“So You Want to Be Boring?”—And Other Myths Wayne Community College Just Obliterated

Date: October 15, 2025
Location: Goldsboro, N.C. (where career pragmatism meets caffeinated ambition)

Let’s play a quick word-association game. I say “insurance,” you say… paperwork? Beige cubicles? Endless phone menus narrated by a robot who calls you “valued customer” while redirecting you to oblivion? Cute. Now let’s do it again, but this time with reality attached: data, fraud analysis, cyber risk, public sector infrastructure, compliance, corporate risk assessment, and a salary ladder sturdy enough to climb in sensible shoes or steel-toe boots—your choice.

Welcome to Wayne Community College’s Risk Management and Insurance program (RMI for short) and the story of a student who didn’t just peek behind the curtain—she walked in, took notes, shook hands, and started building a career before the cap and gown even ship from the bookstore. Her name is Brianny Gillis, and her approach to “finding a career path” is the opposite of rolling the dice on vibes. It’s deliberate, rigorous, and anchored in a field that quietly runs the world while other majors rehearse their TED Talks.

This is your guided tour through what looks like a modest associate-degree program and behaves like a launch system for stable, well-paid, endlessly expandable careers. Pack your laptop. Bring a spreadsheet. And maybe retire the “insurance is boring” bit—it’s not aging well.

The Plot Twist: “I Picked Flexibility, Found a Career”

Let’s start with the obvious: life is messy. People move. Work schedules shift. Appointments multiply like browser tabs. Brianny enrolled at Wayne Community College because the program was close to home and flexible enough to survive actual life. The whole degree can be done online—a small detail that becomes a big deal when you’re squeezing in exams between work shifts and dentist visits.

“Being able to complete the program online has allowed me to balance school with appointments and other personal responsibilities,” she says.

There’s a myth that “online” equals watered-down. But in RMI, the medium is logistics, not substance. Flexibility here doesn’t relax standards; it removes friction. When the barrier to entry is lower, the bar for excellence can be higher. Students show up because they can. They stay because the content is dense, the outcomes are real, and the program is designed like a well-structured policy—specific, comprehensive, and enforceable.

What You Actually Learn (a.k.a. Why Your Future Boss Will Read Your Resume Twice)

The RMI curriculum at WCC doesn’t dabble—it builds a toolkit:

Finance, Ethics, Business Law: the bedrock—think cash flows, fiduciary duty, regulatory frames, and the bright line between “creative” and “criminal.”
Core Insurance Disciplines: property, liability, health, workers’ comp, and beyond.
Specialized Risk Areas: investigation, fraud analysis, corporate risk assessment, compliance, and the increasingly spicy world of cyber risk.

This isn’t “memorize the glossary and please clap.” This is strategic thinking tethered to technical competence. You’re not just learning what a policy is; you’re learning why exposures exist, how to quantify them, how to mitigate them, and—crucially—how to communicate the trade-offs to stakeholders who would rather not set the building on fire (figuratively, and in some sectors, literally).

“WCC’s Risk Management and Insurance program prepares you for far more than selling policies or settling claims,” Brianny says. Translation: the most visible roles are just the front porch; the real house has rooms you didn’t know were there—underwriting models, claims analytics, public-sector risk frameworks, and forensic-level fraud detection.

“What Do I Do With This Degree?” Try “What Can’t I Do?”

Let’s inventory the obvious first:

Insurance Sales Agent: North Carolina average around $57,110.
Underwriter: roughly $72,180.
Claims Adjuster: around $74,830.

Those are not fantasy numbers from a brochure; they’re the baseline signal that specialized skills beat generic diplomas in the salary department. But here’s where it gets interesting. The industry is a galaxy, not a street.

Public Sector Risk: municipalities, school districts, utilities—protecting people, assets, and budgets.
Corporate Risk: enterprise frameworks for everything from supply chains to catastrophic events.
Fraud & Investigation: follow the money, the metadata, and the suspiciously timed kitchen fire.
Compliance: the rulebook that keeps CFOs out of orange jumpsuits.
Cyber Risk: the frontier where actuarial boring meets adversarial hackers. If you can quantify risk across systems and vendors, you’re not just employable—you’re scarce.

The money is good, yes. The demand? Constant. The mobility? High. Choose your sector, city, or keyboard. Move laterally, move up, or go niche. This isn’t a ladder; it’s a lattice.

The Part Textbooks Can’t Teach: Your Network Is a Skill

You know what separates “qualified” from “hired”? Contacts. Brianny didn’t just consume lectures; she showed up at the North Carolina Public Risk Management Association conference. She met practitioners in municipal, city, and state roles, learned where the entry points are, and picked up “tips” that don’t appear in course catalogs—like which credentials matter for promotions and which software tools your resume needs yesterday.

“Some people even reached out after the event because they knew I’m a student eager to start my career,” she said.

That’s the magic of mixing competence with initiative: the industry starts to come to you. And in risk management, where trust is currency and clarity is king, your reputation accumulates interest.

“But Isn’t Insurance… Reactionary?” No. It’s Strategy Wearing a Tie.

Here’s the part that outsiders miss: risk work is proactive. You’re not just paying claims after the fact; you’re mapping exposure before the storm hits. That means scenario analysis, control design, policy calibration, vendor audits, and sometimes an uncomfortable conversation with the operations team about why their “shortcut” is a lawsuit with a countdown clock.

Yes, there’s paperwork. There’s paperwork in surgery and rocket science, too. The point isn’t the forms; it’s the decision logic they enforce. Risk disciplines formalize common sense at scale. That’s why organizations spend real money on it: because the cost of improvising during a crisis makes tuition look like pocket change.

Why an Associate Degree Can Punch Above Its Weight

Think of the WCC program as a force multiplier. You don’t need a trust fund, a coastal ZIP code, or a four-year debt sentence to enter a career path with nationwide portability. The program’s design—online-first, evening and hybrid tracks, practical core, advanced niches—means your time converts cleanly into skills. When your course load maps directly to job descriptions, the ROI starts the moment you begin internships, part-time roles, or industry events.

Better still, the associate can be a step one in an academic ladder you control. Brianny plans to finish in spring 2026 and then add more education when it fits her life. That’s not hesitancy; that’s sequencing. Front-load employability, then layer on credentials like CPCU, ARM, CISA, or a bachelor’s with a risk or analytics emphasis. Momentum is a strategy.

The Public-Sector Angle: Where Your Work Touches Everyone

Municipal risk is a crash course in consequences. You’re not optimizing a vanity KPI—you’re safeguarding water systems, transit fleets, public buildings, school districts, and the taxpayer’s patience. The stakes are human, the budgets are real, and the audits are relentless. If you want work that’s visible and impactful, city and state risk management deliver the receipts.

Also, the networking density is high. Public sector teams cross-pollinate like crazy—conferences, consortiums, working groups—so once you’re in the room, you’re in the Rolodex.

Cyber Risk: The Hot Zone You Can Actually Enter

Every organization is a technology company now (some just haven’t realized it). If you can translate security jargon into risk-adjusted decisions—think vendor risk management, incident response planning, business continuity, tabletop exercises, control libraries, cyber insurance policy terms—you become the person executive teams invite before they say “go live.”

You don’t need to be a programmer; you need to be a translator who understands both threats and thresholds. The blend of RMI fundamentals with cyber electives and certifications can turn a generalist into a rare asset. If your resume says “I understand exclusions, controls, and claims,” underwriters and CISOs will stop scrolling.

Fraud & Investigation: Find the Breadcrumbs, Save the Budget

Fraud detection is where pattern recognition becomes performance art. You’re analyzing timelines, claims behavior, vendor relationships, and metadata like a detective with better spreadsheets. It’s part psychology, part statistics, and part “why does this story wobble when I poke it?”

The best investigators don’t start with suspicion; they start with structure—clear criteria for escalation, protocols for evidence, and collaboration with legal teams that ensures “airtight” means airtight. If that sounds thrilling, that’s because it is.

Compliance: The Quiet Power Move

Compliance is how you transform policy from “word doc” into “operational reality.” It’s procedures, attestations, training, audit trails, and remediation timelines. It’s the difference between “we meant well” and “we passed.” And because regulators never sleep, compliance is perpetually employed.

Pair compliance fluency with any of the above (cyber, public sector, corporate risk), and you’ll be the person who not only sees the dominoes but lines them up so they don’t fall.

The Money Question (Since We All Ask It)

Let’s call the posted figures what they are: on-ramps. Mid-career professionals in specialized roles—especially in metropolitan markets or high-regulation industries—can move into compensation bands that make your 10-year financial plan stop hyperventilating. The levers are simple: credentials, complexity, scope, sector. Get good at hard things that matter to budgets and regulators, and HR will learn to pronounce your last name on the first try.

How to Replicate Brianny’s Playbook (Even If You’re Not Brianny)

Treat “online” like “office.” Put hours on a calendar. Show up. Slack and Netflix are not study buddies.
Network early, network politely. Conferences, virtual panels, LinkedIn groups, local PRIMA chapters—ask people what they wish they’d known at your stage, then write it down and do the easy parts immediately.
Pick a lane to sample, not to marry. Underwriting, claims, compliance, fraud, public sector—rotate through internships or capstone projects to test your fit.
Speak “tools.” If a job post mentions GRC platforms, data visualization, loss runs, or vendor risk systems, learn the vocabulary and get hands-on where possible.
Collect small credentials. A short course in cyber fundamentals or a beginner’s underwriting certificate can make your resume pop against generic business majors.
Document your impact. Keep a brag file: case studies, process maps you improved, controls you implemented, losses prevented, dollars saved. Metrics make managers smile.

The Psychology of Picking a “Plain” Major—and Winning Anyway

There’s social cachet in choosing exotic fields with poetic names. There’s career cachet in choosing disciplines that turn volatility into salaries. RMI sits in that underappreciated zone where pragmatic people hide. They don’t post threads about “crushing it.” They quietly become indispensable, move up, and buy a house with a roof that’s properly insured.

If the goal is freedom—to move cities, change sectors, switch from operations to leadership—then the smart play is to learn how organizations avoid avoidable pain. Risk management is basically selling aspirin to people who finally notice their migraine every quarter-end.

“I’m Still Exploring” Is an Asset, Not a Liability

Brianny plans to finish in spring 2026 with options. That’s not indecision—that’s leverage. When your foundation includes both practical and theoretical knowledge, sampling roles is how you optimize, not flounder. The program’s own architecture endorses this: broad base, focused electives, industry exposure. That’s how you prevent career FOMO—by testing hypotheses in the real world.

“A degree in Risk Management and Insurance isn’t just a credential; it’s a launchpad.”
Indeed. Credentials get you interviews; launchpads get you trajectories.

The Quiet Radicalism of Community College Done Right

There’s something delightfully subversive about building a high-responsibility career from a community college base. It contradicts the prestige script while outperforming it on cost, time, and relevance. You didn’t pay for marble lobbies; you paid for curriculum that maps to jobs. You didn’t outsource your momentum to a brand; you built it with coursework, projects, and a contact list that can return calls.

For families counting dollars, for adults changing lanes, for students who prefer results to ceremonies—this is the model. It’s not glamorous. It’s just effective.

What to Do Tomorrow (Because Inspiration Without Action Is Just Caffeine)

If you’re a prospective student: Email Erin LeGrand (etlegrand@waynecc.edu) or call 919-739-6880. Ask for a sample degree plan and the list of industry partners. Confirm the online cadence and which evening/hybrid options fit your schedule.
If you’re already enrolled: Pick a niche to prototype this semester—public sector, cyber risk, fraud, or compliance—and ask for a mentor introduction. Attend one professional event before finals.
If you’re mid-career and curious: Audit a course module or enroll part-time. Bring a real problem from your job (vendor due diligence, incident response readiness, contract exclusions) and use assignments to solve it. Your boss will think you’ve discovered time travel.
If you’re an employer: Start a micro-internship pipeline. Give students a tidy problem with a 6–8 week horizon and a defined deliverable. You’ll identify talent faster than a hundred resumes filtered by AI.

Parting Shot: The “Boring” Fields Keep the Lights On

The world runs on reliable infrastructure—financial, legal, operational. Risk management and insurance are the quietly competent adults in the organizational family. They don’t hog the spotlight, but they definitely pay the electric bill. And when the storm rolls in (it always does), they’re the ones with flashlights, checklists, and a plan that isn’t written on a napkin.

Brianny Gillis didn’t stumble into that world; she chose it. She chose flexibility without softness, breadth without vagueness, and a field that rewards people who prepare when nothing appears urgent. That’s not boring; that’s professional.

So if your career plan currently reads like a mood board, consider trading vibes for value. Wayne Community College has a program that turns diligence into optionality and optionality into opportunity. If you want stability with a growth curve, and relevance that outlasts the news cycle, the door is open—and yes, it’s online.

The only question left is whether you want to stand next to the fire alarm after it goes off, or help build the system that prevents it.

Either way, risk has a way of finding you. Better to be the person who knows what to do with it.