Actuarial Life Summer Intern Review

In the first few weeks, there will be introduction/training meeting to get you acquainted with the company, the insurance industry and the WTW software. You will gradually get involved in your projects (most interns get two). These vary from research projects related to the insurance industry or modelling/programming projects within the WTW software, or generally helping out with bigger projects WTW already have with their clients. If you have free time between project tasks, there are intern/grad challenges you can complete which are related to the insurance industry. You will always have something to do!

I have completed training in two WTW software and I completed a model within one of them from scratch. This helped me develop my programming skills and also helped me understand more about how insurance products are priced. I have also had lots of training in other actuarial/ insurance industry things such as Solvency II. While I was in the Life team, I was able to learn both about Life and General insurance products, why they are needed and how they are calculated.

From my second day, I was put into calls with external clients for a client project I was involved in. Within this project, though I would ask for feedback before submitting work to the client, I was able to complete work that was actually used for the final product. While you are given lots of responsibility and independence, all of the staff are very happy to help you with any questions you may have and you're not expected to know everything immediately.

When in the office, everyone was around to help. You can just walk up to people in the office if you have a question and they will be glad to help you out. Even remotely, just give anyone a call on Teams and they will be glad to help you out if they have time. If you have a project regarding WTW software, remember the names of the colleagues who ran that software training as they will be some of the best people to ask for help with that. Your line manager will help you if you're struggling with anything and your buddy is also always there to help out.

The London and Reigate offices are extremely friendly and you can see all the staff are willing to help, introduce themselves and put you at ease. If you happen to go to work drinks, they will always be inviting and make sure you get integrated and meet many people within the team. Everyone is very happy to help anyone so you should never be swamped with work or have to work unsociable hours. Just make sure you get the work done, be clear with your project managers when they can ecpect to see work from you and chat to everyone!

I really enjoyed my internship and learned lots about actuarial work/ the insurance industry. I met great people during the internship and everyone was very friendly and helpful. The projects were not boring at all and I felt as though I was treated as a real employee from the outset. The internship is not a competitive environment which allows you to just focus on trying to get the most out of the internship as possible for yourself. I would definitely return!

Yes

WTW is not the place for a competitive internship environment. Come to WTW if you want to learn and meet great people. During the application process, the interviewers want you to do well. Don't beat yourself up if you need help/ guidance asking the technical questions as they are intended to be difficult. Be yourself and mention things you are interested in as they may give you projects in the internship related to things you mentioned during the interview to make sure the experience is interesting/ useful for you. Keep in mind the 48h deadlines for the first few stages. The results of the first few stages will come back quite quickly so be ready for the next stage. You may have to wait a while for an invitation for the final stage interview but try not to worry too much, WTW do accept people all the way til May sometimes. Just because you havent heard back for a while doesnt automatically mean rejection, be patient.