I joined Coalition in May 2021 as a Documents Analyst Intern on the product team after four years as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying Physics. I was excited to learn as much as possible at Coalition because it is bridging the interesting space between the mercurial cybersecurity industry and the relatively stable insurance industry.

Over the course of my internship, I have worked very closely with engineers, underwriters, designers, and product managers to streamline insurance document generation at Coalition. I am responsible for building the printing plates used to generate thousands of insurance documents at Coalition — better known as templates.

In my first week at Coalition, I was told that even though I was an intern, I would have the opportunity to contribute like an employee. This meant my thoughts were heard, my processes were questioned, and my ideas were implemented. This has made the work that I do in my internship that much more rewarding.

A day in the life of a Coalition intern

The transition I made from an academically rigorous field to cybersecurity and insurance was incredibly streamlined with the resources Coalition has built. During orientation week, I learned about the structure of Coalition and how and why it is revolutionizing the cybersecurity and insurance industry. Soon after, I was well equipped to dive into projects.

My work involves planning with product managers so I can prioritize the work that I do correctly and meet all the deadlines that come with working on multiple projects at the same time. When working on templating a policy, I coordinate with underwriters so I know what the policy is trying to say and how the policy varies based on the policyholder. I also have the chance to work with the business systems team where Lara Shores, an engineer, trained me to use the tools and resources I need to be able to inject code in the templates that become our policies. Using the blank template that I created after consulting with the design team at Coalition, I finally get to put all these pieces together to create a working template.

The nature of the work I do means I can leverage my attention to detail to get deeply involved with the product. This has allowed me to gain ownership of the templating process and become a team expert in this domain.

Why Coalition: Effective mentorship and engaged interview process

The opportunity for mentorship at Coalition has been one of my favorite parts of the internship. The flat structure of Coalition gave me the chance to learn from industry veterans across fields who are experts at protecting their customers from cyber risk. The daily stand-ups with multiple teams have given me access to my more experienced teammates’ knowledge base so I can perform better in my role.

My manager, Nir Paz, has been an amazing mentor to me. In my very first week, he helped me flesh out my professional goals and then plan how I could start working on them at Coalition. He gave me the flexibility to add on more tasks and thereby take more responsibility in any area I was interested in. He also ensured I got exposure to his work processes so I could learn how to be an effective product manager in the future.

As someone who recently graduated from university, I know how daunting looking for an internship can be. After my initial online application, my recruiter Danny Catalano, made the process really easy.  The interview process was smooth: I was always informed of where I stood a couple of days after my interviews, and I received feedback when I asked for it, making the transition quick and easy. This open line of communication assuaged my post interview jitters and made me even more keen to work at Coalition.

Happy to officially join the team — and you can too!

It has been incredibly exciting to work at a fast-growing unicorn that is attempting to solve cyber risk holistically. I am thrilled to be meaningfully contributing to that mission. In my internship, I have met and learned from people across disciplines and had opportunities that have helped me grow professionally and develop skills that make me feel more confident in my abilities and myself.

As my internship is winding down, I am excited to be joining Coalition full time as a Documents Analyst and continuing to be a part of this movement for the foreseeable future. We are growing rapidly and looking for more dedicated people to join our team. Visit the careers page to view open opportunities.