西瓜视频

This internship was very enjoyable, stretching your intellectual capabilities from your first day in office. Throughout the internship, interns were required to problem solve and use their intuition, whether that be during an individual task like pensions calculations, or one of the several intern-group tasks, such as a risk solutions presentation. For me, a fast-paced, challenging environment was key when choosing my career after university, and this certainly is the case in the actuarial pensions industry, with numerous client needs and constant changes to the budget and legislation.

I was able to obtain a true insight into the actuarial industry, and it's an exciting one. As an actuarial consultant, not only does one complete the back-office mathematics and quantitative finance, but enjoys the client-side aspect of finance as well. Of course, as an intern this is limited, but you nevertheless are an important asset to the company completing real work- it's especially rewarding helping out those in very senior positions! Usually on the internship, each intern is assigned one or two clients. Being part of a client team enables you to specialise in different areas, with particular reference to internal computer systems, but even the wider pensions industry. You thus become a very useful asset to your team throughout the 6 weeks of summer, and your colleagues appreciate this very much so.

You are also given many tasks from lots of different people throughout the summer. It becomes apparent that, even as an intern, you really make a difference with the work you do. Every colleague is approachable and happy to help- asking questions is important to improve your knowledge and show your enthusiasm. There are also several socials throughout the internship, which everyone gets involved in. You get to meet lots of different people, that may even advance you professionally on your internship- always ask people around you for work if you know them.

Meetings were scheduled at least once a week, not only to give you feedback and ensure your performance is to a high standard, but also to check whether you were getting a suitable amount of work. Furthermore, those on the management team are extremely friendly and approachable. Some days were extremely busy. A mixture of urgent tasks and ongoing projects mean that as an actuarial intern you had to be an efficient thinker and be able to prioritise your work, juggling many different tasks of high importance.

The vast majority of your work would be checked by a senior actuary, but that doesn't negate any responsibility. At Towers Watson, interns are given client work with deadlines that must be met, and thus parts of projects/tasks are your responsibility to complete to a high degree of accuracy.

The training received was extremely intense, from pensions technical knowledge to computing classes. Typically, actuaries at Towers have gone to the top universities in the country, and we therefore were expected to learn fast and keep up. We were also given an 80 page actuarial maths booklet to complete. This training is useful for mathematical finance/actuarial mathematics modules at university, in particular, as well as for many other financial roles. Other essential qualities to the financial industry, such as problem solving, analytical and presentation skills were significantly enhanced on this internship, and therefore help at university and beyond.

The general atmosphere was extremely friendly- everyone including those in senior positions was approachable to answer any questions and queries I had. The dress-code was business casual, whilst my office had casual Fridays, and therefore the office was genuinely in a good mood even in busy/stressful periods!

The company clearly has a lot of experience regarding graduate jobs and internships. The internship held a clear structure, and at the commencement we were given our intense training schedule, including several meetings.

As previously stated, training was particularly intense (sometimes for a whole day), but enjoyable. It is fast-paced and involves university-level actuarial maths. The training provided a great starting point on the internship, and essentially is the same fundamental training required for the graduate role. Furthermore, we were also required to complete an individual technical presentation and a group risk solutions presentation. We were able to organise many meetings with several people across the firm (I even had a conference call with senior figures from a different office), in order to help to progress and reach your potential in this.

The internship provides the perfect grounding for a career in finance/banking, enabling one to obtain an insight into the world of actuarial consulting (minus the client facing role).

A perfect balance between productive work, sports and social life, the true work-hard, play-hard attitude towards life.

Reigate is an expensive area to live and work in. The high financial rewards for working in this role for this company makes it very worthwhile.

Good social scene, with several pubs and clubs.

Absolutely. Sports like football and badminton were played regularly, whilst we also enjoyed socials such as watching a 20:20 cricket match and the summer social. There were plenty of opportunities to get involved in sport, and colleagues were extremely keen to recruit the interns into their teams!