Whitney answers questions about working in insurance:
How did you get into insurance?
Looking back, it is crazy how fast two years go when you are having fun! I was in my senior year of high school trying to decide what I wanted to do the next fall to start my lifelong career. Not fully knowing what to do, I was going to go to Chippewa Valley Technical College for Accounting and no I didn’t like accounting or numbers, but I thought I had to decide at that time. I consider myself super lucky as I had a connection with Jessica Klatt at BE Industries, and she knew Beth here at Aspire. They had been working together and using AcuMax to see how the Aspire A Team was wired and how they worked together. I was still running high school track at the time I had my interview. At the time that I was preparing for my interview, I wasn’t sure how insurance worked. The night before I was asking my mom a few questions, one specifically that will make many laugh, “Mom, what is a deductible?”. A few days after my interview, Beth called and said that I was accepted for the position. It was super exciting to start, but also scary not knowing much about insurance. The amazing Aspire Team welcomed me like I was family and trained me to understand insurance. Now, I consider myself one of those insurance nerds!
What do you love and not love about insurance?
Insurance is always an adventure! My favorite thing about insurance and being independent is that I learn something new every day, I will never be bored in this career. A dislike of mine in the industry is sometimes people think that at the agency we can change rates. Although, I wish we did and would love to have that ability. Unfortunately, we can’t do that. I enjoy being able to educate clients and people around me about the industry and that is an area where we can educate people on why we aren’t able to do that.
How is this career different from what others perceive it to be? What do you think others’ perception of working in insurance is?
A lot of times, people look at an insurance career and think that it must be boring and get old fast. I would have to disagree – as I said above, it’s never boring because you can learn new information each day and you are helping people 24/7 to protect their biggest assets.
When I was little, I wanted to find a career where I could be helping others and I am lucky I did! Not only is insurance a great industry to work in but having a team that feels more like family is something I will never take for granted!
-Whitney Elsen