Where did all the interns go?

Do you know a famous underwriter? Or a claims adjuster with her own reality show?


Twenty years ago, I didn't even know what an underwriter or a claims adjuster was.

Later this afternoon, it’ll have been that many years since I crossed the steps leading up to the library on the quad at Illinois Wesleyan University to collect my diploma.

A few days later, I’d pack up my car and head to the middle of Ohio where I’d begin a new job with an insurance company there.

But my insurance career actually began the year prior - as an intern in insurance sales.

And today, I am 100% certain that if not for that experience, and for the insurance agent license that I earned in the process, I would not be doing the work I do today.

I didn’t, after all, have a famous insurance agent in my purview to emulate as a little girl.

The insurance industry will look so very different for the young professionals of today than it did for me so many years ago.

And as I learn every day about internships that have been halted, for obvious reasons, I wonder how many career trajectories are changing as a result?

These days I daydream about re-imagining the internship experience - and what this can look like in our next normal. What do you think?