西瓜视频

I really enjoyed the internship. My colleagues were all very friendly and approachable, and there was a strong sense of community. The work was interesting and fairly diverse, and I loved being in a new environment with so much to learn. Moreover, stress was kept to a minimum; we were practically told off if we stayed past five! This gave me plenty of opportunity to enjoy living in London, a new experience for me.

I built fantastic relationships with my colleagues that were simultaneously friendly and professional, which I believe is essential to a productive workplace. However, in terms of being "valued", I occasionally felt that the work I was doing could have been done faster and to a higher standard if it had been done by the person that gave it to me. This is only natural of course, and is therefore unavoidable, but I did sometimes feel that I was being given work because I needed work to do, not because they wanted me to do it. On a brighter note, there were plenty of social events to get involved in and so I met a diverse range of people who all welcomed me with open arms.

There was as much support as you could possibly need. It was made clear from the start who I should go to with issues, and those people responded exceptionally. Before starting, the recruitment team were very friendly and accommodated my needs without fuss. On day one I met my line manager who was easy to talk to and made me feel a lot better about being late! She also checked in on me a bit more formally half way through the internship, and we just had a chat about the issues both she and I raised. Another fantastic source of support was my Buddy: a graduate assigned to look after me. The small age difference made it easy for us to get along, and she helped me with a range of social, technical and workplace problems. Aside from these designated persons, everyone was always happy to help with anything and everything, even if I'd never met them before. Even more importantly, they were never condescending and were in fact eager to share.

This is perhaps the biggest issue with this placement. Unless you picked up a long term project at the beginning of the internship (which I didn鈥檛, definitely a mistake), work came in a task at a time, with duration varying between half an hour and four hours. When you had plenty there was no problem, but overnight you could go from being happily busy to having nothing to do. If I could give a piece of advice to a future intern, it would be to accept every piece of work that comes your way. Even if you鈥檙e busy at the time, deadlines are normally not so tight that you can鈥檛 reshuffle your workload and save an hour of having nothing to do. The solution to this was of course to simply ask for more work, and I did just that several times. But with eight interns all clutching at any work that came along, there wasn鈥檛 always enough to go round, and when you get no replies to an office-wide email, you can鈥檛 just try again. Even so, I still had work to do 90% of the time, it鈥檚 just a shame that it wasn't 100%.

I think the responsibility we were given was suitable for our role and experience. The majority of the work that I did was for a client (rather than internal admin), and once it was checked and reviewed it was sent off. This checking and reviewing process is standard across the company, so it wasn鈥檛 the case that we were treated any differently, although no doubt my efforts contained more errors than a consultant鈥檚! This meant that the work I was doing directly affected the client, their employees and Towers Watson itself. On a couple of occasions I was offered the greater responsibility of contacting client admin teams directly by phone (no chance for checking here). I鈥檒l admit that I opted to sit in on someone else making the call as I didn鈥檛 feel experienced enough, but the opportunity was there had I felt comfortable taking it.

I don鈥檛 think that anyone could argue that they鈥檇 learned nothing on this placement. Although it won鈥檛 assist in my degree studies (I鈥檓 studying the purer end of Mathematics) the life skills are invaluable. I have become much more confident in approaching new people and have developed my communication and personal organisation skills. In addition to these skills that are picked up from being in an office environment, I have been exposed to direct and indirect technical training. In the first week there were a handful of sessions explaining basic actuarial concepts and software, but more effective was the on-the-job learning; my understanding of pensions has increased massively and I am now competent with a range of software products. All this new information will be of great use if I decide to pursue a career as an actuary and take the associated exams.

The office atmosphere was brilliant. I felt that everyone there was well content, even if they were busy. There were plenty of people moving about and chatting, but equally it was not difficult to get my head down and work hard without being distracted. The hotdesking system meant that there were always opportunities to meet and talk to new people, but the breakdown of the office into sections meant that I still felt part of a team. Conveniently, the 鈥渉eart space鈥� (basically the lounge area) was very near and lunch breaks were relaxing and enjoyable, especially when spent in the park opposite the office. There was a real sense of community, and this impressed me greatly.

The entire internship ran very smoothly, with no issues or holdups. All the necessary admin was clearly outlined, including deadlines.

There was not that much official training, only three sessions in the first two weeks. I think that this is understandable as there is a lot to learn, and the best way to do so is to get involved and practice, which there was plenty of opportunity to do. It also makes sense as it was only an eight week internship. The real investment comes if I take the graduate job, where I will start taking actuarial exams completely funded and organised by the company.

There are very good prospects indeed! I鈥檝e not yet been offered a job, but from discussions with my manager I get the impression that chances are good for moving from the internship to the graduate role. As long as the company likes you, you will receive an offer without further application. I believe that last year, only one of the interns wasn鈥檛 offered a job. They say that you鈥檝e done the hard bit by getting through the application process.

There was quite an emphasis on socialising, with both interns and employees. In the first two weeks alone we were invited to two exam-results drinks (normally just for those that receive results), a pub quiz and a clutch of other events. By a stroke of luck, the internship coincided with the annual summer boat party: a fantastic evening for which we got free tickets. We were also asked to organise our own intern social for the end of the placement, but there were so many other events on at the time that it was hard to find a date! Nonetheless, there was absolutely no pressure to attend. I am not much of a drinker or party-goer myself so I did decline sometimes, but I felt completely comfortable doing so, everyone was very understanding.

I find it hard to comment on this because of lack of experience. Prices were high (for drinks etc), but I know that is usual for London. As for cost of living, that was also higher, but I was fortunate in that I could stay with family friends for a very agreeable price. Nonetheless, we did receive a 12.5% benefits allowance on top of our usual salary to account for this. I鈥檓 not sure if that is a permanent addition, if it is just for interns, or even if it is just for the London office.

To be honest, I didn鈥檛 explore the nightlife near the office that much. I did notice though that there were several pubs in the vicinity (including next door and opposite) that were always busy on a Friday evening, so I鈥檒l take that as a good sign.

Aside from the social activities (of which there were plenty), there were also opportunities to play some sport. The summer Ultimate Frisbee league was strongly pushed and so I went along having never played before. It didn鈥檛 matter that I was rubbish, it was a great laugh and a good way to get some exercise. I understand that there are several company sports teams that take part in various leagues and competitions throughout the year, but with many of them being off-season at the moment I didn鈥檛 come across any. If I get the graduate job however, I will certainly be looking into it.