A university that provided him with the “perfect mix” of school and work helped put Miles Brewer on his current path of success in the re/insurance world.

Mr Brewer is the second Bermuda graduate into the Global Catlin Development Programme (CDP), which was piloted in the UK in 2009 as a two-year programme with the aim of deepening the company’s talent pool.

He was chosen out of 28 applicants.

The 23-year-old’s main advice for anyone looking to get hired in today’s competitive job market is to prepare questions for you to ask the hiring team.

And his best advice to fellow students in Bermuda who want to excel is to “aim high, work hard, and don’t get discouraged”.

Mr Brewer attended Northeastern University in Boston — “an amazing school with a very unique curriculum”.

“I graduated in May 2013 with honours with a dual concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship. The university is a five-year programme with three six-month corporate internships.

“So for the three middle years of my programme I would work from January to June and then attend school for fall semester. It was the perfect mix of school and work experience because you got the opportunity to apply what you were learning in school to your job.”

He had the opportunity to work for MFS Investment Management in 2010 in the marketing department and in 2011 he worked for a small solar inverter company.

In 2012 he worked in the investor relations department at State Street.

He decided to apply to the Catlin graduate programme after reaching the conclusion that his specific skill set would be best used in underwriting.

“I began to do some research on what type of programmes companies have for graduates wanting to enter the insurance industry,” he said.

“A family friend mentioned Catlin had recently started a programme the year before and I began looking into it online. The more I read about the programme and the opportunity, the more I wanted to work at Catlin. Catlin is one of the most respected and well-known companies in Bermuda because of the work they do in the community and their culture of giving back.

“It is a company that you are proud to work for because of everything they do not just locally but worldwide with their Seaview and Artic Survey expeditions.

So what does Mr Brewer credit for his being selected as the new Catlin graduate intern?

“I don’t think there is a given formula to be hired or selected in any job,” he said.

“I think you just have to prepare yourself as well as possible with research about the company, industry, and current events.

“I would spend a few hours before each interview just preparing for possible questions so I didn’t have to scramble through my memory for an example.

“Each time I had few pages of notes of examples about myself and then also a list of questions I wanted to ask them.

“I think preparing questions to ask is very valuable way to differentiate yourself from the other candidates.

“It shows how much research you have done and raising good points is a way to stand out and be remembered by your interviewers. I think my job experience and leadership credentials helped but when all resumes are equal, showing that you care about what is going on in the industry and explaining why you want to work with Catlin and showing your eager to learn is a large attribute to have.”

Mr Brewer says his first two months at Catlin have been the best introduction into a company anyone could ask for.

“The HR team has done an amazing job creating an outstanding programme,” he said.

“My first week was spent within the Bermuda office getting the opportunity to sit down with a member of every function of the Catlin office and was explained what they did for the company and how it relates to my overall job function.

“This was critical in my development these past few months as I got to understand how each function works with each other and I got to ask questions about how they did things.

The second week he was off to an orientation in Atlanta, Georgia.

He then went off to London for a three-week programme orientation with all the candidates worldwide.

“We had presentations from many of the company’s senior management and even a sit down with (chief executive) Stephen Catlin himself, we had networking events, dynamic learning activities daily, and an off-site teambuilding trip for three days in Northern England.”

Since returning to Bermuda he has been learning to use the different vendor model systems, understating how to price, different internal systems, and attending broker and client meetings.

As well as beginning his CPCU examinations November 5 he is currently working with his home team which is international property treaty underwriting for the renewal season.

In February he goes to London to work with the credit and political risk underwriting team and in June he will be travelling to Cologne for a group presentation with other CDP candidates on an assigned catastrophe simulation project.

“The most enjoyable part of the programme has been the orientation in London,” he said.

“All of the Catlin Development Programme representatives from the offices worldwide spent three weeks in London at the Gracechurch Street office in a corporate orientation,” he said.

Mr Catlin took an hour out of his day to sit down and tell them about his experience, the history of the company, and then took part in a segment of Q & A about anything we wanted to ask him.

“What made the orientation so impressive was that it was not just PowerPoint’s and lectures for threeweeks, it was a very dynamic orientation.

“We had a scavenger adventure where we were given a digital camera and broken into teams and were given three hours to find the headquarters of major competitors and clients around London.

“We had a day in Lloyd’s being toured around and having a few presentations on its history and their role working with Catlin.

They also did a lot of learning about the business and the industry, including insurance simulations to learn how insurance business works.

“But the best part of the orientation was a three day outward bound type journey to Northern England where we did a series of teambuilding and leadership activities and received the results of our MBTI personality tests,” he said.

“We did a lot understanding how certain personalities can effectively work together in a team and what you need to do to be an effective team leader for all types of exercises.

“We all stayed in an old mill house and had the best three days bonding and doing outdoor activities centred around different things such as communication, adaptability, and creativity.”

Mr Brewer says his ultimate career aim is to one day be on the Catlin senior management team, but that is long way down the road.

“I realise that to be a great senior manager you have to be able to understand your function and your industry,” he said.

“For right now I am concentrating on learning the skills needed to be a good underwriter.”

Mr Brewer says one of his favourite sayings is “don’t be afraid of not achieving your goals, be afraid one day you will stop reaching for them.”

He says there will be plenty of times when people say you can’t, or you won’t get chosen for something, or something doesn’t fall you way.

“You just have to think everything happens for a reason and just pick yourself back up and keep trying,” he says.?“People always underestimate the power of positive thinking, I try and use that every day to approach my day, don’t let things keep you down.”

He adds: “I think the people I owe my success to is my family. My mom and dad have always been there to support and encourage me ever since I was kid. Whatever interest I choose to participate they would be there for me 100 percent. They gave me the wonderful opportunity to go away to school and I am very grateful for that and because without their love and support I would not be here today.”