Navigating the Job Search as a Recent Graduate
Transitioning from college to the professional world can be overwhelming. This guide can help recent graduates navigate the job search and find the right opportunity.
I’ve been working since I was 10 years old, starting off as my mother’s bookshelf-duster and moving on eventually to the corporate world. Of all the places I’ve worked, Assurant has been the best.
Viewed superficially, companies are the same. They attempt to enrich their owners, they employ people and they offer products or services. But look more deeply, and you find companies differ vastly in terms of culture. A company’s culture is its personality, and they vary widely.
While everywhere I’ve worked has had some unique virtues, Assurant stands out because it’s a kind, principle-driven company you can be proud to work for.
Our People Are Our Best Asset
Here, people here support each other. If I email someone with a question, I usually get an answer that same day with the information I need and an offer of more help. It’s a simple thing that makes my days smoother.
This helpfulness extends to every level of the company. For example, on a recent Town Hall with our CEO, Keith Demmings, he said people should email him their questions. He’d be sure they got answers they needed. It is essential, he said, for the CEO to be in contact with Assurant’s people.
Bottom line: People are nice here.
Stocking Your Toolbox
When I ask for something I need to get my job done, I get it. Early on with my career at Assurant, I asked if I could get a license for Microsoft Project, software than makes tracking complex, multi-step effort easier. The answer from leadership was “yes.” It was so easy! And now, in my work as a content developer, copywriter, and producer of corporate reports, I use my copy of Project almost every day.
Bottom line: Being trusted to know your needs and having them met makes for a job well done.
Values with Meaning
Assurant’s core values drive the company’s behavior. The folks directing the company put values first. The rest of the workforce feels inspired to follow suit.
One of our core values is common decency. Its influence showed up clearly when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Assurant swiftly prioritized safety and health accommodations for our global employees. Since then, they’ve been transparent in their communication strategy, ensuring they are empowering employees with the utmost safety options, such as hybrid work options, work-from-home options or increased PPE for those with face-to-face roles.
The company is also deeply committed to empowering the communities where it serves. Employees are encouraged to make charitable donations to causes they feel passionately about. Through the Assurant Foundation, those charitable donations are met 1:1 or sometimes 2:1. In 2021, Assurant donated $5.3 million in matching funds and supported about 1,700 charitable organizations.
Assurant is constantly striving to exceed their global diversity, equity and inclusion goals. For example, we’ve launched our first Employee Resource Group (ERG) March 2022 — Women@Assurant — and there are plans to launch additional ERGs this year to provide stronger representation and growth opportunities for underrepresented groups.
Bottom line: A values-first approach makes Assurant a place where I’m proud to work.
A Great Place to Work
It’s rare to find a place where you feel supported and valued every day. And finding such a place that’s value-driven and financially sound seems to me like finding a unicorn in your bathtub.
Assurant has received numerous recognitions echoing the sentiment I feel for the company. Ten Assurant locations globally have earned the Great Place to Work® certification, including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Peru and the United States. We have also been named a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, with a 100% score from the Human Rights Campaign, and we were included in the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for a second year.
Bottom line: It has been, and continues to be, a joy to work here.
If you want to find out more about Assurant and you’d like to take the next step in your career, check out the Careers page.