underwriter

summer associate

senior underwriter

claims specialist

accounts assistant

Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Philadelphia Insurance Company is a highly rated insurance company. they are highly rated because they manage their money well and have very good niche property and casualty insurances. 

There senior management has good line of site and an idealist view of how things should be run internally. Coming into the company, I thought I would be a good fit for the culture of the company. 

Now for the reality, I started before the Christmas holiday. I met with my manager and was given a place to sit.
1) Other than the HR Overview, I was not introduced to my team members and their was no on-boarding process for my position.
2) My laptop was issued however, I had to feel my way through the help desk (which is very good, helpful and patient) in order to get permissions and access. Since I am very resourceful, I was able to find competent people that gave me good direction.
3) I was not given an assignment and my manager would not be back in the office until the second week of January.
4) I went through all the introductory courses assigned and when that was completed, I walked through their Methodology.

Since I am a self starter and I did not have on-boarding and no work assigned I decided to be constructive and worked on two initiatives of my own accord.
1) I put together a power point presentation to facilitate on-boarding including all the steps I took to get my workstation readied, an overview of all the relevant business systems, an introduction to key people and many other details that would have been helpful. Consequently when my manager came back I went through the power point presentation with the team members whom I finally met at the first team meeting. I incorporated their ideas into the PP presentation. To make a long story short, I was commended for my effort and the PP was used for on-boarding consultants.
2) I put together a high level concept of how to better use our systems in collaboration to expedite project management. I was actually given an award for constructive thinking to improve our process.

At that time I was finally going to get a project, however a project manager over heard me in a conversation and decided that they didn't want to work with me. They did not take the time to talk to me, interview me or even say hello to introduce themselves. They new they wouldn't like working with me.

After sitting in on two other project meetings, I was finally assigned, teamed up with someone in the architecture department and went for it. 

The line you get from the beginning is that we are all here to make each other successful. The reality is that you have now entered the good old boy network and they would prefer that you fail. There IS culture is filled with cliques, is sophomoric and probably the least organized project focused organization I ever worked with in my 30 years in the industry. 

In the business I met many quality people. In IS it was CYA as usual. Finger pointing with a condescending attitude. 

In conclusion, remember, this is my version and truth often lies in the middle. This insurance company can afford the incompetence which is why it is tolerated and amongst the confusion there is maintenance deliveries and a once in a while project delivery. If I were in charge I would make drastic changes because my focus as a manager has always been training good employees, transparency in communication, stick to the budget, and become part of the companies bottom line not a liability. My employees would not be running around with inadequate management fearing for their jobs. My tenure would have made a positive difference and saved millions of dollars.

To Philadelphia Insurance:
       If you ever want to be the best you can be, you need to invade the culture as advised. Feel free to contact me for discussion I have nothing but respect for the company and wish for it's success in all its endeavors.


I was placed here by The Dubin Group, back in September. The interview process was suspect, because they moved rather quickly in hiring me (I was interviewed on a Friday and hired the next day). I went through a lot of trouble just to produce all of the paperwork they needed, and I was told that the position was a three-month, temp-to-perm position. The manager was supposed to sit in on my interview, but for some reason she was not present.

The people who interviewed me were nice enough. They seemed willing to help...and to train, or so I thought. 

The woman training me, was a doll! She was kind and patient, and she obviously knew her stuff. However, it was obvious she was overworked; it made me sad that she was doing the work of four people, plus training me! They are short-staffed, and some of their employees are barely able to come up for air.

The expectations of the company were unrealistic, and I had no idea I had to meet some quota, as this was the explanation I got from my recruiter when she called to tell me my assignment had ended.

I learned a lot about the insurance industry, but to be successful at this job, one must have a solid background in insurance. I did not. I wasn't fast enough. But they did nothing to help me.

I concur with the other reviewers that they were heartless in just letting me go without an explanation. I felt lied to about the duration of the assignment, and I felt extremely terrible because almost everyone with whom I spoke, was made full-time after three months. Again, they ended my assignment after THREE WEEKS, when I was told it would be three months, with the potential to go full time.

I met some really cool people, and that was the saving grace. I liked my supervisor, as well. I never heard much from her, during the day, but I liked her. They never gave me a chance to improve, and for that reason, I cannot honestly recommend this company to anyone.

They need to provide better training, and they need to allocate the responsibilities with more care. Also, the manager seemed like a robot. I was not impressed with her at all.

If someone is saying that PHLY is a wonderful place to work where the workload is fair, the pay is good and the management do a great job at being leaders - they are lying. This is the most dysfunctional, miserable and corrupt place I have ever worked.  A complete boys club.  Underpaid and overworked is an understatement!  Harassment goes unnoticed and everyone is either stressed to the point of psychotherapy or medication.  They fire people left and right for no justified reason. People hide in corners of the office and discuss in hushed whispers how overworked and unhappy they are there. Everyone is petrified of retaliation and are just trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. You are expected to answer 200+ emails/day and are forced to be overworked with no back up or assistance and if you express any concern about the workload you are penalized for it.  HR is a total wreck and there is absolutely no follow through.  They hire people including managers with NO insurance experience.  You cant respond promptly to agents or customers becuase everything has to reviewed by someone so there is no authority to make decisions - even though there is an emphasis to take the reins and you are then blamed for it.  No work/life balance unless you suck up to management and use your freetime to do things to boost up PHLY.  Worst mistake I ever made coming to work here.  They make the website look like its a great place to be and that people are happy and they promote flexible work hours, but is not the case.  Once they trick you into working here everything is taken away.

o	Performed Business Modeling to understand their current business process and existing application.
o	Participated in Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions by convening project sponsors, end-user representatives, development team members, subject-matter experts, technical personnel, and different stakeholders to communicate their perspectives with each other, resolve any issues and come to consensus.
o	Identified Use Cases and wrote Use Case Narratives.
o	Worked closely with the development team to help them understand Use Case Narratives.
o	Conducted requirement workshops among all project stakeholders to verify and validate the business requirements
o	Handled the development of business requirement documents (BRD) resulting from JAD sessions.
o	Gathered Business Requirements from users and used Rational Requisite Pro for documenting the requirements.
o	Involved in maintaining Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM).
o	Participated in identifying opportunities and parameters for business process improvements.
o	Used the guidelines and artifacts of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to release multiple iterations of the deliverable over the span of the project lifecycle; propounded early development and base-lining of a robust executable architecture.
o	Created Use Case Diagrams and Activity Diagrams using MS Visio.
o	Assisted QA department to write and execute Test plans and Test Cases.
o	Created End-User Training Manuals as well as documented Release Notes.
o	Created Release Notes to support the monthly releases.

No training until you make a mistake then they jump on you and tell you not to do again.  Management looks through all your files and then comments if you make a mistake but NEVER gives a compliment for good work.  Only derogatory comments are received and all by e-mail.
Workload is increased greatly to answer all the emails sent by various levels of management.
Management assumes you know what they are talking about without asking prior experience.
Learned a lot but it was all done the HARD way.
Workplace is nice and coworkers are friendly.
Be Aware that your pending will exceed 150 most of the time in the property department with claims in the $500,000 reserve range.  Salary but work hours are as much as you can take - 60+ hours per week.
I enjoyed working with the independent adjusters in all 50 states, however, you are not given any guidance on this.  It is trial and error and referral from co-workers if they are not to busy to answer you.
Plan on volunteering at least one if not more days with various non-profit companies and setting up a team to go with you.

Philadelphia is a good company to work for, and I would recommend this company for any other position then in Claims.
You have no authority to make any decisions. ANY decisions, accepting a tender, denying a tender, making a simple coverage decision... You are essentially a claims processor for the Management Team.  After the first year, I realized that I would never speak to the Management Team,  those conversations take place without your input.  Even if you request to be allowed to discuss your file, you are told that it isn't necessary.
 Whatever evaluation you complete will be submitted to the "management team".  They decide, without any further input from you, how much authority you have.  It is almost always about HALF of the needed authority to resolve the case.
They then expect you to go to mediation, after fruitless mediation, without enough authority to resolve the claim.  

When you finally get close to the trial date, they cave in and are then willing to pay anything to avoid trial

A typical day is responding to about 60 or more emails a day, reviewing and processing work from template reports, reviewing proposals as well as negotiating premium rates with agents, underwriters and management.  I've learned to keep a positive attitude amongst many days of stress to renew numerous assigned commercial insurance policies a month.  The co-workers are very pleasant and comfortable to be around most often during events such as the happy hours at near-by restaurants implemented by the RVP.  The challenge with this position is not being able to practice insurance directly without the supervision of an underwriter or manager's approval.  However, the most enjoyable moments is during outside events that was developed to boost office morale.  

Management is a joke! It was more about numbers than actually helping the customer. Technically a full time job because it’s more than 30 hours worked but in black and white it’s 37.5 hours a week. Even that changes depending on the workload for the week. They’ll take away your hour lunch demanding you only take a 30 minute lunch. You will never leave on time. You have to complete work off the clock because they do not offer OT. Documentation is a joke. Working with other departments is hard and people are miserable and speak rudely. Quarterly luncheons are not enough to show your employees how much they’re appreciated. No open door policy as much as they tell you there’s one in place. You will have dreams about the work you didn’t complete. Don’t ruin your mental health. People were terminated all the time. Don’t go too far out of the way for the insured, it will be counted against you.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I love the many ways you can give back by volunteering. The amount of holidays is more than I ever had because I worked in the medical industry. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I personally don't have overly stressful days. Great work is rewarded. We have a hybrid work environment and flexible schedules. Stress is passed down through individual supervisors and not by the company as a whole.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's a friendly atmosphere. It's hybrid, so we have many chances to get to know coworkers through a lot of events. Work/Life balance is important to them.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I come in. I work. I talk to people. I get to participate in  whatever activity is available. I may volunteer during the day. I go to the gym that is provided at no cost and go home.

This company has tremendous products to sell but a different way of doing so.  Too long to explain but it is not customer friendly and if you are not one of the chosen people then you will feel the worst of it.  In short, you will be doing all the work while someone else gets all the pay.  It was once a better company but was bought out by a foreign company everything went south!  Management all received their millions in the stock then stopped caring.  No room for advancement unless you are a nice looking young lady either so if you are over 30 or so, don't apply as you will just be a slave.  This company has GREEDY salespeople and management who hide in offices and make big money.  Stay away unless you want to be a grunt for a poorly run company who hordes their money for the chosen few.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Underwriter 4 salaries reported	$79,361 per year
Summer associate 34 salaries reported	$21.49 per hour
Senior underwriter 6 salaries reported	$93,814 per year
Claims specialist 36 salaries reported	$93,444 per year
Accounts assistant 2 salaries reported	$54,325 per year

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