Insurance companies make big profits, and joining them as employees is often a high-paying job. Although this description seems very capitalistic, we can't fool ourselves; one works to earn money. One of the most important jobs within these companies is the Underwriting Associate since it is in charge of evaluating the financial risks of both clients and the company itself in order to decide whether a proposal is feasible or not.
The Underwriter Associates receive the submitted forms and sit down to study them. In order to do this, they rely on some computer programs and algorithms, which help them to calculate the risks. Now, if the risk is calculated by computers, what is the role of the Underwriting Associate then? The answer is simple: the Underwriting Associate is responsible for analyzing particular situations that cannot be entrusted to the software. Therefore, to occupy this position, you must be very careful, analytical, and precise, but you also need some cunning and intuition.
Educational requirements for the Underwriting Associate position include a bachelor's degree in a business-related field and a certificate of a business or personal insurance training. In addition, companies almost always require three years of work experience in the same sector. If you get the job, you can earn about $76,000 a year, and depending on your achievements; you can also get some very attractive commissions.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an underwriting associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.16 an hour? That's $48,169 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many underwriting associates have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, math skills and analytical skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an underwriting associate, we found that a lot of resumes listed 17.0% of underwriting associates included customer service, while 15.2% of resumes included underwriting guidelines, and 8.6% of resumes included life insurance. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the underwriting associate job title. But what industry to start with? Most underwriting associates actually find jobs in the insurance and finance industries.
If you're interested in becoming an underwriting associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.6% of underwriting associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.1% of underwriting associates have master's degrees. Even though most underwriting associates have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an underwriting associate. When we researched the most common majors for an underwriting associate, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on underwriting associate resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an underwriting associate. In fact, many underwriting associate jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many underwriting associates also have previous career experience in roles such as underwriting assistant or underwriter.