Will’s journey so far…London to Bexhill and Segment Analyst to Segment Manager

Why did you decide to make the move to Hastings Direct?

 It was actually my girlfriend who first got a job at Hastings Direct.  She had been looking for a data science position in the same county as where her family lived and that’s when she found a data science role in Bexhill! Lorraine’s parents had always spoken about retiring to Bexhill– we certainly hadn’t expected to beat them down here!

 I now live and work five minutes from the beach, in a town where people talk to you in the supermarket, cars actually slow to let you cross the road and that has a good selection of restaurants for a small town.  Moving from London to Bexhill halved our rent, significantly reduced our living costs and we went from ‘never going to save enough for a deposit’ to having our own place within a year.

 

What’s your development journey at Hastings Direct been like so far?

I started at Hastings Direct 18 months ago as a Segment Analyst in the Underwriting department.  I had no experience in insurance; I had previously worked as a maths teacher for 5 years.  Early support from a great team of people made it really easy to settle in and I soon found that I really enjoyed what I was doing.  There is always a new challenge, a new question or a new idea that needed to be investigated, verified, and shared.  The rate at which I have continued to learn has been astounding and I continue to develop new technical skills and commercial knowledge.  Having recently been promoted to a Segment Manager, I now have further responsibilities and even more new things to learn, and I’m loving every minute of it.

 

Why would you recommend Hastings Direct as a place to work ?

Hastings Direct really do care about balancing the interests of customers, colleagues, the company and the local community and this results in a fantastic working environment.  Colleagues are valued for their skills and varied experiences. Growth over many years has left Hastings Direct as an anomaly - a large insurer that still behaves in some ways like a much smaller company.  There is plenty of room for innovation, a willingness to try new things (up to a point, of course) and a certain flexibility of thought that you don’t get in other big insurers.  And we’re a short walk to the seaside!

We have a great team of colleagues and we’re always looking for new people who have great potential and personality. Please check out our current Underwriting vacancies here.