Amanda Parish Malcolm

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Amanda Parish Malcolm

• Interview Presentation by Ray Wilson

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Introduction

• Name Amanda Parrish Malcolm
• Graduated from Mercer University in Macon, GA
• Major- Industrial Management
• Employer Georgia Farm Bureau
• Occupation District Underwriter 1
• Had no Internships or Co-ops while at Mercer
• Did not pursue a Masters Degree
• Has no Lean or Six Sigma experience, but did
  mention learning about it in Dr. Burtners class

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What classes that you took at Mercer (or other
college) are helpful in your job? Engineering

• As an underwriter you make decisions and analyze
  information
• The underwriters decision process is very
  similar to the engineering process (Design, Build
  and Test)
• As an underwriter you gather information,
  identify the alternatives (accept an application
  as submitted, reject an application as submitted,
  or accept with modification), evaluate the
  alternatives, select the best alternative, and
  implement the chosen alternative.
• Other helpful classes mentioned were Senior
  Design, organizational behavior, finance,
  statistics, and Business Law.
• Classes mentioned as not helpful Religious
  Classes, Philosophy and Marketing

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Career Path (First Job)

• Started working with a home building company
  after graduation
• The company specialized in Production building,
  which gives homebuyers complete control over how
  their home will look and feel
• budgeted estimated the cost construction for
  houses
• Left after two years because of lack of good
  benefits and competitive salary

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Career Path (Georgia Farm Bureau)

• Heard about Underwriter position at Georgia Farm
  Bureau
• After researching on the internet, felt like the
  position coincided with her studies from Mercer
• Has been employed at Georgia Farm Bureau in
  Macon, GA for 8 months as an Underwriter
• Average salary for an Underwriter is about
  60,000

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Georgia Farm Bureau

• Georgia Farm Bureau has been representing
  producers of all major agricultural commodities
  grown or raised in the state since 1937.
• Georgia Farm Bureau has an office in each of
  Georgia's 159 counties, but our state
  headquarters office is located an hour's drive
  south of Atlanta in Macon, Georgia.
• Georgia Farm Bureau provides a host of services -
  from commodity marketing to multi-line insurance
  products to real estate sales, mortgage services
  and forestry management. Members receive
  discounts on Dodge vehicles and hotel stays and
  low-cost internet and long-distance service.

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Current Job Details (District Underwriter 1)

• An Underwriter must be able to evaluate the
  firms entire operation in appraising its
  application for insurance
• Involves a lot of analyzing and decision making
• Insurance applications all look the same but
  everyone is insured differently
• Key component when reviewing applications is
  driving records
• Agents also play a part in problems with
  applications because of unique habits
• Information that may be left out is retrieved
  with a form called a Return Sheet

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Current Job Details contd (District Underwriter
1)

• The state of Georgia is divided up into 10
  districts.
• District Underwriter is assigned 2 districts
• Agents have to call in to get approval before
  taking money and binding us and the insured to
  coverage
• Benefits -100 paid health benefits including
  dental, 401K w/ a 6 match, and a salary
• Dress Code - Business Casual no jeans except
  for the last Friday of the month
• Average hours 37.8

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Normal Day Walkthrough (M-F)

• 745am- Arrive at work
• Begin working from our queue from 8 to noon
  looking over applications that are sent to the
  home office from the various branch locations, by
  agents throughout the state of Georgia
• After lunch work on miscellaneous paperwork,
  such as return sheets, change applications (where
  an insured is making some kind of change to their
  account adding a driver, changing their name or
  drivers license , changing their vehicle,
  deleting a driver, changing vehicle use, etc.),
  ordering motor vehicle reports (MVR).
• 430pm- Depart from work
• Two 15 min breaks and one 45 min lunch can be
  taken at the time of my choice
• Georgia Farm Bureau is closed on Sundays and
  Saturdays are voluntary

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Do you work alone or in groups? Yes and No

• Everyone works alone but from the same queue of
  applications
• Part of the Personal Auto team which consists of
  5 underwriters.
• Can consult another underwriter to get their
  opinion if we are on the fence about our decision
• Most of the work is performed in a cubicle alone
  

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Other Questions

• Do you have to a lot of presentations at work? No
  
• Do you travel for your work? 3 day conference
  once a year in Georgia in St. Simons
• How often do you interact with people outside of
  the engineering world? Everyday the job is not
  really in the engineering field.
• Where do you see yourself 5 to 10 years from now?
  I see myself moving up the ladder with Georgia
  Farm Bureau. My goal is to one day get into
  management.
• Finally, Have you ever read The Goal? Yes, I
  really enjoyed the book. I still have my copy and
  I shared it with my husband, who is the
  operations manager for Global Parts Distributors.

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????Questions????

• Amanda Parrish Malcolm
• macandamanda_at_cox.net