Darryn Ratliff

Fontana, California

Majoring in Finance

Leadership Engagement

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Becoming a Businessman

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My project was an internship with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Gallagher is currently the fourth largest insurance brokerage in the world. This was a nine week internship that also consisted of a one week business trip to Chicago to visit the Gallagher headquarters. My time working at Gallagher included many projects, competitions, and networking events. 

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The internship was split into two halves. For the first half, I worked with our Real Estate team, and for the second half, I worked with our Core team. Throughout the internship they took us on many client and carrier visits so that we could learn more about their risk management and increase our knowledge of the things that Gallagher deals with. We also were put into a few competitive events within the company to better expose us to the life of being an insurance broker.  

All my life, I loved math. I was always good with numbers, and I loved money. My mom would always tell me that I will grow up to be a phenomenal business man because of this. This is where I would say my inspiration came from. I was determined to develop myself as well as challenge myself to be the best that I could be for this company so that they'd believe I'm someone they'd want to have join the Gallagher team in the future. I have always dreamed of joining a great financial company and rising to the top. This project was just the beginning, and what a perfect beginning it was.

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Some challenges that I encountered during this internship was mostly learning all about insurance and what our roll was. In a way, we were thrown into everything so that we could learn by doing, and at first it was difficult. Then things started to flow later on. Another challenging thing was our competitions because there was so much pressure behind them having Gallagher top executives judge us. Everything turned out great, but it was very nerve-racking to begin with. 

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Working with Gallagher wasn't like most internships where we do the things that full time employees don't want to do. We did things that actually benefited the company. The work that we did consisted of work that if not done in a certain timeline, we would be late in providing that work for our clients, which in turn, make us look bad. Individually, this project benefited all those I worked with, but as a whole, it benefited Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. 

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This internship really benefited me personally as it was a phenomenal learning experience. This was my first job, so experience was not something that I had. All of the people I worked with helped teach me the ropes, and it became something that I feel I could be really good at. Becoming a businessman was always something that I aspired to do, but in the end, it could have been something that wasn't right for me. I learned that I'm pushing to be exactly where I should be. I made phenomenal connections, gained phenomenal experience, and took that first step towards achieving my dream.

A quote that I learned and took to heart during this internship is, "Don't dress for what you are doing. Dress for what you want to do." Following this quote got me noticed, and gained me a lot of respect.