Actuarial intern in pensions Review

As an intern you have the chance to get involved in a wide range of tasks. You can ask to get involved in specific work the team is doing that you find particularly interesting and the team will also assign you work to do. This may be to attend a meeting where you could be asked to take notes, or to collect data to update information going to clients, or research into companies. You also have the chance to meet with different people at different levels of the company, i.e associate to partner, which allows you to get a clear idea of what the job entails and where you can aspire to get to in your career.

I have learnt and developed many skills such a research, numerical, reasoning, networking and communication skills. From the feedback from members of the team I learnt how important it is to continuously ask questions, as no question is a stupid question and it shows you have real interest in the work. They taught me it is best to ask rather than sit there not understanding what they were talking about. They also ran a dragons den program which taught me teamwork, networking, research and presentation skills.

I was given responsibility in the work I was assigned. Once they told you what to do it was your job to keep track of time, to ensure effective communication if you were delayed or had any questions etc. You are also trusted to keep to your work hours as you can work from home or the office and PWC currently has summer working hours, which means if you work an hour extra per day you can take Friday afternoon off. This means you are responsible to accurately record your time on the online timesheet and ensure all your work is completed before then.

You get assigned a career coach and a buddy who are there to show you around and answer any questions I may have. My buddy was very helpful with answering questions no matter how small and I felt very comfortable going to them for anything. My career coach was they to ensure I got the most out of my internship and make sure I met the goals I had for myself. They both ensured I had enough work and that I was doing ok. Student recruitment also kept in touch through the internship, sending emails about things which are open to support me and providing vouchers so that you can go out at lunch. All members of the team are very friendly and open to any questions as well, so if my buddy and career coach was not in, I would feel comfortable asking any of the team for help.

Everyone is very friendly and open to any questions you may have, or to go have a quick catch up meeting with them. They all want you to get the most out of your internship and find out what you are most interested in. There was an intern welcome and goodbye lunch and socials that we were welcomed to attend. This made me feel very comfortable and calmed any nerves I had about the internship.

I really enjoyed my internship. Not only did I enjoy the work but the culture at the office was what made it really enjoyable. PWC seems to care and trust its staff and that is reflected in the attitude of all the staff there. The team makes you feel very included in all tasks and social. It exceeded my exceptions of what work would be like in a corporate office at one of the big 4. I would go back.

Yes

To anyone applying I would say for the interview make sure that you research the role you are applying for and have knowledge about PWC as a firm and why you want to be at PWC specifically (e.g. its values, news articles etc) as that was a key part of the questions. For the assessment day have a notebook ready to plan out your day and set reminders on your phone for the deadline of each task, if you can.