Insurance risk surveyor
Insurance risk surveyors carry out surveys of items that need to be insured.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
In your day-to-day duties you could:
- carry out commercial and personal surveys
- check building plans and fire protection systems
- prepare risk reports and recommendations for underwriters
- advise clients on how to reduce the risk of future insurance claims
- work closely with health and safety inspectors and fire officers
- monitor the work of the risk control team
- keep up to date with technical issues affecting risk, like hazardous materials
Working environment
You could work in an office or visit sites.
Your working environment may be outdoors some of the time and you'll travel often.
Career path and progression
You could become a senior surveyor, head of a risk management department, or lead a compliance and governance unit.
You could also move into insurance loss adjusting or set up your own consultancy.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- maths knowledge
- knowledge of economics and accounting
- legal knowledge including court procedures and government regulations
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- analytical thinking skills
- the ability to work well with others
- excellent verbal communication skills
- excellent written communication skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a university course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- applying directly
- a graduate training scheme
You could get a degree before applying to join an organisation's management training scheme. Most subjects are accepted but you may have an advantage if you study:
- actuarial science
- building surveying
- business and management
- economics
- engineering
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
More Information
You could complete a senior insurance professional degree apprenticeship.
This typically takes about 36 months to complete.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a degree apprenticeship
More Information
You could start working as an administrator for a risk team to build up your skills and knowledge.
Your employer may give you the chance to take industry qualifications so you can apply for promotion to risk surveyor when you've got more experience.
You can apply directly for jobs if you've got relevant qualifications and experience in a related profession like building surveying, health and safety, engineering or fire safety.
Some of the large insurance companies run graduate training schemes. You'll usually need an upper second class degree in any subject to apply.
Further information
You can find out more about working in insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute and Step Forward.
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This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.