| CAREERS BLOG
Phap Hoang
August 25, 2024
My name is Phap Hoang, and I was the Claims intern for Tower Hill in the Summer of 2024.
It is my pleasure to share my experience at Tower Hill, from the amazing culture and people to the fascinating projects and various tasks I was able to be involved in.
Before all of that, I want to give some context about who I am and how I ended up here. I graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s in data science and a strong background in computer science and mathematics. After graduating, I did not know what my next steps would be and I was on the challenging road of figuring out what to do after college. I attended multiple college career fairs, where I spoke to various recruiters from the medical field to the sales industry, but when I met the Tower Hill representatives, it seemed like a great fit for me. I never thought my next step would be insurance, but it turned out to be a fantastic experience.
“It may seem like I am overstating my case, but the truth is, if you want to learn and grow, there are so many opportunities at Tower Hill.”
I jumped into my internship with minimal knowledge of insurance. Let me be the first to say, there is so much to learn and opportunities for growth in this industry. Insurance is not just the agent and policyholder, but rather a cake with so many layers that need to complement each other to become the amazing dessert we enjoy. Being the Claims intern, I was in the middle of it all, learning what happens when customers file claims due to tragic events and how their premiums and policies were developed. I had the amazing opportunity to be on the front lines, with customers who had their homes and property damaged, and helping them was such a rewarding experience. Not only that, but the people who taught me the ins and outs of taking first notice of loss calls and working as an adjuster were passionate about both providing the best customer service and my professional development. A big thank you to the claims team!
I also spent some of my time at Tower Hill working with data. I had the chance to research data leakage, potential growth of policies, and many other data elements. A big shoutout to my supervisor and mentor Steven Gregory, alongside the analytics team, who gave me many opportunities to work with business intelligence software and contribute to the many layers of Tower Hill! I was also able develop my Excel skills, creating calculations and trend analysis. I even built my very first report! Prior to this internship, my knowledge of data science was limited to class subjects and lecture notes, so to be able to create reports, dashboards, and analytical results was an eye-opening experience!
I was also involved in more technical elements of data science, such as user testing, data warehousing and working with data administration and management platforms! I learned how innovation and technology has pushed the insurance industry to the next level and how working with high-level machine learning has helped cultivate Tower Hill’s growth. I even got a glimpse of a possible future for myself, working with the database administration team developing a customer database that helps integrate key information about the policy holder.
I was able to have so many amazing experiences during my internship because of Tower Hill’s ability to focus on their employees’ strengths. My mentor, Steven Gregory, was so gracious to let me explore these realms of knowledge while learning the basics of insurance. There has not been a moment of dullness during my time here! It may seem like I am overstating my case, but the truth is, if you want to learn and grow, there are so many opportunities at Tower Hill. There are so many other interesting areas of work, such as Special Investigations and Legal and Liability, in addition to Business Intelligence, that all contribute to the layers of Tower Hill.
So, let’s recap, I graduated early and had no clue what my future held. I felt lucky I met Tara Kraber and Steven Gregory during the last minutes of a career fair that led me to an internship at Tower Hill. I don’t think I could have asked for a better time to be a part of this program, being able to learn and grow in an environment that promotes the same ideals, with people that share the same vision, and a company that aims toward a greater goal. Before I end things, I want to give a thank you to Tara Kraber and the HR team for giving me the opportunity to be here, Steven Gregory and everyone in the Claims Department for taking such good care of me, the other interns for creating life lasting memories, and everyone at Tower Hill for kindly teaching me everything I know, and I hope to be able to return the favor one day!