Catastrophe Risk Analyst Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at WillisRe. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming and the job I was doing was very engaging and rewarding to complete. It was a steep learning curve to learn all of the insurance and reinsurance lingo in a short space of time but it was still extremely enjoyable.

All colleagues made me feel very welcome and valued. They all engaged with me and asked help in completing tasks which helped with learning new skills and feeling like a useful team member. It was sometimes difficult to ask for extra things to do or help as everyone was always super busy but when spare time was available, everyone was keen to help out.

I received support and guidance from my graduate buddy, manager and project manager. Having all of these different people in contact and providing help was super useful as there was always someone available if I was stuck or needed some extra assistance. I was given continued support alongside my project which is where it was needed the most.

I was mostly completing my project on a daily basis which was the main aim of the internship. There were periods of time, through no ones fault, where I was not doing particularly much due to having to wait for responses from people or wait for particular data sets to become available.

I carried out a project during my internship. Although it was my responsibility to carry out and complete my project to the best of my ability, it was hard to link this to the possible bigger picture. I had some brief exposure to client data however this was only a mock example and I understand that full responsibility for activities such as this could not be given to an intern.

I have definitely gained a new skill set in terms of catastrophe analytics, which I had nothing of the sort before starting at Willis. I have learned strong analytical skills which will come in useful in my degree, as well as approaching environmental science from a different angle. The modelling training was especially helpful as I can take this forward into future projects.

I found the London office to have a much more focused atmosphere compared to Ipswich. Ipswich was much more chilled and relaxed, which I found it much easier to work in. I also enjoyed how open the Ipswich office is, whereas I felt the London office generally felt more segregated especially between the CAT analyst teams.

We were informed of our major guidelines and deadlines right from the start. There always plenty for us to do and everything was always very well organised. The catch-up sessions throughout were great to help us stay on track and give us an idea of where we should be at that time in our internship.

Willis definitely supported us in terms of developing our skills relating to the roles we were doing. If there was anything we wanted to learn more about they were also happy to teach us or help with any queries in some of the new technologies and skills we had to utilize.

I would definitely like to come back to work for Willis in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed the work position I had and my team I worked in was great. If I were to be offered a graduate or standard job role as a catastrophe analyst I would definitely take it.

I enjoyed socializing with my team and fellow interns. We often eat lunch together which gives us a nice time outside of our little desk pod where we can socialise. There were also many planned social events especially near the start of the placement to allow us to get to know everyone and feel generally more comfortable.

I live at home during my internship so I did not have to pay any housing costs. I did however have to spend a considerable amount of money on season train tickets but this was still cheaper than renting somewhere closer to the office. Ipswich is a pretty affordable area which is great but areas around the London office are definitely more expensive.

I did note experience any of the nightlife

There were a few opportunities to go to external talks in areas related to our role as well as social activities with our team outside of work time. I don't think my time would have been made better necessarily by more activities outside of work hours however getting involved in opportunities did give me a lot of varied experience.