Management Information Manager
Chaucer Insurance

Sue E

00:00:03 My name is Sue E, and I’m the Management Information Manager here at Chaucer Insurance. My job involves looking at a lot of data, and using that data, based on what has happened historically, to try and plan what’s going to happen in the future. There’s two sides to insurance data. There’s a premium side, when you buy your policy you’re paying an insurance company a premium. And then on the other side of the coin we have an awful lot of claims, because we use that money to pay out claims.

00:00:30 I’ve now been working in insurance for 24 years. I started with a previous company straight from school, and worked there for 14 years. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school. My exams were in the mathematical side, and at the time I just looked locally to see, well what sort of things can I do? And the only things that came to mind were banking or insurance. And toss of a coin, I ended up in insurance by luck. As random as that. It was no pre-set idea of any career path at all at that point.

00:01:02 When I was five years old I was just living, I had no perceptions of anything that I wanted to get in to. Every day was a new day, and make the most of it. I think the only thoughts about careers and jobs was when you get towards the Sixth Form, and it’s other people saying to you – what are you going to do? Because while you’re at school it’s just school life, you don’t know any different. It’s only really when the careers people started to talk about it. But I think until actually I had my exam results it was almost maybe time to think about a job to decide what to do.

00:01:31 I think the careers advice was minimal, there weren’t that many known jobs around as to what you went in to. It was banking or insurance, which was probably why I ended up looking there. My family was in banking, as opposed to insurance, but we had friends within insurance so – but no real communication from them, I was left to just go and find something as a starter point and see where it took you.

00:01:54 The thought of going to University wasn’t something that particularly attracted me at that time. I didn’t really find a particular subject that I wanted to follow on to with my two A-Level in Maths. So for me I chose to go into work. Possibly later in life I’ve looked back and thought, perhaps I should have given it more thought at the time, but from where I am now I have no regrets at all.

00:02:16 My first company amalgamated and moved away, and I took redundancy. I can remember the very day when the redundancies were announced as absolutely astounding, it was as if somebody’d hit you with a stone and you couldn’t believe it. Sometimes it’s the kick you need to realise that you can become very set in your ways in where you are, and it’s easy to stay where you are. And to make a move can be a very good and positive change.

00:02:43 I can remember when I first started this second job, coming to a new company, feeling a bit unsecure because it’s completely new and different to me. I had to prove myself and I had to do a lot of work and it was a lot of long hours struggling to actually achieve. And it seemed very demoralising at one point that you were struggling against the flow. But it strives you on to push harder and to achieve there, and then you reap the rewards at the end.

00:03:08 The balance between life and work for me works very well. I have two children at home. I work hard and I play hard, tends to be my philosophy. I enjoy skiing, I like going out and having a few drinks, having a good time. But I work hard as well, and I think it’s a good balance between working hard and enjoying yourself.

00:03:28 I’ve found that through my career because it has changed so much in itself, the job has evolved enormously, from absolutely nothing when I first started. I’ve had a lot of change within the same career that I’ve had. And I foresee that going on for a long time into the future as well.

00:02:59 I believe that risk and change is a very positive thing, and a lot of good comes out of it. As I said you only learn by your mistakes, but you have to make mistakes. And you also have to allow other people to make mistakes, because it is the best way to learn.

00:04:00 ENDS