The insurance industry is growing and has a high need for talented professionals with a variety of training and skills. Recruiters are asking job seekers 'where do you fit in?' In this series, Cincinnati Insurance associates describe their own career journeys.

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If you had asked the wide-eyed, over-excited Justin Sharp what he would be doing once he graduated from the University of Kentucky, the answer definitely would not have been insurance.

After rolling through the motions of switching majors, I finally landed on English education. The prospect of teaching young students the literature classics and valuable life themes made the idea of teaching seem very fulfilling. But I found my way to The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company after interning in insurance during my junior year.

Life insurance is an interesting animal. At first I didn't realize it, but I use the teaching skills I acquired in college on a daily basis. There is a new concept to teach every day of the week: how certain life products work; how to fill out a life insurance application; or analyzing the type of life insurance plan that's appropriate for a policyholder.

Teaching doesn't have to happen in a classroom. It can happen over the phone or through an email. Being able to directly affect someone in a positive manner is one of the reasons why I wanted to teach. Besides, I get uncanny joy from proper grammar.

Day after day, helping our independent agents do something they did not necessarily know how to do before makes my job as a teacher a success. After a year and a half working for Cincinnati Life, I've traded in 'The Great Gatsby,' for a comparison sheet that outlines different forms of life insurance.

'What are the similarities? What are the differences?' Getting into the nitty gritty of a policy, being able to understand the key words and definitions and how they specifically affect the insured are all teachable moments for an insured who doesn't deal with life insurance on an everyday basis.

For all you English defectors in high school: maybe English class wasn't too bad after all!

Not everyone realizes it, but career paths in insurance take skills and expertise from any college major. In my case, I wound up being a teacher, just like I thought I would. The only difference: I never thought it would be for an insurance company. Not only do I get to 'teach' on a day-to-day basis, but life insurance is unique in its own way that helps insureds - or their beneficiaries - often in times of loss and sadness.

That feeling of helping someone makes me excited to come to work every day.

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For more information about a variety of insurance careers, please visit theInsurancecareers.org website orFacebook page sponsored by Ohio's insurance industry. Cincinnati Insurance posts open positions onour website and onour LinkedIn page.

Cincinnati Financial Corporation issued this content on 02 February 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 02 February 2016 15:10:13 UTC

Original Document: http://blog.cinfin.com/2016/02/02/insurance-careers-still-teaching/