Petey Fabian

CNS 220
Heidi Robinson
30 November 2015
Informational Interview #3
For my third informational interview, I met with Ken Gerrity. Mr. Gerrity
is the Executive Vice President at AON Risk Services. Ken was the person I
did my job shadow with so I got the chance to meet with him face to face. Mr.
Gerrity graduated from Wake in 1977, and said he took the only job he could
get. That job just happened to be in the insurance field, the same field he
currently works in. While he has worked at a few different companies in the
past few years, he has been working at AON for just over twenty years. To
him, the insurance field is an area where he has been able to be successful
and pursue something that is interesting to him. In his job, he has a few
different responsibilities. The main thing is that he is responsible for the
overall accounts for a few select companies, companies such as Reynolds in
Winston-Salem. By being in charge of the accounts, Mr. Gerrity often has to
meet with the heads of the specific company, and discuss the different
options that are available to them. Due to this, Mr. Gerrity has to have a least
a basic understanding of all aspects of insurance and how different plans will
impact the company. When companies want more information on certain
aspects of the insurance coverage, Mr. Gerrity arranges for them to meet
with some of his employees that are trained in one specific department of
insurance. From there the companies can get the advice they want and
hopefully make the best decision for their company in regards to insurance.
A typical day for Mr. Gerrity consists of a lot of meetings and phone calls with
the companies accounts that he oversees. These meetings pick up when
new insurance plans are being purchased. He also has to be able to answer
questions regarding what specifically is covered by the insurance plan.
Personally, I found Mr. Gerritys job to be somewhat interesting. I
thought it was cool that he got to do a lot of analysis on different insurance
plans in order to find what was best for the specific company. Also, working
with other people is appealing to me. The fact that he is constantly
communicating with others in regards to the task at hand was cool. Whether
it is his coworkers or the companies that employ him, communication was a
big part of his job. Due to that, he mentioned that being able to successfully
communicate is one of the most important skills needed. To me, some of the
downsides of his job was simply the atmosphere. I dread the idea of walking
into an office five days a week and sitting at a desk all day. Besides the office
though, I do think there are some aspects of the job that are appealing. First

off, the amount of analysis that is involved. This is something that I am good
at and something that I enjoy doing. Being able to look at a problem and find
the best solution sounds like a fun and challenging career field, as long as its
not in an office. Additionally, in the insurance field, statistics are widely used,
another subject that I enjoy and plan on majoring in. While this major doesnt
mean that I am bound to a field related to it, insurance is a viable option.
Overall the interview was very interesting and a bit weird as I did it in person
as opposed to over the phone. But on the whole, I learned a lot and go to
know more about a field I had never thought about before.