Financial services case study

In this case study, read about Millar Gibson's career in financial services.

Find out more about financial services here.

Sector: Financial services
Name of company: Zurich
Work area based: International Financial Services District, Glasgow
Individual name: Millar Gibson
Age: 35
Job title: Claims Account Manager
Home area: Glasgow
School/college/university: Belmont House, Glasgow then Caledonian University

Career path
After achieving an honours degree in Risk Management I began working for Corus (formally British Steel) in Scunthorpe. This was initially as an Insurance Analyst and progressed after a couple of years to an Assistant Insurance Manager. This was a challenging and enjoyable job and exposed me to a wide variety of risks from both a health and safety and insurance claims perspective.

After five years at Corus I moved to work for Zurich. This was initially as a Claims Inspector working on the road and reporting into the Birmingham office. After two years I was promoted to a Claims Bureau Controller in Leeds where I managed a claims team from both an operational and technical perspective. After a further two years I made my return to Glasgow as the Office Manager and Controller of the Glasgow Municipal office.

Three years into running the municipal office I became involved in a project, assisting with the development of the company’s new claims IT system working in Glasgow and London. After a year on the project I took on my current role as a Claims Account Manager, covering Scotland and Northern Ireland, ensuring that Zurich’s major commercial customers benefit from an excellent claims service.

What are the key skills used in your job?
• Technical knowledge of claims and legal processes and risk management
• Effective interpersonal skills to interact with the various teams across the UK
• Strong customer focus and service ethos
• Good communication skills to lead meetings, workshops and carry out presentations

What are the biggest challenges in your job?
Planning and managing my time and that of others. As I have many different stakeholders each with different needs and priorities there are frequently times where I have to juggle various balls at once to keep things going and get things done.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
Interactions with brokers and customers are really interesting as they are an opportunity for any issues surrounding particular claims to be discussed and also an ideal forum to look at ways risk management can be improved.

What advice would you give to others interested in this type of work?
Complete your insurance exams early on in your career as they provide you with a strong technical foundation and respect for those you work with. Always be on the lookout for new learning experiences and challenges as they help to broaden your perspective and skill set in an ever-changing world.

A day in the life of a Claims Account Manager
My days of early starts have been put on hold with the mornings giving me the opportunity to spend some time with my 4-month-old son. I will get into the office at around 9.00am and like most people will start with an early burst on my e-mails. I will then try to get a number of the problem solving calls out of the way before people are drawn into meetings. It’s then a case of getting organised for my own meetings which may be general catch up with a broker or a customer review. My meeting today was with the Managing Director of one of our customers along with his brokers, working through strategies for some particularly sensitive claims. The afternoon was filled by the subsequent report and early action points and a few more phone calls and e-mails. The day was wrapped up by a review of my priorities, and gathering up the files for my claims reviews the next day, hopefully getting home in time to help with my son’s bedtime routine.

Teacher placement
Would you like to find out more about these companies or this industry? A teacher placement is a great way to do this. To find out more about the national Excellence in Education through Business Links placement programme visit Careers Scotland.