What is your role at Verisk?
I am a Software Developer for the Extreme Events Solutions team at Verisk.
I’m also part of the Early Career Foundations Program, which is designed for recent grads at Verisk. The program offers opportunities to network, enhance our skills and learn more about the company, its solutions, and how to grow our careers.
What does Verisk do?
Verisk helps insurance and reinsurance companies all over the world by providing insights that help them access and manage risk. My team provides a variety of software solutions to estimate economic and insured losses due to natural disasters, terrorism, pandemics, cyber-attacks, and other risks based on a plethora of different factors.
What type of projects did you work on during your internship?
During my internship at Verisk, I worked closely with a fellow intern on a project that spanned the entire ten weeks. Our goal was to solve discrepancies between two similar workflows in the solution, so our work had important implications for client satisfaction.
We collaborated closely with our manager to brainstorm possible fixes to the problem, got acquainted with the extensive codebase, developed our solution, tested it for functionality and performance, and presented our results to the entire team in just ten weeks. It was a lot of hard work, but I learned so many valuable skills and lessons from the experience.
During your internship, what did your average day at Verisk look like?
My internship was hybrid, but I chose to come into the office four days a week because I enjoyed the office environment. Each morning, we met in our team’s daily scrum meeting to discuss our progress and any problems we were facing to ask for any advice or help we needed. During this meeting, we were also able to form stronger connections with our team and learn about the work they were doing. I would then spend most of the day collaborating with my fellow intern on the project, working to make progress on whichever step we were on.
This looked a bit different each day, but we would often go into a collaboration room and write code together or pull our manager in to ask questions. I would usually eat lunch with other interns, which was a great opportunity to network and make friends. On Wednesdays, we also had a lot of intern events, such as outings for ice cream, Q&As with executives, tournaments in the office game room, or seminars on professional development.
How was the Verisk internship program different from other internships you’ve done?
My internship at Verisk was my third internship experience, and it was by far the most organized program I have been a part of. I had great communication at every stage of the interview and hiring process and was well supported throughout the program by the coordinators, my manager, my team, and the fellow interns. It was clear from the beginning that the company values the internship program, as there were many opportunities to network with executives and employees across departments.
All were welcoming and excited to hear about the work we were doing. I was able to work on a relevant project that had actual implications for the business, rather than typical internship busywork. After returning to the company full-time, I can confidently say that my ten-week internship was comparable to what a full-time position at Verisk is like.
Having worked with workers’ compensation at your last internship, did you intend to pursue another opportunity in insurance? Were you aware of the opportunities for a technology career within the insurance industry?
The insurance industry was not necessarily well advertised to me as a college student, but I spent my first internship working with workers’ comp because the company was very well known in my hometown and looking for interns. Like many others in the industry, I didn’t specifically intend to continue with insurance, but having already learned a lot of insurance-related information and vocabulary made me feel more comfortable in this position.
The insurance industry is growing, and risk management is more important than ever with the number of natural disasters and other catastrophic events that are impacting the world today. By helping insurance companies prepare for these events, Verisk has an incredible impact. I’m confident in the company’s future and feel very good about the work that I am doing.
Why did you choose to join Verisk after your internship?
It was clear to me from the beginning that Verisk is a great place to work. I have met so many people that have been working here for decades, which shows that employees are treated well and there are many internal opportunities for growth. There are also plenty of other interns, coops, and new graduates in the office – some of whom I’ve met through the Early Career Foundations Program, so it has been easy for me to make friends who are at a similar stage in their career as I am.
I love the diversity here, as I have been able to work with many people from all over the world. My team is comprised of 50% women, which makes me feel more comfortable in this male-dominated industry. I feel respected and appreciated here and am also able to maintain a good work-life balance. I am now ten months into my full-time career at Verisk and very happy that I decided to return to Verisk.
What are you currently working on?
After spending my internship and the first ten months of my full-time employment working on one solution, called Touchstone, my team is preparing to shift its focus to a new solution that is still in the early stages of development. I’m excited about all the new skills and technologies I’ll learn to work on this new solution, as well as all of the new people I will get to collaborate with.
