New Year’s reflections and setting intentions toward a career in inclusive insurance
It's funny to recall that a year ago, I thought my next work trip would be a second van trip, this time to California and around the Southwest. Instead, I hit Chicago and Kathmandu, marking the start of a new direction.
I often think back to a session I attended at a Milliman consultants forum many years ago. Novian Junus and Rob Stone were talking about starting a practice. They said it takes three years. Year one is pounding the pavement, making connections. Year two is building on those connections to understand what clients need. Year three is when a successful practice starts turning the corner to providing the consulting services it has identified as an important market need.
While I have been an independent consultant for three full years now (huzzah!) my work has almost all been an extension of work I did in the past as a consultant with Milliman. For two and a half years, I supported Milliman's predictive analytics-focused group while they built a team to manage their annuity policyholder behavior studies. In July I was able to wrap up one more pair of studies with them and transition control to the team they’ve built.
Leading up to that handoff, I started exploring a new area I would like to work in. I’m calling this year one of my new practice.
It's scary saying here that I am going after something different. It will make it that much more public if I fail to find that sweet spot I’m craving. But on the flip side, the more friends in my community who know what I’m striving for, the more ideas I can generate and the faster I can find my way, not to mention the benefit of friends holding me accountable to my dreams.
So here is my goal:
Create a career as a consultant at the intersection of inclusive insurance and climate resilience.
“Create a career” – because I don’t think this area has cut-and-dried career paths. Of the people I’ve met in this area, no two have had the same journey. That thought is both nerve-wracking and encouraging.
“Inclusive insurance” means insurance products designed for a market that includes people with low incomes and minimal prior exposure to insurance. Compared to the US insurance market where I’ve spent most of my career, the products are simpler, with lower overhead costs, and often use different distribution channels.
“Climate resilience” means being able to survive and move past problems caused by a changing climate – be that climate events like (more frequent) hurricanes, or gradual changes like shifting heat or rainfall patterns.
I've set two primary objectives to kickstart this journey.
#1: Learn more.
The goal to create this career needs more specifics to be sure. I’ll be leaning into the design thinking strategies I learned from Mission Collaborative’s career design fellowship in 2022, and from one of their suggested readings on ikigai. I’ve also taken inspiration from a book I read in 2024, The Answer is You: A Guidebook to Creating a Life Full of Impact. All of these agree that a career is an evolution, and you can step your way to the one that’s right for you.
For now, I am throwing myself into learning about what is being done in both inclusive insurance and climate resilience – what organizations are involved, what kinds of insurance products are available, what risks are being addressed, and where the gaps are. I am also expanding my network, as I believe meeting people working in international development will help me understand the diversity of career journeys that are out there, and how the different organizations work together to achieve global goals.
#2: Get engaged.
My goal in the short term is to… do anything. I met a few people at a conference who have interesting projects going on for which my skill set can be useful. I expect that whatever I learn from helping out with a project, paid or not, will be the most valuable way I can spend my time. I’ll meet people, learn the language of development, and learn about the relevant organizations and how they operate. Whatever that first engagement is, it’ll be the just first, and it’ll inform what I look for as my second, and on from there.
In 2024 I had opportunities to work on both of these objectives, including going to the International Conference on Inclusive Insurance (ICII) in Nepal in October, and submitting my first UNCDF contract application last month. I look forward to sharing more details in upcoming blog posts.
I upped my volunteer game in 2024 as well - as a mentor with the Actuarial Foundation's Modeling the Future Challenge (MTFC), and as a member of the long-distance coaching crew at the local high school (Ballard) for both track and cross country. A highlight of the MTFC, a research competition for high schoolers built on risk analysis and actuarial science, was one of my teams coming in 4th place in the final! A highlight of coaching was seeing a young athlete who came to her first summer cross country practice saying "I can't do this" finish the season with a smile and plans to come back for track in the spring. I'm excited to continue with both in 2025.
I had a couple of personal wins in 2024 as well - I started flossing every day; no time like the present! After years of mostly paddling and falling, I stood up on a surfboard and rode a bunch of waves! And best of all, I got engaged to Collin Kilkenny!
Here's to success for all of us, personally and professionally, in 2025!