Sigma Chapter Intern Testimonials

Robert Wykoff

Major: Risk Management & Insurance
Graduation Date:
Company: Saint-Gobain Corporation
Location:
Date:

I interned at Saint-Gobain North American Delegation (SGNA), from May 16, 2011 to August 19, 2011. They are located in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

I worked directly for the Vice President of Risk for the North American delegation, which accounts for approximately 17% of the Fortune 500 company’s business.  However, there were 5 other people in the department who could assign me tasks.  My tasks ranged from simple things (i.e. organizing and compiling information given to me) to complicated things (i.e. Find out if any of our 400 locations in the US have a particular loss exposure that we hadn’t previously considered).

The classes at Temple definitely prepared me. I had a leg up on previous interns because I actually knew abbreviations and terminology that they didn’t expect me to know.  I’d say I knew 95% of the terms used, what they did, and how they applied to the company. I actually thought it would be boring, but there was so much going on that there were very few dull moments. 

You get out what you put in.  There were three reasons I landed my internship:

The first is the research I did on the company itself.  It turns out that Saint-Gobain has been around since 1665 and that it was originally commissioned in France by Louis XIV to manufacture mirrors for the Palace of Versailles.  The interviewers were thrilled to know I’d done some research on the company.

The second, I paid attention in class.  Professor McCloskey had spoken about claims as a great way to see how insurance comes together.  I thought about it, and when asked, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” I replied, “I’d like to go into claims …” for the above reason.  The interviewer said that was the question that landed me the position – because “I’d really thought about risk management as a whole.”

The third was my personality.  Be yourself.  It’s cliché, but my interviewer (after the fact) commented on how relaxed I seemed, and how you need to be able to take things all at once and keep your head on. 

Final note:  When I went into the interview, I thought I was rocking it.  I walked out thinking I bombed it.  You never know what to expect. 

I was assigned many special projects, but I’m not sure if I can actually go into detail about for confidentiality reasons. I was given almost a half-dozen projects where I’d have to find out if a particular exposure existed that had no coverage.  I was also not given a How-To guide on how to determine if they existed.  I got to work with the insurance carriers and our broker to get coverages in place to deal with them. I was designated as the company liaison to implementing an RMIS system that tracked all of our claims online and allowed us to disburse monthly reports to the comptrollers.  I worked directly with the provider to get this up and running. I got to work directly with Marsh, XL Insurance, and CS STARS.

Not to sound too nerdy, but it was really amazing the amount of areas that risk management touches, within the company itself and other 3rd parties. I would recommend this internship to someone else.

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