To Intern-ity and Beyond

Today is National Intern Day and, needless to say, we’re pretty jazzed about it. We think our interns are the best and we love watching them flourish in the insurance industry.

Lame blog title aside, our internship program is something we’re proud to offer students!  

The Pioneer internship program was founded on the basic idea that it’s important to immerse our interns in a real-life experience and the many STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) opportunities available in the industry. Our interns range from department to department every year. This year, we have a great group of interns in Information Systems, Underwriting, Underwriting Operations, and Actuarial. In the past, we’ve also had interns in Marketing, Claims, and Financial Reporting as well.

We believe a strong “intern-ity” program introduces students to a realistic view of what their potential careers in the insurance industry could look like and prepares them for employment “beyond” graduation by having a greater working knowledge of our industry and more insurance street smarts than their competition. Fully immersing our interns into our daily life at Pioneer allows them to apply their classroom knowledge to real situations, understand policy language and insurance terms, network with industry professionals and community partners, and learn general business decorum they may not experience firsthand anywhere else. 

Our paid internships can also provide college credit and can be achieved during the summer months or part-time positions while attending school. Students have the opportunity to interact with our leadership team, get involved in community outreach and charitable giving, along with other fun activities like our company picnic, cookouts, wellness challenges, and daily ping pong games.

Providing students a chance to get involved in daily responsibilities, relationship development, and participate in business decisions and projects, prepares them to be active and productive employees of the insurance industry upon graduation. We feel that this is a vital part of their professional development and our hope is that it serves them well. 

Internships allow company staff to expand on their mentorship and management skills, the company to evaluate for prospective employees, and the student to evaluate the company as a future employer of choice after graduation. Based on feedback from former interns, we’d say our plan is working! Most of our former interns have graduated and been placed in various positions throughout our industry. Some have even made their way back to Pioneer! We are proud to know we played a small part in their professional success.

If you know of a high school or college student interested in the many professions within the insurance industry, please have them contact our HR department or check out Insuring MI Future for more information.

Have any questions about what you just read? Please email us at socialmedia@psmic.com!