When Kieran finished his degree in International Business at Strathclyde University, he followed the tried and tested route of applying for graduate schemes in businesses that are household names, but a chance encounter with the graduate scheme for Lloyd’s of London led to him falling in love with specialty insurance and a career in the City.
“Honestly, I had never heard of Lloyd’s, so it was a bit off the plan but as I went through the various stages of the process, I got more and more interested and literally did not have to think twice about accepting the offer” said Kieran. He started in September 2018 and did four rotations gaining experience in marketing and underwriting and then working with a broking firm and an insurance company. The two-year programme also included him doing his professional exams from the Chartered Institute of Insurance.
“Being a broker was great, it is about representing the client and negotiating the best deal for them which I really enjoyed. When I went for my underwriting rotation, I was worried that it might be very numerical, but the process of analysing a risk and deciding whether to accept it was totally fascinating.
“Early on I realised that I loved technology but that I wanted to look at the business impact rather than the more technical side like coding. So cyber insurance was a perfect opportunity”. Kieran was offered a full-time role as an underwriting assistant at Hamilton Underwriting when he completed the programme at Lloyd’s, focusing on the risks posed by hackers illegally accessing data and systems, ransomware and other cyber-crimes.
“This is such an emerging specialty; it is never static. One year in cyber is like five years somewhere else. It touches all aspects of business; you see it in the news and in your own life almost every day. Click on a dodgy link in an email and it can all go horribly and expensively wrong” explained Kieran.
Kieran started his job working remotely because of Covid, and he believes that this made him more independent more quickly, but he is a big fan of the community aspect about working in the London insurance market. “You can reach anyone and everyone on your doorstep so you can learn a lot very fast. There is also a big social side to the market.
London is famous for being a world leading market for specialty insurance and Kieran talks passionately about how proud he is to be part of the global centre of excellence in a cutting edge specialism like cyber. “The possibilities are endless, and the competition in the market makes you want to improve all the time. And the best thing is that are so many people here who are willing to help you make it happen”.