Actuarial Intern Review

Good to get experience in a professional working environment and get an insight into the day to day work of an actuary. Not the most exciting place but the environment likely to improve when the London offices combine as it is quite empty at the moment. Working hours are very friendly (9-5 most days).

Everyone I worked with was very helpful, you were encouraged to give input where possible and were treated as a regular junior member of staff. No condescending managers as you hear of in other firms.

Good support, supervisor stressed that I could email/call him at any time with queries, problems etc even though he was out of the office.

Always work to get on with as you work on numerous projects throughout your time. A few downtimes but that is to be expected.

All work done had a purpose to the company - most interns got to work on full client projects too. The work was often quite simple/repetitive but by the end of the internship you began to understand the workings behind it and its understandable that they cant give you some of the more complex/interesting work.

The excel skills learnt will likely prove useful in the future, as will the background insurance knowledge gained. There wasn't much other training outside of the first 3 days, and the company uses a lot of in-house software/methods so these may not be applicable elsewhere

The London offices are in the process of combining and moving to a hot desk structure. The office currently, however, is around 30% full and therefore quite dull. This can be explained in part by the study days graduates have and it being holiday season but the atmosphere was very quiet and flat.

Well organised. Intern programme given at the start, as was a sheet detailing your proposed projects and hours working on them, in addition to contact details

Basic excel training was given at the start, as was an introduction to the industry. Not much practical training or development after that although you were always free to ask questions on what you were doing.

Cannot speak for the other lines of business, although prospects seem OK within RCS. Company was forced to lay off a number of staff last November but is now busy and looking to expand.

Interns within my office were sociable and I went out with those and a couple of others I met from the other London office several times.

Central London so obviously fairly expensive, although not as much as other people often say if you go to the right areas and places on a night out. You receive a £100pw allowance for accommodation which is a nice addition that not many other companies give, although I knew of some other interns paying up to £280pw so living costs can be quite large!

Many pubs, bars and clubs to go to. Camden, Shoredtich, Soho all within easy reach.

No activities within my office, although there is talk of a sports match between another office later in the summer after we have left. I know other interns had BBQ's and played some sports so this does depend on where you are placed.