MeetEwart

Ewart’s view on experiencing different roles:

“Trying to get lots of experience in various roles will help you understand how everyone comes together to achieve satisfactory results for our customers.

I wouldn’t say it’s a case of merely moving from one job to the next. A good way to carve out a career path would be to start small, dealing with smaller claims and work your way up to bigger, more-complex losses. You’ll need to seek out these opportunities though, for example, perhaps taking secondment roles, or look for different departments who deal with different classes of insurance. Getting a good flavour for everything means you can sculpt your career to what you want or what you’re really good – or even great – at.”

“A good way to carve out a career path would be to start small, dealing with smaller claims and work your way up to bigger, more-complex losses.”

…on solving tricky cases:

“I’ve learned that not everything is black and white, and there are multiple shades of grey when handling claims. This makes the job very interesting, but it can also make it quite difficult. You quickly learn that you need to solve some very tricky scenarios where what you’ve learned in textbooks doesn’t necessarily fit real life perfectly. I’m quite a detail-oriented and tenacious person, which helps when trying to consider the correct interpretation of the policy wording and applying it to the scenario to get the right outcome for all parties. I recommend working closely with your team to come together and make pragmatic decisions based on what’s presented before you­ – making practicable and consistent decisions. Ultimately, it’s using the grey matter to navigate through the grey areas.”

“I’m quite a detail-oriented and tenacious person, which helps when trying to consider the correct interpretation of the policy wording and applying it to the scenario to get the right outcome for all parties.”

…on career progression and development:

“Attaining qualifications not only shows you have gained knowledge and have been tested on it, but it also shows you can stick with something and see it through to the end. Perseverance is such an important characteristic for employers to attract and retain. Completing my qualifications has really opened many doors that would have otherwise been shut to someone of my age. It won’t guarantee being selected for a role, but it provides many opportunities. Always see where these opportunities take you. For my part, in a couple of years I would like to consider a technical manager role providing technical guidance to more-junior colleagues.”

“Completing my qualifications has really opened many doors that would have otherwise been shut to someone of my age.”

…on what he finds so rewarding about his work:

“As is the case with many in the industry, I fell into insurance, but then found it such an interesting and rewarding area of work. In my role, every day is a chance to help someone. Whether it’s a small thing like agreeing a bit extra in a settlement, or simply helping a colleague; or a big thing like agreeing to settle a multi-million-pound claim. Whatever your role is within an organisation, you should always help your colleagues to ultimately help our customers in their time of need. Claims can be extremely emotional, especially if people’s businesses or homes are in tatters, and you’ve got to essentially help pick up the pieces and protect them. At other times, they can be so happy, simply because you’ve done all the work you’re supposed to do.”

Outside of work, Ewart continues to fuel his love of music, playing viola in several orchestras semi-professionally. He’s also studying in his spare time for a professional doctorate in criminology and criminal justice.

“In my role, every day is a chance to help someone.”