Actuarial Summer Student Review

With an excellent training and support system in place from the outset, I thoroughly enjoyed working with the firm and, more importantly, learned a vast amount about the work done on a daily basis by actuaries, the pensions industry and, indeed, the actuarial profession in general.

All colleagues from each department of the firm could not have been more helpful or willing to volunteer to support or teach each of the new interns. Everyone made me feel like a much welcomed and important part of their team.

With regular training and support catch-up sessions arranged throughout the placement and the opportunity to learn from members from each department about specific aspects of the work, there was consistently high quality advice and support available from day one.

Most days were reasonably busy: comprised mostly of different client work and calculations, drafting emails, working with large datasets and completing my individual project.

I feel I was given a lot of responsibility, with most of the work I was assigned being real client tasks similar to those performed by graduates and other junior consultants. Moreover, having been assigned a project to work on independently I had the chance to take real responsibility for the tasks involved in completing this and the findings and conclusions drawn from this investigation will hopefully prove valuable to the firm in the future.

As mentioned, I feel strongly that I have gained a vast amount of knowledge from this internship with regards to the typical tasks completed on a day-to-day basis by actuaries, the pensions industry and Hymans Robertson's standing in it, as well as the acuarial profession in general. Furthermore, having been given much responsibility and exposure to real actuarial procedures, I have developed many of the core competencies required for working in the role of an actuarial consultant, such as communication, leadership and problem solving skills.

Everyone in the office, whilst extremely professional and competent, was always very friendly and in high spirits.

With a clear programme in place for all summer interns from the beginning, the placement offered opportunities to try different tasks and network with different people and teams and certainly kept me busy throughout.

A lot of time was dedicated to ensuring interns were familiar and comfortable with the computer systems and software in place, and regular meetings were arranged throughout the internship to assess progress and confront any issues.

The graduate intake for the firm, while already substantial, seems to be growing with each year- a testament to the development and growth in the firm overall.

There was always regular opportunities for colleagues, recently joined and experienced, to meet up after work.

Typical inner-city prices.

Glasgow's night-life is generally very good with lots to do on offer for all tastes and preferences.

During my placement there were several activities arranged (team nights out, whole practice away-days, etc.)