Wholesale Graduate Programme Underwriting 2022

Markel International is an international insurance company with offices in 17 countries, across the UK, Europe, Canada, and Asia Pacific.  Markel International is a division of Markel Corporation (NYSE – MKL), a fortune 500 company.

From insurance to reinsurance to fronting, we help our customers manage life's most complex risks.  In each of our businesses, we seek to deliver innovative products and responsive customer service so that we can be a market leader.  Markel offers specialty insurance for a variety of niche businesses across the globe.

Our win-win-win philosophy means our employees win by creating fulfilling careers, our customers win by finding protection against life’s biggest risks, and our shareholders win by earning good returns on their capital. This company was born from the belief that life’s greatest ambitions shouldn’t fade in the wake of all of the things that could go wrong.  Our culture is guided by a creed we call the Markel Style, which ensures that our greatest qualities endure across the generations of people who have been a part of Markel.

We are looking for the optimists. The visionary problem-solvers who believe that life’s greatest ambitions shouldn’t fade in the wake of all the things that could go wrong. The people willing to work hard together to protect our customers against the biggest and most complex risks, and have fun doing it.  It’s a promise to serve others that we’ll hold on to forever, and we’d like you to help us keep it.

The team

Markel's Wholesale division is comprised of six underwriting divisions with offices around the world, delegated underwriting, underwriting support services, and an award winning claims team. In 2020, all of the divisions were brought together as 'One Wholesale'. Stronger together, it is our ambition to become the best specialty insurer.​

As a graduate on the Wholesale Underwriting programme, you’ll be aligned to one of our six divisions:

• Cyber writes many differing types of business and industry areas for cyber coverage.
• Energy provides coverage on a worldwide basis for all aspects of upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas activities as well as renewable energy.
• Equine provides coverage for Bloodstock and Livestock risks worldwide.
• Marine provides coverage for liability, hull, war, terrorism, specie and cargo risks worldwide.
• Professional and Financial Risks (PFR) underwrites business worldwide and covers traditional and emerging professional indemnity, management liability, financial institutions as well as specialist risk areas such as patents and libel & slander.
• Trade Credit, Political Risk and Surety (TCPRS) underwrites a variety of trade and investment-related risks using expert knowledge of commercial counterparty and country risks across a wide variety of trade sectors and geographies.

What will you be doing?

Our Wholesale Underwriting Graduate Programmes is designed to equip you with the knowledge, skills and behaviours you will need to build a successful career in underwriting.  The first 12 months of your 30 month programme you will work within your core underwriting team, building your foundations and developing your expertise in your role.  You will work closely with the underwriters, contributing to the end-to-end underwriting process, as well as building relationships with brokers and internal stakeholders.  For the remaining 18 months of the programme you will have the opportunity to participate in secondments to other teams to really develop your breadth of knowledge and understanding of our business.

Not only will you be gaining valuable experience through on-the-job, technical and professional skills training but you will also receive support towards achieving Chartered Institute of Insurance Advanced Diploma via a Level 6 Senior Insurance Professional Apprenticeship.

We are committed to you and your career, and so our graduate roles are permanent roles from day one. Once you’ve completed your programme, we’ll continue to support you as you develop your career within underwriting!

Could you be a good fit?

What we look for

• Do you have a degree, 2:2 classification or above? (Achieved or predicted)
• Do you have 3 A Levels, grade B or above (or equivalent qualification)
• Proven eligibility to work in in the UK

The Markel Style

Pursuit of excellence

• Consistently provides quality work products
• Adapts behaviour to reflect the style of others to foster effective working relationships
• Finds the most efficient and practical means of overcoming challenges

Customer focus

• Actively looks for solutions to customer problems
• Seeks to further knowledge of customer needs
• Builds relationships with customers and responds to needs by demonstrating tact, empathy and professionalism

Business results

• Seeks the best and most direct option to accomplish tasks
• Demonstrates effective organisation skills
• Applies logic and draws accurate conclusions from information

Collaboration

• Helps others succeed
• Approaches change in a positive manner
• Listens for and acts on key information

Strong foundations

• Holds self and others accountable to ethical standards
• Takes ownership and accountability for own development
• Shows accountability and resilience in achieving goals

Assessment process

There will be four stages to the assessment process:

Online application

First up, you’ll need to complete an online application form.  We really want to get to know you and understand why you want to work with us and so we’ll ask you to answer three questions.  You will notice that we don’t ask for CVs.  Our programmes are designed for people who are at the early stages of their career; you may have worked part time alongside your studies, have had some professional work experience or you may never have worked before and this would be your first job.  CVs are great for listing out all of your work experience, but work experience isn’t essential for our programmes.  We want to get to know who you are, what motivates you and how you like to work and we don’t believe that you get all of this from a CV.  Don’t worry though, you will have plenty of opportunity throughout the assessment process to share your experiences and achievements!

We also know that unconscious bias can influence a recruitment process and so we’re only asking for the information that is relevant to the job role itself.  CVs often contain personal or irrelevant information and so, by removing them, we will be able to minimise any unconscious bias, ensuring that our processes are as inclusive as possible.

Video Interview

Our assessors will review your application and, if you’ve met the requirements, you’ll be sent a link with instructions to record and submit your answers to three interview questions. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your strengths, achievements and experiences through the examples that you provide.

Assessment Centre

The next stage of the process will be an invitation to an assessment centre. The assessment centres will include a number of individual and group activities.  We want to set you up for success and so we’ll send you an information pack ahead of the assessment centre so you’ll know what to prepare for.

Assessment centres are also a great way for you to learn about who we are and to understand if we are a good fit for you, so please feel free to ask questions!

Final interviews and offers

Occasionally there may be an additional final interview after the assessment centre (so that you can meet other members in the team). After this, the managers make their decision and offers are made!  Successful candidates will then start on the scheme the following September. For those that are unsuccessful, we will give you a call to give you feedback to help you with your future job search.