Insurance is a vast and varied sector, and no-one knows that better than someone who has worked across a range of different insurance lines.
Jared McGrath, accident and health manager at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance began his insurance career at 23 when he moved to Melbourne, Australia and landed a customer service role with major player CGU Insurance. However, he was far from settling on insurance as his career of choice – he had left behind a history degree, and had hopes of eventually becoming a teacher.
“I handled some domestic, home and contents and motor insurance for CGU Insurance, but it’s not something I saw as a career at that time,” McGrath told Insurance Business. “I was just doing it to pay the bills.”
“But I then moved up in that organisation to handle travel insurance, and then at the end of 2009 I left Australia and moved back to New Zealand to finish a degree that I had left,” McGrath explained. “It was a history degree and I’d actually had a mind to become a teacher, and that was something I was still thinking about when I completed the course.”
However, McGrath didn’t fully exit insurance during his studies. He worked with two travel security and assistance companies, International SOS and MedAire, juggling those roles alongside his history degree – something he says gave his future employers a great vote of confidence when considering him for roles.
“Some of the things I learned as a mature student around critical thinking and research were actually really useful in my insurance career,” McGrath said. “That was definitely an advantage.
“I was still considering teaching, but I also had a child and a mortgage to think about. An opportunity came up with ACE Travel Insurance (later merged with Chubb), and by the end of 2017 I was approached by Berkshire Hathaway. That was an excellent opportunity for me to start from zero and do everything under my own steam, and it ended up being a once-in-a-career kind of opportunity.
“I’ve been there for 18 months now, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my time here.”
“It’s been a really broad amount of experience that has brought me to this point,” McGrath concluded. “It was never what I set out to do, but I’m very fortunate that I’ve landed here as I really enjoy my job.”
