PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
LIAM MCCARTHY
Zurich
42
REINFORCING
YOUR EXPERIENCE
Why taking an insurance qualification
isn’t just for new entrants
Issue 7 • September 2018 • The Insider
Within the insurance sector, there are
many grandfathered employees who
have significant industry and technical
knowledge. However, we are seeing a
significant increase in those wishing
to study and achieve an insurance
qualification. We look at the reasons
behind why this might be and chat to
Liam McCarthy from Zurich about
why he decided to recently start the
CIP programme. Don’t just take it from us...
Here’s what Liam McCarthy from Zurich has to say about
why he decided to do the CIP programme;
ST R E N G T H E N I N G YO U R P E R S O N A L B R A N D
Qualifications give you a competitive edge and help you to
secure your future by allowing you to progress into specialist
areas or more senior roles, rather than being restricted to the
area you've been grandfathered in. What did you find the most challenging about working and
studying at the same time?
With a busy job and hectic family life, I found making time
for studying on a consistent basis to be the main challenge. By
allocating 45 minutes every morning during the week, I found
that I was consistently studying and avoided long intervals
between study periods.
H E L P I N G Y O U S TAY C O M P L I A N T
Even as a Grandfathered person you still have to complete
CPD, but what many of our members don’t know, and what
a lot of our Grandfathered members have realised, is that you
can earn 8 hours of CPD for each exam you pass. So if they
pass two exams in a year, all that is needed is to complete an
hour of ethics to fulfil their annual CPD requirement.
RECOGNITION NOT REPETITION
Many Grandfathered members have completed insurance or
business exams in the past. If this is the case, many are already
a lot closer to achieving one of our qualifications and is why
we recommend that you take a look at our exemption checker
(iii.ie/exemptions-checker) first to see if you could be entitled
to exemptions from certain modules.
How long have you worked in insurance?
I started my career with Insurance Corporation of Ireland on
the 3rd October 1981 and I’m now close to completing my
37th year in the industry with Zurich.
Why did you decide to go back and start studying again?
Zurich have a great system in place for exam support and I
felt so many things have changed over the years that it would
be good for me to upskill myself. I started with a Bachelor’s
Degree in Project Management and when I completed this, I
had the bug for studying and decided to complete the CIP in
2018. I have so far passed three exams in January and two in
May. My last one will be in September.
What supports did you find the most useful?
They were all great and the fact that they are accessible online
made things much easier for me. However, I found the mock
exams and previous exam papers the most useful as they
helped me focus on what is most important from an exam
point of view.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
When sitting the written papers, I learnt from the first one
that I needed a strategy. I answered the questions where I felt
confident and believed I could score well first. Then I answered
the rest working through them in order of what I felt most
confident on.
Issue 7 • September 2018 • The Insider
43