurance-focused recruiters the Emerald Group.

5. Claims + four-five years’ experience: Claims might not seem like the most difficult area to recruit for, and indeed at the junior and senior level there’s plenty of talent on the market. However, as the case of Merlin demonstrates, demand remains high. Merlin fell into administration last week, with the cost of 200 jobs, but LAS Claims has already swooped for a good number of these staff.

“Insurance firms are no longer viewing claims as simply a cost centre, but a division that can save money in the longer term,” says Dainty. “However, because they’ve under-invested in this area – our outsourced the function entirely – now they are recruiting insurance companies are finding a real shortage of people at the mid-level.”