underwriter

claims consultant

actuary

senior counsel

director

CNA Insurance

I had the good fortune to start with the company in an entry level capacity as a clerk, and was given the opportunity to quickly advance over five years.  I was initially employed by Continental Ins. Co. and was retained when Continental merged with CNA.  I rose quickly to my last position of Recovery Claims Specialist and would never have left that position.  I worked with wonderful people and earned the trust to work unsupervised, and even work from home up to 2 days a week and utilize flextime. The workload was heavy and I often needed to work many additional unpaid hours, as I was a salaried employee.  I valued maintaining my caseload however, and never resented the extra time dedicated to keeping my caseload above reproach.  

Unfortunately, during a massive reorganization, a decision was made to temporarily relocate Fidelity Subrogation Claims to the Wyomissing, PA office, and ultimately to near the Chicago Home Office.  I maintained an average of 800+ files and recovered from $1-2 million to a high of $3.3 million in 2016.

 I handled cases in all the 50 states, and some international files as well.  This necessitated continual learning the state-specific laws with regard to fidelity cases, engaging counsel when appropriate and working closely with criminal authorities and monitoring civil suits.  

The most difficult part of the job was keeping the recovery numbers high with the uncertainty of recovery from tortfeasors, and providing annual opinions on how I would improve in the upcoming year.  If I saw the opportunity to improve, I would utilize it immediately, and not wait to implement it in the future  

The most rewarding was when I was able to encourage debtors to voluntarily make recovery payments. In one instance, not only did I fully recover the money stolen by an employee, on a case that had little chance of a positive outcome, as she was a repeat offender, but she wrote to thank me for getting her back to feeling like a productive member of society when she had repaid in full.  In another, I was able to negotiate a Promissory Note for the full amount of the loss, with semi-regular payments, by the use of compassion to a woman who was undergoing chemo for cancer.

I had many managers over the years, and each valued my dedication, work ethic, and integrity.  I was always rated highly and rewarded with pay increases and bonuses at my yearly evaluation.

Varied from day to day, however, I was the Admin Asst. for Reading and Phila. as well as three Insurance Managers.

Office of 30+ people so I basically functioned as an office manager by making sure sure copy machines were functioning, checked to determine if supplies needed to be ordered and checked with coworkers for special needs, checked calendar for respective Managers to determine if they needed to take any reports to outside calls and print or create them as required.  Handled e-mail inquiries from all industry staff requesting research/reports including Field Sales Reps who needed info from various agencies they service and also assist in setting up new agency appointments producer appointments, agency inforce listings identifying business results, agency terminations, etc.

Made breakfast, lunch, travel reservations for any of the three above Managers.

Set up onsite meetings/seminars as well as offsite seminars, prepared contracts for same, working with our H.O. for approval in all aspects, including expenses, IT on-site technicians, equipment needed for Powerpoint Presentations, worked with hotel/establishment to create menus for meeting, including hotel reservations, meeting room set up and all aspects of meeting requirements.

Assisted HR with new hires.  Made sure we were incompliance with Labor Law posters and ordered same as the need arose due to changes/updates.

Accurately created expense reports for each of the three Managers every two weeks on a Monday which were highly extensive and extemely time consuming due to their abundant travel.

Processed incoming and outgoing mail which included UPS.

Made sure the defribulator device was functioning and completed monthly reports.   

Made sure quarterly HVAC inspections were performed which included the computer room and submitted completed reports to our Home Office in Chicago.

Ater 41 years, I was required to relocate to Radnor, PA from Reading, PA which required traveling one hour to work vs. 15 minutes which I did for two years.  

I would prefer a job that didn't involve traveling an hour to work, as turnpike accidents could shut the turnpike down for hours plus bad weather was a detriment.

Always willing to work overtime if necessary.

Got along well with co-workers.

•	Involved in all stages of Software Development Life Cycle, from requirements gathering to post- production.
•	Creation of the Test Strategy, Test Plan, and execution schedule. Uploaded Test Plan, Test Cases, Weekly Status Reports, Issue Tracker.
•	Created Automation test Scripts using Descriptive Programming for test scenarios in QTP.
•	Performed Smoke testing, Functional testing, Regression testing, Integration testing, ad-hoc testing and black box testing for improving product quality.
•	Maintained Traceability Matrix using Quality center 10.0.
•	Recorded the Defects in Quality Center 10.0 with priorities and co-ordinate with Development team for fixing.
•	Conducted UI testing on different modules including data validation in text fields, negative and positive data, data type, boundary value, validation of optional and required fields.
•	Used QTP for Functional and Regression testing of the application.
•	Participated in weekly Assessment Meetings with BA, QA, and Developers and coordinated between Business Team, Development Team, and Testing Team.
•	Identified and Documented functional requirements using and mapping them to individual test case requirements in QC.
•	Reporting and documenting defects, change requests and test results using Quality Center.
•	Involved in analyzing the applications and development of Test cases.
•	Laid down the complete set of processes for the entire Testing lifecycle including, Integration, User Acceptance and System Test along with the Entry and Exit criteria for each phase of testing.
•	Reporting, tracking the status of the bugs and assigning severity ratings to them using Quality Center.
•	Used SQL statements to validate the data at the back end.
•	Created Test Cases based on CCR (Change Control Requests) / Functional Specs.
•	Performed Manual Testing for Screen Navigation.
•	Created Test Scenarios for Positive, Negative, Integration and Regression testing of the application.
•	Extensively used QTP for generating the automated test scripts also used data driven tests.
•	Maintained Test Matrix for summarized test results information.

a typical day is busy, which i like. i learned how to take care of a file room and mail room. i also learned...1.) dont trust anyone, 2.) cover your behind, 3.) garbage rolls downhill, and 4.) its not what you know, but who you know. you asked, i told. my co-workers were great. good hard working people. the hardest part of the job was when i had to leave. the most enjoyable part was the people. management is management. i had a great boss who i just really liked and respected. then, she retired and i got a new boss. everything was downhill from there. even though i had survived several layoffs and had done my job very well for 8 years ( good reviews, good raises, and good bonuses ) all of a sudden, i didnt know what i was doing. at least according to my " new " boss. also, according to my new boss, i wasnt doing my job. funny to me, cause everything was always done on time, and in most cases, done before it needed to be. i had the respect of all my co-workers and all of the other bosses. when i lost my job, it DID NOT go well with the other people. when the new boss tried to convince people that i wasnt doing my job, absolutley NO ONE believed her. one person stood up in the meeting and flat out called her a liar, told her that i was a very good worker, and that she ( new boss ) and everybody else knew it. for 8 years, i did very good work. one month after my original boss retired, i was called into an office where my new boss informed me that my services would no longer be required. thats it.

The company offered "Flex Time", which I enjoyed, because I lived 60 miles away and could get in early to beat the rush hour's and get a good jump start on the day.

When I started with CNA as a temporary contractor, I did not know the slightest about Commercial Insurance, but I worked hard to study and learn all that I could about each line that I worked in. I was on my way to becoming an Underwriter.

When I first arrived to work on a daily basis, I would check voice mail, make notes of messages to handle, then check e-mail and handle all priority items.

I would prioritize my day and then work through it, handling anything that "came up" during the day as well. I worked directly with my supervisor, handling any rush quotes, etc that she would need ASAP.

The hardest part of the job was leaving to relocate....I loved my job, but I had to start my future in California. The most enjoyable was that everyday was different with a multitude of challenges.

For the first 4 years working at CNA, I did not have a local supervisor. They changed every year, due to budget strategies. I adjusted very well to each change. The last two years I worked with the same supervisor in the same cubicle area. I adjusted to that easily as well. I had the same co-workers throughout my tenure, and each were very different in personalities and handled my relationship with each one based on their personality. We all got along very well.

CNA is overall good company to start ones career.  I learned many IT related functions that I learned while on job such as SQL, program coding, and Access.  A typical day at CNA within the Word Wide Operations department can be exciting at first, but later one quickly discovers that hard work does not really payoff or goes unrecognized.  The company is great at putting its values and upfront and inline with individuals assessments/scorecards.  I have learned that depending who you know or if you are part of tight knit group the opportunities/advancement advertised are not easy to attain based on ones knowledge and experience alone.  My co-workers were great to work with.  The majority of workers are part of the baby-boomers generation.  So the culture is mostly made up of people who have been doing the same type of work for more than 15 years.  Not many of the workers embrace emerging technology to their advantage.  The small percentage of younger tech-savvy employees push the company forward.  However, the top management is very slow to adapt to new technology. The most enjoyable job was working for the reporting team.  I traveled to other sites and assisted in rehauling old manual processes and introduced new way of doing work and implementing/training employees to utilize new technology.

- Training is short and inadequate with little to no reinforcement or checks for comprehension. You are expected to pick up the rest on the job.
- Because of this, as you get more proficient you will repeatedly have to clean up other people's mistakes, usually with an angry customer on the phone.
- This is not a sales position, but you are expected to meet a sales quota every month, and offer an up-sell to every policyholder. This is built into your quality metrics as well. You will get smaller bonuses, smaller raises, and will not be able to apply for other positions if you do not meet these goals.
- Management is as overworked and under trained as you, which makes them willing to help but ineffective at best, and apathetic at worst.
- Halfhearted attempts increasing employee engagement are abandoned after a while. No follow though at all.
- All job changes within the department have been lateral moves to get out, or just flat out leaving the company. There have been several of these. 
- At least one of our systems goes down once a week. 
- Other departments are understaffed and we are expected to pick up the slack.

I am so disappointed to what has happened to CNA since I first joined the company several years ago.  The organization has become very top-heavy with managers who seem under qualified and inexperienced for the jobs they were hired to do.  CNA seem to prefer bringing in inexperienced outsiders to manage the experienced professionals that were already doing well in their positions and should have been promoted.  This wasn't my personal situation - just something I observed happening a lot over time.  Other things that changed:  positive culture changed to a negative, management by fear and negative reinforcement.  I actually heard a manager say that they were told in a morning meeting that employees should be a little bit afraid for their jobs every day.  I'm not sure how others feel about that, but I quickly decided it wasn't the environment for me and was very happy to say goodbye and move on to company where I am supported and encouraged and enjoy working hard and not because I'm being threatened with my employment every day.

•	Underwriting and marketing of new business and renewal accounts to obtain profitable rate/retention and growth goals.
•	Territory consisted of Central Valley, Sacramento and San Francisco area for over 3 years including the New Mexico and Arizona territory for the past year. 
•	Currently managing and building new agency relationships to grow profitable new business.
•	Consistent marketing of all CNA’s products in each of our business segments and service offerings throughout the brokerage community and  remain consistently informed of current state/territory issues and regulations, industry activity and trends.
•	Determining the acceptability of risks to ensure they are in accordance with our guidelines and preferred appetite.
•	Proactively engaged as a mentor/trainer for new staff members throughout my tenure; assisting with the on-boarding into our corporate sales; underwriting, and business enterprise culture.

Lots of organizational instability.   New CEO has been in place for over a year but has not been very visible internally.  There's lack of transparency from upper management, it's never clear what they're thinking, working on, changing leading to rumors spreading.  Watercooler culture - there's always separate conversations outside of meetings.  Pay is good.  There are pockets where teams are lead by great leaders, so if you're lucky, you'd be in one of those groups.  

There are bright spots of positive change, it is better than it was a year ago.  

Management can be much more open, create more psychological safety, have fewer meetings, be more visible, develop a consistent vision, rebuild trust, stop the rotating door of executives, be truly invested in D&I and develop a more trusting culture.  I wish management would be in contact with employees more often, to let them know what's happening - even if it's still a work in progress or to at least tell us there's still work being done. When you sit on a floor with SVPS and over yet you rarely see them --- it makes them not approachable.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Underwriter 16 salaries reported	$94,031 per year
Claims consultant 43 salaries reported	$137,279 per year
Actuary 8 salaries reported	$128,763 per year
Senior counsel 36 salaries reported	$184,146 per year
Director 2 salaries reported	$143,000 per year

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