Actuarial Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my 8 weeks at Barnett Waddingham. There were so many opportunities to work on different projects as well as many training sessions throughout the 2 months. It really felt that they were interested in helping us learn and develop skills throughout the internship. It was also good to get the chance to rotate between investment and actuarial work to give you an indication of how the teams differ and what kind of work they get involved in.

The atmosphere in the office was incredibly friendly, and there was always someone around that was willing to help out whenever you were stuck. it was nice that people were always keen to give you some work to do, even if it meant taking time out of their day to sit and explain things to you.

Throughout the internship I always felt like there was someone close to ask to help if I needed. I really liked the desk rotation, which meant that we all had a chance to sit next to or very close to our supervisors which allowed us to get to know them better, and made it even easier to ask if there was anything we needed.

There were only a couple of times throughout the 8 weeks that I felt that I would have liked more to do. What I particularly liked was that we had intern assessments which meant that if we weren't as busy with client work, we could spend some time working on those.

One thing that especially surprised me was how much real client work we were allowed to do during our time working here. They really take the time to make sure you're suitably trained to be able to handle the client work which meant that we could take on a lot of responsibility.

I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge throughout the 8 weeks, especially in investment. Learning how macroeconomic factors effect different asset classes has really improved my political and economic knowledge which I feel might help me in some of my economics modules next year. It has also been nice to be doing some maths, to keep those skills up over the summer will help come October when the academic year starts again.

The atmosphere was incredibly friendly in the office. The team sizes are fairly small, which I liked because it provided the opportunity to meet and chat to everyone in the team. There is always someone close by to talk to and ask questions to, and everyone is always willing to help.

The internship was extremely well organised. The fact that every intern from across the country got to have the training days together in Leeds showed how much planning goes into the program. We all also got given timetables of all the important activities that were going to happen over the 8 weeks, which allowed us to plan and organise our own work around that.

There were so many training sessions and learning opportunities throughout the program that highlighted the company’s willingness to help us develop our skills while we were there. There was even a training session in the last week on a topic that they knew wouldn't be needed for any of our work in the last few days, but that would be of interest to us and teach us new things that we could use in the future.

There were endless opportunities to get involved with social activities outside the office during my placement. Golf days, boat parties, quiz nights, football tournaments and BBQs were just some of the many events that I got involved with throughout my 8 weeks. It was so nice to be invited to everything as a summer intern to allow us to really feel part of the teams.