Degrees of preparation

Risk & Insurance, March 3, 2003 by Maura C. Ciccarelli

When Steve Jaeger graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 with a double major in risk management and real estate, he was leaning toward a career in real estate. There was only one problem.

"I had multiple job offers on the risk management side and nothing on the real estate side," says Jaeger, who took the best offer--a position at a brokerage firm in San Francisco--and made a career out of it.

With the economy in similar straits today as it was in 1989, students who want a leg up in the job market and have an interest in a multi-disciplinary job are turning toward risk management in ever increasing numbers, as judged by the increase in academic programs around the country.

With business schools turning out thousands of graduates each year, the very specific risk management career stumps some people. Jaeger says that when he tells people he got a degree in risk management, they say, "You went to school for this?"

"People find it hard to fathom," he laughs.

Job Preparation

According to an informal survey of the largest schools offering risk management and insurance programs around the nation, there's an increasing interest in risk management degrees among business majors. The reason? Job placement at these colleges has often reached 100 percent in the last few years--and that's a plus today, with the unemployment rate hovering stubbornly around 6 percent.

"The risk management and insurance discipline has been somewhat counter-cyclical to the economy," says Joan Schmit, University of Wisconsin-Madison's professor of risk management and insurance and associate dean of the graduate programs at Wisconsin's School of Business. "In response to September 11th, there's been more focus on insurance, on safety. Consciousness about the importance of risk management is expanding."

Dozens of programs around the country specialize in risk management and insurance to varying degrees. The best-known programs include University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, George State University, University of Georgia, Florida State University and Illinois State University. Growth at most of these schools has been impressive. The University of Mississippi's program, for example, has grown four-fold since 1995. Why?

"The old program was--how can I be diplomatic?--on a plateau," says Larry Cox, associate professor of finance and Robertson Chair of Insurance at Ole Miss. "[In 1995] we only had 20 students, so people thought there must not be jobs for them. First, we went out and begged companies ... to come and talk to students at career days. The momentum built upon itself. The students began to learn there were great careers in risk management and insurance."

The numbers are up at other schools as well. Temple University has seen a 400 percent increase in its risk management and insurance program since 1990. At UGA in Athens, Ga., 120 risk management and insurance students graduated in 2002; in 2003, that number will be closer to 140. There's also been a 20 percent increase in MBA students, which includes a risk management and insurance sequence.

"We've seen a two-fold increase in enrollment over the last three to five years," says Robert E. Hoyt, risk management and insurance professor and head of the UGA Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate department. "We have more graduates last year than in the previous year and more this year than last. That's practically unheard of in other programs."

It seems that when competition for jobs is fierce due to high unemployment rates, differentiating yourself through degree and professional development programs becomes even more important. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that in the 2002-2003 period there would be a 22 percent increase in the jobs requiring at least a bachelor's degree and a 23 percent increase in jobs requiring a master's degree.

"This 'hit-the-ground-running' philosophy tries to assure that the new employee will take less time in learning the responsibilities of his/her job," says Frank Scanlan, spokesman for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). "Organizations can be pickier because there are more people looking for jobs."

SHRM's employment outlook for 2002-2003 is also interesting: "New jobs will increasingly require both general and occupation-specific skills, will be more demanding, will involve more teamwork and worker participation, and will be in occupations that allow people to think and be creative on the job," the report states.

That multi-disciplinary factor appealed to Lauren Howell, risk manager for Riverside Manufacturing Co., based in Moultrie, Ga.

"I started off as a general business major and took the introductory risk management class as an elective," explains Howell, who earned a BBA in risk management from the University of Georgia. "After that, I decided to select risk management as my major. It appealed to me because it combined accounting, finance, marketing and other areas of business into one major ... not to mention the department's very successful job placement rate."