Summer Student Review

I enjoyed this internship immensely. I was involved in a wide variety of different tasks, all of which were interesting and directly contributed to the company's business with their clients, which made the placement very rewarding. Everyone is really friendly, which made settling in easy, and people were always open to being asked for help or advice if I needed it.

I feel that I was valued by my colleagues, and they valued the work I was doing. A number of them gave feedback on tasks I'd completed for them, which was very helpful, and did make me feel valued whenever they praised any aspect of my work. Being a mere intern did mean I was limited in the sort of jobs I could complete, but that is to be expected anywhere.

The internship started off with a two day induction, where we were told pretty much everything we would need to know. Throughout the internship there were a number of organised projects and review meetings for the summer students, which were very useful sources of teaching and support. More generally, anyone was happy to take a couple of minutes out to help me with any questions / problems I had, so there was lots of guidance on the go whenever it was needed.

The work stream was a bit variable, with some days really busy and others a bit quieter, depending on when jobs came in and how urgent deadlines were. On the whole, I'd say that the amount of work I had was about right: it kept me busy but didn't get overwhelming or stressful.

I was asked to do a number of tasks which would eventually be sent off to clients, meaning I was directly responsible for most of the jobs I was doing. However, everything gets checked at least once before actually being sent off, so I never felt like I was taking full responsibility - it was kind of like having a safety net.

I am not sure if the skills I developed will help me much in my degree, besides perhaps making me more likely to stick to a more rigorous routine and so be more productive, since the work was quite different from my university studies. I do feel, however, that the skills I developed and the training I received will be extremely useful, bordering on fundamental, for any job in the finance/consulting sectors after university. This internship has developed my spreadsheet, report-writing and general workplace skills, setting me up for a job far more than my degree has.

The general atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed, if a bit quiet sometimes. You could tell if it was a busy period as people would tend to just zone in on their work, but normally there would be some level of friendly chatter. There were a couple of groups that got together at lunchtimes to play football/boardgames/etc. as well as organised social events so you get to know people quite well.

The internship was very well organised on the whole - there was a two day induction at the start where we were trained on all the important things we would need. Then throughout the internship there were projects for the interns to complete, to assess us on what we'd learned, and we received lots of feedback to guide us on what we've been doing well and where we can improve. Day to day we were just doing normal jobs as they came in, to give us a feel of what working for the company is like.

I feel that the company has invested a fair amount of time and manpower into training us interns, which has helped my personal development. There is the possibility of a permanent job offer at the end of the placement if you perform well, so because of this the company will want to start training you as if you were a new joiner.

Future employment prospects are very appealing. To become an actuary you need to sit and pass a load of exams. It can take around 3-5 years to qualify and some people never do, but once you qualify, most people stay in the profession for life and you generally get a stable job with a very healthy salary.

Yes, there are lots of social events and societies run within the company, and we summer students were invited to join any and all we wanted. These were a great way to get to know all the employees and feel more involved with the team. My personal favourites were doing an escape room, and weekly lunchtime board game club.