Meet our summer interns: CJ Sanders

CJ Sanders is a rising senior at Kennesaw State University majoring in Management and Information Systems. He is a part of Munich Re’s 2022 Summer Internship Program and is on track to become an Underwriter through the Senior Leadership Development Program.

Before the internship CJ attended a three-day externship with Munich Re where he learned about insurance and reinsurance which piqued his interest in the field.

Currently, he is working on projects with two different lines of business, Excess Casualty and Professional Lines. "They are on two opposite ends of the spectrum. My team has me going through the actual underwriting process. I am reviewing submissions, networking with brokers, and assessing risk. I am working on tasks that a real underwriter would perform as far as reviewing the file and doing market and industry research. I recently switched over to professional lines, which are directors and officers, and I have had to review many financial statements for different accounts based on assessing the risk for insurance companies. In this role I have had to do a lot of market research into financials, stock prices, and why companies may have seen a drop recently and what that means to the company itself. During the first 6 weeks I was getting submissions and reviewing them, switching between the two aspects of underwriting has been extremely interesting.”

When asked about a challenge he said, “The transition moving from Atlanta to New York was challenging for sure. As far as the internship itself goes, I think jumping right into the insurance world can be tricky. Insurance is something that everyday people don’t know a lot of information about. Jumping from the personal side of the business to reinsurance as well as learning the different ins and outs of the industry. Learning all the material and definitions and on top of that learning what everything means and how an underwriter thinks is difficult. You not only have to know it, but you need to learn how to apply what you know.”

His biggest piece of advice for someone applying for the internship program is, “Give it one hundred percent because at the end of the day you are interviewing every day. It is okay to feel like you are overwhelmed. You are meant to feel challenged as an individual. They do not expect you to know everything, but they expect you to have a hard work ethic and a personality they can get along with and work with comfortably. Be the best you that you can be and put in the most amount of work that you feel comfortable doing.”

Learn more about student opportunities at Munich Re: https://www.munichre.com/us-non-life/en/company/careers/student-opportunities.html

By Taylor Trafton , Creative Content Intern, Munich Re America Service, Inc.