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Liberty Mutual: Maura Quinn, VP Early Talent Acquisition (P1)
Maura Quinn joined Liberty Mutual out of Boston College in 2001, during the dot-com bust, in an HR operations role with no recruiting function attached. In 2002, she took a risk and asked a senior leader to create a college recruiting coordinator role that didn't exist at the company yet, got a yes, and has spent the 20-plus years since building Liberty's early talent pipeline. This past summer that meant close to 400 interns from about 180 schools across 33 offices. Nearly 80% of eligible 2025 interns got full-time offers, against a NACE benchmark of roughly 50%, and 89% of them accepted.
Maura talks about the pipeline starting early. Liberty Mutual's Discovery programs give freshmen and sophomores exposure to technology, finance, actuarial science, analytics, and soon underwriting. Liberty also reserves about 30% of its internship roles for underclassmen. Maura makes a strong case for liberal arts students. After six or seven years of skills-based hiring, Liberty looks for critical thinking, communication, and judgment over a specific major, and it places those graduates in claims, HR, analytics, and customer experience.
On AI, Maura pushes back on the hype. Liberty uses it only for administrative tasks like summarizing interview notes and drafting emails. Entry-level screening uses no AI and no on-demand video tools, and most hires go through four to six human conversations before an offer. For career fairs, she tells students to bring a simple pitch, research companies whose values match their own, and ask recruiters real questions about culture and why they've stayed. Her advice to parents is to be a coach, not the candidate, because students who own the process themselves do best. She also points out that insurance offers stability, real responsibility, and training that's hard to match. Liberty is redesigning its development programs so senior leaders spend nearly a quarter of their week mentoring the next class. The program's track record backs this up: Liberty's current CFO came in through the financial management program 25 years ago, and one of Maura's early hires now runs the company's business in Malaysia.
Learn more about early careers at Liberty Mutual: https://jobs.libertymutualgroup.com/careers/early-talent/
Follow Maura on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauraquinn/
Careers Matter provides one on one, customized coaching to undergraduate college students. At Careers Matter, we believe every student deserves a premier path from college to career. Our concierge-style coaching combines structure, insight, and accountability to help students build confidence and clarity on direction as they prepare for life after college.
Learn more at https://www.careers-matter.com
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careers.matter
Or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/careersmatter
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By Kathy Sheehan SpillaneMaura Quinn joined Liberty Mutual out of Boston College in 2001, during the dot-com bust, in an HR operations role with no recruiting function attached. In 2002, she took a risk and asked a senior leader to create a college recruiting coordinator role that didn't exist at the company yet, got a yes, and has spent the 20-plus years since building Liberty's early talent pipeline. This past summer that meant close to 400 interns from about 180 schools across 33 offices. Nearly 80% of eligible 2025 interns got full-time offers, against a NACE benchmark of roughly 50%, and 89% of them accepted.
Maura talks about the pipeline starting early. Liberty Mutual's Discovery programs give freshmen and sophomores exposure to technology, finance, actuarial science, analytics, and soon underwriting. Liberty also reserves about 30% of its internship roles for underclassmen. Maura makes a strong case for liberal arts students. After six or seven years of skills-based hiring, Liberty looks for critical thinking, communication, and judgment over a specific major, and it places those graduates in claims, HR, analytics, and customer experience.
On AI, Maura pushes back on the hype. Liberty uses it only for administrative tasks like summarizing interview notes and drafting emails. Entry-level screening uses no AI and no on-demand video tools, and most hires go through four to six human conversations before an offer. For career fairs, she tells students to bring a simple pitch, research companies whose values match their own, and ask recruiters real questions about culture and why they've stayed. Her advice to parents is to be a coach, not the candidate, because students who own the process themselves do best. She also points out that insurance offers stability, real responsibility, and training that's hard to match. Liberty is redesigning its development programs so senior leaders spend nearly a quarter of their week mentoring the next class. The program's track record backs this up: Liberty's current CFO came in through the financial management program 25 years ago, and one of Maura's early hires now runs the company's business in Malaysia.
Learn more about early careers at Liberty Mutual: https://jobs.libertymutualgroup.com/careers/early-talent/
Follow Maura on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauraquinn/
Careers Matter provides one on one, customized coaching to undergraduate college students. At Careers Matter, we believe every student deserves a premier path from college to career. Our concierge-style coaching combines structure, insight, and accountability to help students build confidence and clarity on direction as they prepare for life after college.
Learn more at https://www.careers-matter.com
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careers.matter
Or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/careersmatter