If someone would have told me I would be working for an insurance company after graduating from college, I probably would have said they were crazy. After all, why would a pharmacist work for an insurance company? In honor of Insurance Careers Month, I’d like to share my story of how I went from attending pharmacy school to being a software developer in the insurance industry.
I started my academic career at The University of Findlay as a pharmacy major. I loved math and chemistry in high school, so it seemed like the perfect fit. Unfortunately, being a pharmacy major also required taking biology, which was not my strength. When I was failing biology my first semester but had nearly an A+ in Calculus II, I started questioning my career choice.
After going over career options with the head of the Mathematics Department, I decided to change my major to mathematics with an emphasis in actuarial science before the second semester. For those not familiar with actuarial science, professional actuaries help determine what premium rates an insurance company should charge their policyholders.
After changing majors, I interned with Central Insurance Companies in the Actuarial Department, assisting with monthly and quarterly reports. But changing majors also required taking computer science courses, including programming classes. The more programming classes I took, the more I started to question my career choice again. Actuarial science is a great career field, and even though I was great with probability and statistics, I loved programming so much more.
I finally decided to double major in mathematics and computer science and somehow graduated on time with a bachelor’s degree. Because I was already familiar with Central from my previous internship, I applied for a software development position in the IT Department, and I’ve never regretted my decision since.
Insurance is not a typical career choice thought about by high school or college students, but it should be. There are so many different opportunities in the insurance industry; it’s just not talked about enough. I ended up in the insurance industry in a strange way, but I love what I do, and that is something to celebrate!
For a current list of available employment opportunities in Central’s IT Department, click here.
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