Specifically does the “10,000 hour Rule” apply to careers in Insurance industry?
The Math
His data seems to support the case that it takes time and patience to become an expert in your chosen field. 10,000 hours for a normal insurance professional at 40 hour work week is 250 weeks or around 5 years (assuming 2 weeks vacation per year). Some young employees spend more time and work harder to try and advance their career progression in the insurance industry. But we will use 5 years on the average for our math and argument.
The Question
Is 5 years enough experience in the insurance industry to achieve greatness?
Data
Insurance Cycles –
Most industries are cyclical to some extent. The property/casualty (P/C) insurance industry cycle is characterized by periods of soft market conditions, in which premium rates are stable or falling and insurance is readily available, and by periods of hard market conditions, where rates rise, coverage may be more difficult to find and insurers’ profits increase.
The Insurance cycle can last 5-7 years between shifts from hard to soft insurance cycle or peak to trough. Depending on when you start and where in the industry, your first 5 years could be in one cycle of the insurance business.
Relationships –
The insurance industry is a business that requires trust and strong relationships. Two It takes time to build meaningful relationships in the insurance business. According to the Harvard Business Review, business relationships require certain foundations for success. Simple feelings like Mutual admiration and respect take time. The amount of time is difficult to quantify but it’s not days or weeks, most industry veterans report years of working with a business counter-party or colleague as the benchmark as the measurement of their relationship.
Loss development
Similar to insurance cycles, loss development takes time to determine how actual compares to expected results. Therefore adverse loss development on long tail lines of business (i.e. Workers Compensation) can take longer than 5 years to determine. If insurance professionals are knowledge based workers, the assumption they gain knowledge overtime correlates to the fact that loss development helps inform decisions.
Thoughts
I recommend reading the book “career in insurance, I would recommend the following personality traits:
- Patience
- Enthusiasm
- Optimism
There are plenty of opportunities to grow to greatness in the insurance industry within 5 years. Read the top industry books, obtain advanced degrees, insurance designations, consistently work hard, & produce continued success – will all help advance your career and prepare you for greatness. This post is not supposed to be demoralizing, more that CEO’s and leaders should work to help young industry professionals manage their expectations.
