New in Career and Arch Is the Place for Me

When I graduated with a degree in Accounting, I still wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do. I knew I loved numbers. But the path I wanted to take wasn’t clear to me, even though my Dad was an accountant, and I knew a bit about his work.

Initially, I worked in recruitment for accounting, finance and engineering jobs. While doing this, I saw all these accounting roles, and some of them looked interesting to me. I decided to get my master’s degree in Accounting, and after finishing that and getting some accounting experience with my Dad, I interviewed with Arch. This where my story starts.

I knew Arch was the place for me during the interview. I felt as though they were truly listening to me, and there was an instant good connection between us, something I didn’t have when interviewing at other companies. Hearing about the culture at Arch, and speaking with energetic and driven people working positively and collaboratively sealed the deal for me.

The last two years have been amazing. The hands-on learning has helped me apply what I learned in school.

A Place of Growth

In insurance, there is so much growth. It is constant and consistent, so there is always something new to learn. One thing I love is that I’m not just doing accounting and finance; I’m expanding my skills beyond my title of “Accountant” and gaining technical knowledge specific to the insurance industry. I know this will help me contribute even more as a leader as I grow in my career.

A typical day for me begins with dealing with the cash that comes in. This is the accounts receivable part. Then, I’m running reports and — depending on the time of year — I’m working on financial reports. Most of my day, I focus on reviewing data from our sources and providing analytics about our revenue and sales so we can present this information to our leadership.

Learning and Improving

My favorite part of my job is starting something new, learning everything about it and putting the details together. Then, it is seeing it through to completion and seeing the results of your efforts. You take a breath and a step back and say, “Wow, did we really do that?” And immediately you start to think about what you did well, and what you can do better the next time.

“I’m expanding my skills beyond my title of ‘Accountant’ and gaining technical knowledge specific to the insurance industry. I know this will help me contribute even more as a leader as I grow in my career.”

You may not think there is this kind of newness in accounting, because the work is so process-oriented, with rhythm and rigor required. But there are new things constantly happening as the business grows. A specific example for me was when I was compiling the Premium Receivable together for Balance Sheet Close for the first time. When I was assigned this task, I felt overwhelmed and excited. As I worked on it, I found myself curious about why each step was required and the reasons for doing things the way we needed to.

Once I had completed it, I felt proud of myself. The fear was gone, and I was genuinely excited about doing similar things again. I learned from the experience to take a step back when encountering a new task, and then do the work, one step at a time.

The ability to ask questions, and not feel silly while doing so, is so valuable and allows for work to be completed quickly and for learning to happen. It leads to a successful team doing strong work and building a successful entity. For me, personally, it made for a strong start and continued success. At the end of the day, if you’re not working well with the people you work with all the time, success is going to be difficult to attain.

When I think about Pursuing Better Together, I think about the relationships and open communication I have with people who make my work easier for me.

My advice to anyone starting a new role, fresh out of school, is to ask questions, no matter how small you think they are. You never know what kind of big connections you can make by asking a small question that is in the back of your mind.

I learn something new every day, and that’s partly because I have curiosity and ask questions. Continuing this journey of learning and growing is what I am most looking forward to in my future at Arch.

Kaitlyn Hodor

Accountant

Arch Insurance | Jersey City, N.J.

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