Actuary (Life) Summer Intern Review

Even though my internship was online due to Covid-19, I felt as though the company went the extra mile to make the internship more enjoyable. Social activities such as weekly hub meetings and intern quizzes helped to keep the much needed social aspect of the job alive, even though we never actually met in person. The assignments I was given were enjoyable and interesting and I was never bored or without a task to complete.

The person who I was assigned to made me feel very valued, as they would often ask for my opinion and take my comments on board. Sometimes though it could be a little frustrating as I would be given a task and complete it only for them to change their mind and decide a different approach was better. On the whole though, my opinion was always listened to and if I ever had any issues to voice, there was always someone to listen and try and help me.

I was given a coding assignment which was at first daunting as I had never coded before, however my supervisor taught me the basics and was very patient. Once I had grasped that, we moved on to more complicated tasks. Whenever I had an issue he would either video call me and help me by sharing my screen and point out the incorrect code or send me a tutorial from online explaining the best approach.

I would usually begin at 9 in the morning and would often finish at 5 in the afternoon. Sometimes it would run over because I had been given a task to complete or a call I was on was running late. During these hours I always had something to do and the person in charge of the interns made it clear that if the work load was too little she could find something for us, or if we were too busy she could give the work to another intern.

The person I worked with was in charge of our assignment and I would usually have a call with him most days and he would tell me what he needed doing and then either the next day or that afternoon I would show him how far I had got. I did however get to present our assignment to higher up members of the company on a couple of occasions and I sometimes would play around with different codes to see how it worked and then show him the changes.

As a maths undergrad its quite surprising that I have never learnt to code, so my new coding knowledge will almost certainly come in very useful in my degree. The internship was also very useful for teaching me what its like in actuary and working for a large consultancy firm. I'm also hoping that things such as a knowledge of Solvency ll and more specific things wishing the industry will come in useful for job interviews.

Even though it was online, everyone was always happy to help and have a chat. The grads especially were very welcoming and inclusive and were one of the highlights of the internship. The atmosphere was also professional and hard working so there was a nice mix between a corporate and fun atmosphere. The other interns were also always willing to help and I found as a group we bonded well which added greatly to the enjoyability of the internship.

The internship was very well organised. There was intern training for us which was done by many different members of the company and we were given many different presentations on different software and various aspects of the industry. There was also intern tasks that were designed for us and that we all had to complete, with designated members of the company to reach out to if we needed help and to guide us through them.

I would love to work for this company. Everyone was very friendly and I felt a valued member of the team. Even though it was online I still wasn't bored and had plenty to do each day and the work I was given was enjoyable. They were also very good at letting you get involved with work that appealed to you and that you had previously expressed an interest in and so I can see a full time job there being very rewarding.

Again it was an online internship so there was little that could be done. We did however have lots of video calls to help each other with our assignments and we did organise a quiz together for the rest of the company, which helped with getting to know each other. We also started a group chat that we used even after the internship ended and I am still in contact with a few of the interns.