Why Lloyd’s must embrace TikTok to attract young talent

When I told friends I was going to work in the Lloyd’s market, they thought I’d be selling car insurance.  

That’s the challenge our industry faces: most people my age have never heard of the Lloyd’s market, let alone understand what it does.

According to a recent MS Amlin survey, more than two-thirds (67%) of Britons said they’d never consider a career in insurance, with one in five (20%) describing it as “boring”.

With as many people over 50 as under 30, attracting younger talent is vital to the market’s future.

If the London Market wants to remain a world leader in specialist insurance, we need to make it a destination career for young people not a second choice behind banks, law firms, and tech companies.

Awareness gap

My own path into the London Market was as much luck as design. 

I studied business management at university and stumbled across Lloyd’s. A tour of the Lloyd’s building became my light-bulb moment.

When I was researching careers in insurance, I didn’t go to Google – I went on TikTok. Social media isn’t just for watching the latest trends, it’s where we turn to shape our decisions, explore career options and see real stories play out.

Ngo Pungong, MS Amlin trainee

Before that, I had little idea what specialty insurance was and that’s the problem: you can’t be what you can’t see.

For years, Lloyd’s has been a relationship-based market. The way in was through who you knew. That created a supply of talent, but it also narrowed the pipeline and limited diversity. Meanwhile, other sectors have built broader entry routes, for example banks sponsor student societies and law firms run graduate competitions. 

They’ve been visible for decades, while insurance has relied on word-of-mouth.

Reaching us earlier

As a 23-year-old on MS Amlin’s graduate scheme, if you asked me what insurance needs to do to attract more young talent, I would say three things.

First, reach young people earlier. Career stereotypes form long before graduation, and by secondary school, many of us already think we know what jobs are “for us”.

That’s why we need to introduce young people – especially girls – to insurance at an age when they’re forming ideas about the world of work. We’re not saying 10-years-olds should pick a profession, but we do need to keep their horizons open.

We open savings accounts as children, and we grow up watching lawyers or tech professionals in movies and on TV but we don’t “see” insurance until we buy a car or go on holiday.

That’s why programmes like The Futures Academy, run by the London Market Group, are so valuable. 

They bring teenagers into the market by providing visits and placements and show them what’s possible. Those experiences change minds and I know because it changed mine.

Second, meet us where we are – online.   

When I was researching careers in insurance, I didn’t go to Google – I went on TikTok. Social media isn’t just for watching the latest trends, it’s where we turn to shape our decisions, explore career options and see real stories play out.

At MS Amlin, we’ve recently launched our Stunt campaign, pairing underwriters with professional Hollywood stunt doubles.  It’s designed to shine a spotlight on the sector and show how both roles are about managing extraordinary risk.  

The video is running where my generation spend time – on LinkedIn and TikTok – and we need to do more of this creative outreach.

Finally, show us the purpose of insurance and from people we can relate to.  

Invite recent graduates and apprentices to speak at schools and sixth forms. When 18-year-olds see a 24-year-old talking passionately about their job, it suddenly feels possible.

We need to show the range of careers available. Underwriting might be the most visible role, but there’s so much more:  claims, actuarial,  exposure management, sustainability, and data science. The industry is vast, but the story we tell about it is still too narrow.

And most importantly, to a generation that values purpose, we need to show the meaningful impact of what we do. Tell the human stories. Show how insurance protects lives and livelihoods, not just balance sheets.

Next generation

Most of us who’ve joined insurance didn’t plan to – we discovered it by chance. That can’t be the model for the future. 

Insurance has an amazing story to tell. The challenge now is to start telling it sooner – because if we wait until university, it’s not just our talent pipeline at stake, it’s the success of the market itself.