interview advice for Permanent & Temporary Insurance jobs
Interviews can be tricky at the best of times. But recent market fluctuations has ensured that competition is fiercer than ever. This is bringing a unique set of challenges to the interview process within the insurance industry - whether you're going for a temporary, contract or permanent
insurance job.
Depending on your current situation and the position you're interviewing for, there are a number of questions which you may be asked. We would strongly advise you to look over the list we've compiled from recent, real life interview situations within the insurance sector and think about how you would best answer them.
In any answer you do give, we would recommend you adopt the STAR rule of structure to your answer, which is to set out the Situation you faced, the Task required to resolve that situation, the Actions you took in order to implement the task, and the ultimate Result. Remember, it's not enough to simply say you have the ability to do the job, you must back this up with examples. Most insurance professionals who've failed to secure the job at final interview stage have failed because they didn't give enough detail to support their answers.
advice & likely questions for immediately available candidates:
We've seen an increase in the number of experienced professionals considering a sideways step, in order to return to the workplace following redundancy. However, clients need to ensure anyone they hire is committed long-term and they are understandably wary of anyone who may appear too ambitious for the role in question. Therefore, you may find you're asked the following types of questions:
• Do you think you're over-qualified for this role?
• Would this role have held any appeal for you if you were already in employment?
• If the market picked up in 6 months do you think you would remain committed to this position?
• Do you get bored easily?
• What are your career options at the moment?
• You worked for your previous company for a number of years; do you think you'll find it hard working for a different company? What difficulties do you think you might face?
• Why have you been out of work for so long?
• Where do you see yourself in 3/5/10 years?
possible questions for entry level candidates:
• What were your motivations for joining the insurance industry?
• What was it about the insurance industry that appealed to you?
• Why are you currently working in the insurance industry?
• Where do you see yourself progressing to in the next 1/3/5 years (Be careful - don't be too gung ho! It's unrealistic to say you'd like to be an underwriter in a year's time).
• What's your understanding of how the Lloyds market operates?
candidates interviewing for management positions could be asked:
• What type of manager would your team say you are?
• What's the biggest mistake you've made when managing people and what did you learn from it?
• What's your greatest strength/weakness as a manager?
• How do you ensure your team reaches both its departmental and individual goals?
• How do you instil a team mentality in the people that work for you?
• Describe a recent situation in which you convinced an individual on your team to do something.
• Describe the last thing you did to improve performance and/or productivity on your team.
• Describe a situation on your team which you had to deal with quickly in order to stop the situation escalating
temporary candidates:
If you're interviewing for a temporary position, the pressure is sometimes more intense, as the company is looking for someone who can hit the ground running. Your interviewer will want to make sure that you’re the right personality and cultural fit for the company and team, while determining if you’ll be a valued and productive addition. Therefore, you need to sell yourself according to the requirements of your potential employer – and meet what they're looking for in a successful applicant. Concentrate your answers towards their needs, rather then focusing on your own.
It's vital to explain your experience clearly and to quantify the value you have brought to previous employers. And, because of the nature of temporary work, you may find you're quizzed closely on previous employment dates etc. Typical questions our temporary candidates have faced recently (depending on the role) include:
• Can you clarify the dates you worked?
• Can you confirm the exams you sat at school and the grades?
• Tell me what you know about this role
• What do you believe to be the core competences of this job?
• How do feel your experience matches our requirements?
• Provide an example of where you have had to prioritise your work
• What would say are your strengths / weaknesses?
• Which aspects of your previous role challenged you the most?
• What is your greatest career achievement?
• Give an overview of your day-to-day duties in your last position
• Provide an example of a project that has not quite gone to plan
• What would you be remembered for in your previous role?
• What is the most challenging situation you have had to deal with in a work environment?
• What interests you in this position?
technical questions:
Of course technical questions will vary depending on your role - so this can't be a finite list nor will it always be totally relevant for the particular position you're going for. We think it's worth including however, just to give you a flavour which may aid your own particular preparation.
• What is your understanding of the Lloyds market/London market/ company market?
• What transferable skills do you feel you have to cross over to this new role?
• Do you have any business relationships that you can bring across? If so, please explain further...
• Tell me the process of a piece of business being insured?
• What is your understanding of a slip?
• What is your understanding of contract certainty?
• Can you give three examples of how the FSA have changed the way Insurance Industry is regulated?
• What is a TOBA?
• Tell me your understanding of ECF?
• How is the Claims Transformation Project impacting the Insurance Industry?
• What is reinsurance? Can you give me some examples of reinsurance?
• What do you know about Lloyds of London?
• What attributes do you think make a good broker or underwriter?
general questions:
Other questions will probe your core competencies - it's vital you have examples for as many of these as possible.
adaptability:
• Tell me about a time when you changed your priorities to meet others' expectations.
• Describe a time when you altered your own behaviour to fit the situation.
• Tell me about a time when you had to change your point of view or your plans to take into account new information or changing priorities.
client focus:
• Give an example of how you provided service to a client/stakeholder which was beyond their expectations. How did you know what they expected? How did you respond?
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult client.
• Give me an example of a decision you have made which benefited the client but not you.
communication:
• Describe a situation you were involved in recently that required you to communicate with people at a senior level
• Give an example of a difficult or sensitive decision that you have had to communicate to others
problem solving and judgment:
• Tell me about a problem you have recently encountered.
• Tell me about the last problem you could not solve.
results orientation:
• Tell me about the last long term goal you set yourself and how you have achieved it
• Describe something you have done to improve your own performance
• Give me an example of when you have recently failed to meet target.
teamwork:
• Tell me about how you helped the last person to join your team feel part of the team.
• Describe a situation where you were successful in getting people to work together effectively.
• Describe a situation in which you were a member (not a leader) of a team, and a conflict arose within the team. What did you do?
impact and influence:
• Describe a time when you changed someone’s mind.
• Describe a situation in which you needed to change a decision which had already been made.
innovation:
• Tell me about the most mundane part of your job. What have you done to make it more interesting or challenging?
• Tell me about a recent problem in which old solutions wouldn't work. How did you solve the problem?
leadership:
• Tell me about a time when you had to take the lead role in a group so that it achieved its objective.
• Describe a situation where you had to lead by example
• Describe a situation where you inspired others to meet a common goal.
relationship building:
• Give me an example of a client that you have developed an effective win/win relationship with. How did you go about building the relationship?
• Tell me about a time when you relied on another person to help you with a work-related task or problem.
• Give me an example of a time when you deliberately attempted to build rapport with a co-worker or customer.
self-motivation:
• Describe the last time you were under pressure. What did you do to keep the level of stress manageable?
• Describe the last time you had to pick yourself up from a disappointment.
• Tell me about how you managed your day the last time your manager was not around to help, advise, give out work or provide discipline.
strategic thinking:
• Describe how you have changed the way you normally work in response to changes in your industry.
• Describe a time you created a strategy to achieve a longer term business objective.
• Describe a time when you had to think strategically in order to make a difficult decision.
initiative:
• Describe when you have had to make a decision by yourself about how something should be done.
• Give me an example of a time where you had to balance getting the job done well and getting it done quickly. How did you balance these 2 factors?
conflict management:
• Tell me about a time when you voiced a concern or disagreement to a co-worker
• Tell me about a time where someone has been unhappy with you or how you work.
planning and organisation:
• When you were planning your day to fit in this interview, how did you decide which task got top priority?
• Describe a time when your schedule was suddenly interrupted.
• When was the last time that you had to take on extra work at short notice?
• When was the last time that you had to work to a particularly tight deadline?
the curve ball question:
Finally, beware the leftfield question. A candidate of ours has been asked: Who would you invite to a dinner party and why?
The best answer we ever heard? "My new boss!"
closing questions:
Typically, as an interview draws to a close, you'll usually be asked questions about the company and your thoughts on the position in question. The more you know about the company, the greater your interest and enthusiasm for working there will seem.
It's therefore vital that you research the company and are aware of their products, services, reputation, business principles, mission statement, competitors, culture and history.
Questions could include:
• Why do you want to work here?
• What do you know about us?
• What was our company’s share price yesterday?
• Tell me about our business, products and services
• What countries do we operate in?
• How many divisions do we have?
• Who is our competition?
• What differentiates us from our competitors?
• How do we differ to your last company?
• In what way do you think you’ll be able to make a contribution to this company?
As the interview draws to a close, you may also be given the opportunity to ask your potential employer a question. If you feel the interviewer may still have a concern about your suitability for the position, you might want to address this by asking "Do you have any reservations about my suitability for this position?" and then addressing those concerns calmly and with examples.
Once the interview has finished we will help to relay your feedback and the interviewer's feedback and hopefully guide you through to the next stage.
Good Luck!