Catlin, a managing agent at Lloyd’s, had commissioned an expedition, which Pen led, to perform a transect across the Arctic, taking measurements of the thickness of the sea ice, and the lecture was his report. To date, all the measurements and subsequent calculations regarding climate change and the speed at which the ice caps were melting, had been done using satellite imagery and computer software. This was the first time actual measurements were taken the old fashioned way… walking across the Arctic with a big hand drill!

The results they gathered were worrying however, with the net effect being that the ice was melting rather faster than the satellite imagery was showing. Areas where thick old ice was predicted, new thin ice was found, suggesting that some areas may even have been open water during the summer.

 My course at university included a lot of conservation biology so listening to Pen talk of the possible knock on effects of his discoveries was really interesting for me. I found myself listening and thinking of the biological implications, and from these started to think of how climate change will affect different areas of insurance. It reinforced what I was told when applying, that the scheme is generalist, and that Lloyd’s has something to offer everyone.

I think we all get a bit blasé when you hear the usual slogans rolled out by employers, especially in the wake of the graduate milkround. It’s easy to be cynical and dismiss these out of hand, and I have to admit to being guilty of this in the past. So, when I signed up for Lloyd’s, I fully expected to leave my biology behind me, but the breadth of this market, the variety of risks they cover and the factors they have to take into account are so far reaching.

Furthermore, there is an emerging class of business called Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL), where the insurer takes on the risk of having to pay out if the insured accidentally pollutes the environment. The difficulty here is that placing a value on the environment, when working out 1) the premium to charge and 2) the potential cost of a claim (which equals the cost of reinstating the area to its original state) is often impossible. For me, this is again a chance to use my biology at work, as my dissertation was a discussion on the best way to place an economic value upon biodiversity.

I don’t think I am the exception, lucky enough to have an irrelevant degree which happens to cross over in a few areas. There are so many risks covered by Lloyd’s that there will be occasions where your unique perspective will bring useful insight.

There really does not seem to be an ideal degree for Lloyd’s, just look at the some of the degrees of current grads – Engineering, Classics, Economics, Geological Sciences, Maths, English, Actuarial Science and War Studies(!). So if that is what is holding you back, don’t let it!

There has been a tangible lift in spirits in my team over the last month… perhaps it’s the inundation of Christmas Cards… or the prospect of the Christmas holidays… but my money is on the close of the business planning season being the key factor!

As I mentioned last time, the team have been kept busy over the last few months working towards approving a 2010 business plan for every syndicate in the Lloyd’s Market – no mean feat, with somewhere in the region of 78 syndicates under 50 managing agents to analyse and approve before mid November.

But why do they do this? What is the point? I’ll start at the beginning:

The Franchise Performance Directorate (FPD), of which Underwriting Performance (UP) is a team, was brought into existence in 2003 after several years of losses for Lloyd’s, culminating in the losses arising from the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in 2001. This was the final straw that almost broke Lloyd’s financial back (that’s right, for the purpose of this analogy, Lloyd’s is a camel).

FPD was brought into existence “to create and maintain a commercial environment at Lloyd’s in which the long-term profitability is maximised for all investors”.

The Underwriting Performance team has played a vital role in the improving of business practices and continues to help the market manage the ‘underwriting cycle’ throughout the year. The team challenge the syndicates whenever their results indicate poor performance, and hold them to the Lloyd’s Minimum Underwriting Standards. The syndicate business plans are a key moment when the UP team can influence a syndicate’s risk appetite, so understandably the business planning season is a very busy time.

The planning process can be stressful therefore, as all the syndicates have differing opinions on the market trends and pricing or rate movements that may, or may not, happen in different classes of business at different times.
Some are new, wanting to grow, some old, and all with different pressures from investors with differing agendas and expectations (e.g. looking for fast returns on equity or maybe a longer term view, often in a privately owned syndicate, which is happier to see a smaller return one year, rather than growth for growths sake). All these factors need to be understood, weighed and balanced when dealing with each syndicate and of course can result in a wide range of different projections in the business plans submitted.

The team gets data from across the market, so that they can build a good picture of the market trends in any insurance class of business (e.g. marine, aviation, property etc.). The team then have to ‘push back’ on plans they believe to be unrealistic or unachievable in comparison to their information, and do so in a way that ensure consistency across the market, but does not ignore each syndicate’s unique make-up of business and general position.

As you might be able to tell, this is not a straightforward job, with a lot of grey areas to deal with! It’s been a fascinating place to spend my first few months in Insurance, I couldn’t have hoped for a better overview and introduction to some of the key driving factors of the Lloyd’s Market.

Anyway, the business plans are all approved now, so Christmas time brings a slightly slower pace to the desk, and everyone is enjoying getting into the festive spirit… I’m off to buy my Secret Santa, will see you in the New Year. Merry Christmas!

But enough about that… I’ll tell you more about it next time. The whole point of thisblog was to say that I and my fellow grads have been touring the country, to pop in to a university careers fair near you!

It was good to chat to you all about life at Lloyd’s as well as a good excuse to catch up with friends who couldn’t bear to leave further education, but I was aware that the most frequently asked question was something along the lines of -

“What is the application process like?”

Or the slightly more direct line of questioning -

“Tell me how to get the job!?”

So, with the first assessment centre on the horizon in early December I thought I’d write a bit of info, based on my experience:

Very briefly, as a quick introduction, the process is an Online Application and Online Tests followed by a Telephone Interview and lastly the Assessment Centre –check this out in more detail on the Lloyd’s Graduate Site.

I thought I’d let you know how I found the assessment centre last year, as I think a little information about the day would have calmed me down a lot! Jennifer Crane, who is the Graduate Recruitment and Development Adviser, has said that they are moving things around for this intake’s assessment centre, but I think the bones of it still are as follows:

Group Exercise – We were given a written, hypothetical ‘non-insurance’ problem to solve as a group.

Written Exercise – Again, a hypothetical situation where some analysis needed to be done and then communicated in writing. I found this one the hardest mainly due to time pressure as there is a lot of information to take in.

Role Play – You get a few minutes to read a brief about a situation involving a work colleague in the work place, and then have to solve it, with one assessor acting as the work colleague in question.

Presentation – I had to present on ‘Myself’, which I didn’t like very much, but it was fairly straightforward. Preparation time, followed by the presentation to a couple of assessors.

One on One Interview – Does exactly what it says on the tin. I had Vinay as my interviewer, who had just come back from a surfing holiday in Hawaii… So basically I lucked out! He was in a very good mood!

Guided Tour – You get a good little break from the assessments with a guided tour of the building – which is pretty impressive, especially the trading floor!

My ‘Top Tip’ to you, as someone who filled out a hideous number of applications in the last couple of years, is to check out the Lloyd’s Core Competencies, because this is the benchmark you will be compared against at each and every stage of the process. If you can display the characteristics the assessors are looking for, with good examples for these competencies, then you are in with a shout, so make sure answers to the more obvious questions are thought out and can be used to display your best qualities – pretty basic, I hear you say, but it took me a couple of speedy rejections to work it out!

Lastly, and I don’t want to sound like your mum, but – do your homework! A working knowledge of where you have applied is always going to play well and can help identify you as a frontrunner… to be honest, just knowing it’s nothing to do with the bank would be a good start!

The Lloyd’s Site is a great resource to use, with a Glossary of Terms to help you wade through the slightly more technical areas, but on the whole, it’s in pretty straightforward English. Fill your boots, the more you can talk about the better!

For more general hints and tips follow the link to the section on the Grad Website.

Right. That’s enough for now, but I am very happy to answer questions, so please feel free to post a comment.

“I want to work for the world’s leading specialist insurance market”

For many people, it seems easy; they’ve known what they’ve wanted to do from the moment they were born. A friend of mine has recently been signed by a premiership rugby union club, and having known him for many years, I can see that his gaze never wavered from his end goal, no matter how abstract or distant it might have seemed at some stages. Obviously, the fact that I taught him everything he knows goes without saying!

Unlike my friend, I have not had the blessing of knowing with such certainty what I wanted to do, and although I spent a lot of time on work experience narrowing down the field, it was the generalist nature of the Lloyd’s Graduate Scheme that really appealed to me.

Not only are you working for a historic corporation, in an award winning building, with lifts that Mr. Wonka would have been proud of, but you have a great range of placements spread before you, that you control. It is the perfect opportunity to gain an overview before deciding upon the career path for you, be it market or corporation.

On top of this, as there are only seven graduates and this is only the second intake, our feedback on the scheme can effect changes to suit us, and our interests.

So I applied, and got through the various tests until I arrived at the assessment centre. Surprisingly, it was actually a really good experience, and unbelievable though this might seem, actually made me want to work for Lloyd’s more.

I had done a few assessment days for financial services organisations to be able to compare with the two days at Lloyd’s. It was streets ahead! They focused on putting us at ease from the off, and it soon became apparent that no attempts to trick us were being made… they just wanted us to perform well and do ourselves justice.

Having said that, the tests were not a walk in the park, and were designed to push us and measure us against the Lloyd’s core competencies. I came away a little brain dead, but happy with my performance. I was on the platform at Kings Cross the same day, on my way back up to Durham, when I got a ‘private number’ calling. I felt as though my stomach had just dropped through the platform floor, but it turned out to be good news.

So, here I am, one of what I have just decided to dub, ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and looking ahead to a varied, challenging and exciting 18 months. I’ll let you know how I get on!