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Allstate at SHPE Convention Recap

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Mari Am Reflects on Her Time with SHPE

Allstate attended the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers 2018 National Convention. Read Allstater Mari Am’s reflection of her time there and why Allstate participated.

“In 2017, Allstate participated in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Convention for the first time. SHPE does a great job of empowering Latinos and Latinas to be innovators in the different engineering industries. I was lucky to have been nominated to attend and represent Allstate for the full convention. I was amazed at the great talent that the SHPE had at the convention. This was also my call to action, I was motivated to make sure that Allstate had a bigger presence in this convention in the next year. I noticed that I had a lot of information and knowledge to share at the next convention.

Fast forward a year, I was fortunate to present at the SHPE National Convention with my peer, Nery. We shared our knowledge on how to be successful in the first 100 days of a new job. Our goal was to help graduates, interns and professionals have information that will help them as they started a new job/internship. It was great to see how our stories could help others in their career growth. During the convention, we attended other workshops that were inspiring. It was very motivating to see other Latinos and Latinas succeed in their own industry and share their knowledge to graduates starting their journey.

The true aha moment for me was during the last day of the career fair. A freshman student, who attended our presentation, stopped by the Allstate booth. She let us know how much she enjoyed the presentation and how it really helped her have a better idea of what is to come. She was so excited and energized, it was contagious! For Nery and me, it was the validation that we needed. At the end of the day we can’t influence the 7,700+ people at the conference, but knowing that we impacted even one person, made all the hard work worth it.

During the convention, I felt very proud of Allstate for its innovation, technology and community outreach. Those were the main points that I talked about with the students and professionals that stopped by our booth. A lot of attendees asked, “How is Allstate a technology company?” I think I can speak for all of us in blue shirts at the booth, we felt proud and honored to talk about how we are using innovation and technology to help our customers when they need us the most; when it truly matters to be the good hands company.

Allstate’s participation at SHPE allowed me to share my experience and pay it forward to my community. There is no better feeling than helping others succeed.”

Learn more about Allstate’s commitment to inclusive diversity or explore career areas.

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Finding Allstate Talent at ALPFA

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Attending ALPFA to Build Connections

In August, Allstate attended the 2018 ALPFA Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Allstate was represented by nine team members from Human Resources, Inclusive Diversity, Sales Distribution, Independent Agency, Claim Reserves, and Data, Discovery, and Decision Science.

Allstaters participated in attracting talent, professional development and purposeful networking. With nearly 100 attendees at the Allstate-sponsored workshop featuring Dr. Robert Rodriguez and Allstate leaders speaking on a panel, Allstate was connecting with participants at every turn.

Becky, a member of Allstate Leadership Development Program, attended on behalf of Allstate and had this to say about her experience:

“This year I had the honor of representing Allstate at the 2018 ALPFA National Convention. ALPFA has been an organization near and dear to my heart since my freshman year of college and it, ultimately, led me to Allstate. I am proud to work for a company that supports the mission of organizations like ALPFA.

At this year’s convention Allstaters got to network and learn from local and national leaders of the organization. This enabled us to better understand the direction of ALPFA and how Allstate plays a role in their story. We also had several opportunities to discuss diversity recruiting best practices with other leaders across other Fortune 100 companies. Allstate offered an intriguing workshop, led by Dr. Robert Rodriguez, around latinx executive leadership and his findings after interviewing 20 latinxs at the c-suite level. We also had the opportunity to meet and interview bright candidates during the career fair.

Allstate had a strong presence throughout the convention. We look forward to continuing to partner with ALPFA as we support the latinx community and bring top talent to Allstate.”

Check out our events page to see where else we’re heading or view our open roles to apply today.

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Exploring Investments Through Rotations

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Kalpit’s Investments Journey

Kalpit is a member of our Investments Development Program (IDP), a three-year rotational program within the Investments department of Allstate. He is currently in his third year of the program and is working on the Risk and Return team for Allstate Investments as an Associate Analyst.

“Right now, I’m splitting my time between two sub-teams within Risk and Return, Risk Management and Quantitative Research. With risk, I help stay on top of current events to figure out how policy and events happening around the world (i.e. trade wars) will impact an industry we are invested in and ultimately our investment portfolio. In quant, I’m helping develop processes to pull in large amounts of data, make it understandable and make it usable. There’s a big push in the investments industry to be able to make this happen and Allstate wants to be on the forefront,” Kalpit says of his current work. Kalpit only took a few programming classes in college so this is a new, exciting space for him to be learning in. “I’m currently learning Python. The IDP has truly invested time in teaching me and developing my skills so I can not only help the business but grow professionally.”

 Kalpit graduated in 2015 from University of Illinois Chicago with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. Like many recent graduates of college, he was not sure what he wanted to do in his career. When the opportunity at Allstate came up, he knew the chance to get into the Investments department and to be able to rotate to different teams was a fantastic opportunity to grow professionally. After meeting with four leaders who clearly communicated how committed they were to the IDP, Kalpit was excited to accept an offer to join the team.

 Starting on the public fixed income side of Investments and then rotating to the Opportunistic Investments team, Kalpit says his rotations exposed him to aspects of the investments world that he didn’t even know existed. “Allstate comes off as just an insurance company but honestly, when I got here, the first thing I learned was how forward-looking we are. I think it’s really rare for an insurance company to be as innovative as Allstate is,” he says. For the IDP in particular, Kalpit himself is on the forefront of the program. As one of the first two IDP participants, Kalpit is grateful that it’s continuing to gain attention. “The IDP is specialized and focused and it truly sets you up for success. I’ve been able to learn so much and meet so many smart, talented, reputable people and I don’t think I would have built such meaningful relationships anywhere else,” he says.

Ready to join a growing group of upcoming Investments leaders? Check out our rotational programs and apply to the best one for you today.

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NSBE44 Recap

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Meet our NSBE44 attendees!

Allstate recently attended the 44th annual National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Convention. We caught up with JoAnne, one of our attendees from Product Technology, to get her recap from the event. Read her thoughts below.

“The National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE) has existed for 44 years and has evolved into an organization that has programs and membership extending from high school and college students to professionals in all disciplines of engineering. The goal and commitment of NSBE is to widen the pool of engineering talent from Black communities. NSBE is expanding its pipeline from third grade to graduate school by designing tools and programs that will support and nurture budding engineers. Through its 350 pre-collegiate, collegiate and professional chapters NSBE trains its 31,000 members for leadership within the organization and in business.

Some of the programs that NSBE has designed to prepare future engineers are: Competitions, Scholarships, Strategic Partnerships (e.g. GEM, ASCE, Society of Women Engineers, etc.) and Summer Engineering (SEEK – Summer Engineering for Kids). NSBE events include camps, competitions, conferences, webinars and conventions.

At this year’s convention 250 companies participated in the Career Fair with over 12,000 engineering students seeking internships and permanent positions. NSBE also sponsored sessions for mock interviews, resume review, dress for success and provided free headshots to all interviewees. There were several seminars and workshops designed for engineering students. There was also a small marketplace of vendors where attendees could purchase items such as jewelry, t-shirts and art.

The Allstate team included recruiters, hiring managers and individual contributors that represented different technology areas within the company. The highlight of the convention was the Career Fair where the Allstate booth was positioned in an excellent location. This gave us the opportunity to interface with a large amount of students. They discovered there is more to Allstate than expected. They discovered that there are opportunities in technology for engineers. We collected several hundred resumes of engineers interested in both internships and permanent employment.

What I found most rewarding was volunteering for Resume review. This gave me the opportunity to interact first-hand with students and young professionals. I found them to be intelligent, determined individuals with the desire to succeed. There was representation from schools across the country with even sophomores and freshmen preparing for internships. After working on resumes, I encountered some of them at the Career Fair and they reported success at obtaining interviews with their updated resumes. We also hosted a very successful Hospitality event where students could relax, eat and socialize while asking more questions about the company. Partnering with NSBE provides access to an untapped pool of resources that are potential, future innovators in technology. This was my first opportunity to represent the company at a career event and if asked to attend future conventions, my answer would be a definite Yes.”

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Linking Business and Technology

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Meet one TLDP employee, Bridget

“Technology and business are becoming one. That’s our future state and Allstate is making sure that’s where we end up.” –Bridget, Technology Leadership Development Program

For graduating seniors, the transition from college to the workforce brings both excitement and apprehension. However, Bridget felt secure and ready as she joined a cohort of four other technologists entering Allstate’s Technology Leadership Development Program (TLDP).

As TLDP employees, Allstaters take three year-long rotations in different areas of the business with their primary focus on technology. TLDP is house inside Allstate’s greater Leadership Development Program (LDP) but offers a specialized and individualized experience for technologists to apply undergraduate skills to Allstate’s growing technology initiatives. After graduating from University of Illinois with a degree in General Engineering and a concentration in Business, Bridget started her first rotation as a business analyst on the Trusted Advisor team, later transitioning to a product owner.

For her second rotation, Bridget joined Arity, an Allstate start-up company located at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Arity is focused on making transportation smarter, safer, and more useful using predictive analytics and telematics programming. Bridget is a member of the rating service organization (RSO) team. This team collaborates closely with Arity’s data scientists that develop the driving score rating models. The RSO team brings the subsequent knowledge and works with departments of insurance to apply for licenses and file Arity’s models. For her, this is a whole new work where she gets to be on the forefront of what Arity is doing, balancing the legal side of developing an approved model, delving into the insurance business, and getting involved with competitor research.

Bridget sees Allstate as an optimal choice for technologists and engineers to pursue a career. In just two years, she’s witnessed how technology drives every department and initiative at the organization. And now only has she been able to experience the impact of technology on many initiatives first hand, Bridget is also able to look back and reflect on the growth of the company from when she interned at Allstate the summer after her sophomore year.

“Allstate’s dedication to growing its technology stack is apparent in many different parts of the organization.” – Bridget, TLDP

“CompoZed, Allstate’s brand of Agile software delivery, started a few years ago with four employees and has now grown to be very influential in training many business units within Allstate to deliver software using a product mindset. Additionally, Allstate has focused a lot of resources on revolutionizing the customer experience in areas such as Trusted Advisor and Claims Technology through technical solutions that increase the efficiency and effective of Allstate’s customer interactions. Through these initiatives, Allstate is taking an innovative and modern approach to serving the customer’s needs. Finally, Allstate’s start up, Arity, has been able to use Allstate’s expertise in the insurance industry to develop products that service market segments beyond Allstate’s tradition consumer space.”

Bridget believes that TLDP is just another testament to Allstate’s commitment to technology and innovation. “We are in a world where business drives technology, and Allstate is working to remain on the cutting edge in this type of environment. It’s an exciting time to be a technology in the insurance industry as the landscape continues to change drastically, pushing the need for strategic technical solutions to achieve business objectives,” Bridget says. She is grateful to be part of a cohort of other employees, and now friends, who are making the same transition from college to the work place and have similar aspirations to make a positive impact on innovation within the insurance industry. Bridget is excited to further develop her career in technology at Allstate next year in her third rotation amongst close coworkers, friends, and forward-thinking leaders.

Are you ready to join an amazing team of technologists and make your impact across the company? Learn more about our Leadership Development Programs and other opportunities here.