A Different View of Insurance: What Tech Talent Is Saying

August 25, 2021 by Susanne Sclafane

According to a former Microsoft engineer, young job candidates with technology backgrounds are not enamored with the idea of joining the insurance industry.Executive SummaryTHIRD ARTICLE IN A SERIES

Executive Summary

THIRD ARTICLE IN A SERIES Continuing our series, "Who's Winning the Talent War: Startups or Incumbents?" Carrier Management reviews some of the ideas that professionals from technology firms shared about the younger generation's view of the insurance industry and about what it takes to keep innovators on board at technology startups. In the second article of the series, "What It's Like to Work for an InsurTech," Carrier Management spoke to insurance professionals who have worked in both the traditional and InsurTech parts of the property/casualty insurance industry about their career paths and job experiences. The first article, "Are InsurTechs Losing the Talent War? It's Debatable," teed up a debate about relative talent levels at InsurTechs and incumbents and provided recruiter views of trends in talent movement.

Continuing our series, “Who’s Winning the Talent War: Startups or Incumbents?” Carrier Management reviews some of the ideas that professionals from technology firms shared about the younger generation’s view of the insurance industry and about what it takes to keep innovators on board at technology startups.

In the second article of the series, “What It’s Like to Work for an InsurTech,” Carrier Management spoke to insurance professionals who have worked in both the traditional and InsurTech parts of the property/casualty insurance industry about their career paths and job experiences.

The first article, “Are InsurTechs Losing the Talent War? It’s Debatable,” teed up a debate about relative talent levels at InsurTechs and incumbents and provided recruiter views of trends in talent movement.

Tammarrian Rogers, a software engineering director for Snap, the camera and social media company, didn’t make any distinction between established carriers and insurance technology startups when she spoke at a webinar titled “Finding, Recruiting and Retaining the Right Talent,” presented by InsurTech Indenseo in April. Rogers, who worked at Microsoft for 23 years prior to leading several engineering teams at Snap, said that young people with technology skills need to find a meaningful connection to what they’re working on—”there has to be a purpose.” While insurance veterans might argue that purposeful employment is a cornerstone of the industry, that’s not how young technologists see it, she reported.