Find your field
Insurance hires more undergraduates than most students realize, across underwriting, claims, actuarial science, analytics, technology and finance. Very few applicants arrive having planned for it, which is part of why the route is worth knowing about.
Start here · 5 options on this page
Pick a promising program, check the exact eligibility, then apply on the employer's official site.
5 confirmed program-level matches
Some programs span several fields. Open a guide to match the exact role to your coursework, experience and availability.
Paid college internships across actuarial work, technology, data, finance, claims, marketing, HR, legal, and business operations.
Search current internshipsAn insurance internship spanning fourteen named areas, from underwriting and actuarial work to data science, geospatial and fire investigation.
Check openingsA twelve-week paid insurance internship across actuarial, underwriting, finance, technology, audit, marketing and strategy.
Check openingsAccounting, data and analytics, and technology internships at an insurer that publishes a high intern-to-graduate conversion rate.
Check openingsAn insurer's undergraduate internship and apprenticeship route, with separate discovery programs described as available from first year.
Check openingsUnderwriting decides which risks the company takes on and at what price. Claims investigates and settles what happens when something goes wrong. Actuarial builds the models the pricing rests on. Risk control advises customers on preventing losses in the first place. Alongside those sit ordinary finance, technology, data and marketing teams. These are genuinely different jobs, and naming the one you want — with a reason — immediately separates your application from the majority that say they are interested in insurance generally.
If you are aiming at actuarial work, the professional exam sequence usually starts during a degree rather than after it, and many employers ask what you have sat or are scheduled to sit. Passing an early exam before applying is a strong and very visible signal. If you have not started, say so honestly and say what you are planning — this is a field where a clear plan reads better than a vague interest.
Actuarial and data roles expect real quantitative coursework, but underwriting, claims, risk control, marketing and operations take students from across the disciplines, and these employers say so on their own pages. What they are screening for is judgment, comfort with detail, and the ability to explain a decision. A history student who can construct an argument from evidence has something genuinely relevant to offer.
Insurers commonly use the internship as their main graduate pipeline and publish high conversion rates, which is why their summer applications tend to open in the preceding autumn and fill on rolling review. Build your shortlist during the preceding academic year, and treat an early complete application as worth more here than in sectors that hire in one batch.
Some of these roles are office-based in a specific city, some are hybrid, and claims and risk-control work can involve travel to sites. A few employers publish remote or hybrid options explicitly. Confirm the arrangement, the location and the full term dates before applying, because an insurance internship tied to a head office you cannot reach is not a workable option however good the fit.
Generally no, and these employers train from scratch. What helps is being able to say why a particular function interests you — pricing risk, investigating claims, modelling, or the technology behind it — rather than naming the industry in general.
Not usually required, but for actuarial tracks it is a strong signal and some postings ask what you have completed or scheduled. For non-actuarial roles it is not expected at all.
The larger programs generally are, and several publishers say so directly. This directory records what each source states; confirm the figure and the term on the individual opening rather than assuming.
Prepare for the automated stage of an internship application: timed skills tests, recorded one-way video questions, and situational judgment exercises.
Read the guide Application playbook / 4 min readStop an internship application failing on mechanics: file naming, PDF export, portal parsing, transcript uploads, and checking what the employer actually received.
Read the guide Application playbook / 4 min readThe eligibility, timing, and authorization questions an international student should resolve — and who has the authority to answer each one — before applying.
Read the guide