Analyst Review

The internship was really enjoyable and a good first insight into working life. The work was really interesting and all my other colleagues were very friendly and accommodating. I enjoyed being involved in successful projects and seeing work that I had been a big part of being delivered to clients.

My colleagues made me feel very valued and this only increased throughout the internship as I developed more skills. I enjoyed socialising with my colleagues after work and this really made me feel like part of the team. Everyone made an effort to explain tasks to me in detail so that I could fully understand what was being asked of me.

The support given was good. Me and my supervisor had a very useful meeting at the halfway point of the internship in which we discussed feedback that had been received from my peers and this was very useful and allowed me to improve. Also, all of the management were very friendly and said that they were easily contactable via email if I felt this was necessary.

Most of the time during my internship I had a good amount of work to do. In most instances I had one or two tasks to be carrying out, so I wasn't bored or too busy. At the start of my internship sometimes I didn't have much to do, however as I have built up more skills and capabilities, the amount of tasks that I could be given increased and consequently I am now rarely bored.

I was given a similar amount of responsibility to that of new graduate starters which was very nice, and I felt like I was contributing a large amount to client work. The amount of responsibility that was given increased throughout the internship, and this is something that would hopefully increase further if I worked with the company on a full-time basis.

I believe the skills and training learned will help me in many ways in the future. At university in my final year I will be studying many modules that are very closely related to actuarial qualifications so I believe that the internship will give me a head start over my peers here. Also, the skills that I have developed will massively help me once I actually start a full-time job in the industry, because I will be applying these exact skills on a daily basis.

The atmosphere was very nice and relaxed. It felt like everyone enjoyed being at work and was happy. It felt like everyone was very approachable and enjoyed socialising together. The office was a department was a nice size because it was small enough that you felt like a big part of the team, but it was big enough that you felt like you were a part of something big and you could find friends.

The training in the first week was very well organised and set-up in order to provide a good overall insight about life as an actuary and the kind of work you get up to. The feedback meetings were very useful and well set-up. More permissions should have been given in relating to accessing certain folders on TCT because I kept having to email IT and ask for access which slowed down tasks.

In the first week we received many interesting and educational training classes which helped throughout the rest of the internship. Whenever a task was needed to be carried out, it was explained in detail how to carry out the task and this enabled me to successfully deliver what was required on most occasions and improve my skills.

Very appealing; upon speaking to my colleagues it appears like the support in dealing with actuarial exams is very good and better than a lot of other companies within the industry. Becoming a qualified actuary is obviously a major milestone in this career path and it seems like this company can help me achieve this goal in the fastest possible time. The company seems to be in a very strong and stable financial position as reflected by their share price so this is also very encouraging

On most Friday after work people go for drinks which is a nice way to end the week. There are a number of after work activities to become involved in such as the 'Sports Day' activity or the 'Crazy Golf' social. It was very nice that these were subsidised by the company and allowed good relationships to be formed.

I am not sure about the cost of living in this area because I didn't live here; I lived at home during the internship and then commuted to my office. The cost of socialising was more expensive than I was used to, however this is to be expected in a big city and the prices definitely seemed cheaper than in London.

The nightlife in Manchester is good, but I only know this because I live near the area and have experienced it many times before my internship. I have not experienced the nightlife during the internship because it clearly wouldn't be wise to stay out late on a night with work in the morning and the buses back to where I live stop relatively early on a Friday night.

I was only at the company for 8 weeks, however during this time there were still a number of opportunities to get involved in activities. I took part in a volunteering day at a local school in which we carried out tasks such as gardening and it felt very nice to be giving something back to the community.