The Actuarial Intern: 7 Tips for Actuarial Success
An Actuarial Intern: Your Gateway to a Successful Actuarial Career
You may already have a general idea of what an actuary does. Or perhaps not. In any case, if you are interested in pursuing an actuarial career, I strongly advise you to consider an actuarial internship.
It will not only give you an understanding of the role of an actuary in general, but it will also help you understand if the sector is right for you if you have already decided to pursue an actuarial career.
Internships are a brilliant stepping stone into securing a full-time position with a firm. According to the 2019 Internship & Co-op Survey Report, 70% of employers offer permanent positions to students who impress while interning.
This article will discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by an actuarial internship, as well as seven tips for success.
What Exactly is an Actuarial Internship?
An actuarial internship, also known as a placement, is when a student spends time working in the industry before completing their university degree. The main distinction between internships and placements is duration, with internships typically lasting one to three months and placements lasting nine to fifteen months.
The Role of an Actuarial Intern: What to Expect
This varies greatly depending on the industry, level of expertise, duration of the internship, and the intern’s mentor. However, the goal of an internship is to provide the student with a taste of the role.
While it may be an old wives’ tale that the intern should make the tea, this is not the case with actuarial internships. In fact, interns or actuarial placement students are frequently treated as graduates and given the opportunity to work on technical projects and do meaningful actuarial work.
Challenges Faced by Actuarial Interns
Mastering Time Management and Workload
Working as an actuarial intern may be a student’s first full-time job. This can be intimidating and take some time to adjust to.
In the workplace, you may have to meet both internal and external deadlines while working on multiple projects. This will require planning to prioritise and devote the time to the most important tasks. Seasonality in some actuarial work can also have an impact, with actuarial accounting work, for example, being particularly busy in the run-up to the end of the fiscal year. You may also be required to attend and contribute to team meetings, which should be factored into your time management.
Fortunately, you are likely to have had experience working to deadlines during your university studies, and you can apply this knowledge to the workplace as well.
Navigating Actuarial Concepts and Software
Depending on your background and studies, your understanding of actuarial concepts may differ. The techniques you will use will vary depending on the industry, but most will involve data analysis, actuarial modelling, and sensitivity analysis. I guarantee that you will learn more than you could have imagined, regardless of your level of expertise.
Mastering Software Skills: A Key Challenge for Actuarial Interns
Excel is used extensively in the actuarial industry. It is virtually impossible to avoid due to the flexibility and power of its applications, whether you work in insurance, pensions, or elsewhere. In fact, this ProActuary article suggests that in the actuarial profession, “the most basic skill required is the need to master and understand Excel”.
You may have used Excel for university projects or previous jobs, but the complexity of spreadsheets and datasets you will encounter may be unprecedented.
It is also common for businesses to use bespoke actuarial valuation software, which you will most likely be entering as a complete novice. Alternatively, you may gain experience with commonly used programming languages such as R and Python.
Whether or not you delve deep enough to get into coding, I can guarantee that you will learn a lot of skills by using computer software.
Relationship Building with Colleagues
Everyone understands how awkward it is to start a new job. You are surrounded by people about whom you may know nothing. You may feel inexperienced, but you should take advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as possible. Building relationships may be difficult depending on the length of your internship, with short internships being especially difficult. You may also discover that your work colleagues have different interests and priorities than you, depending on where they are in their careers.
Strategies for Actuarial Interns to Balance Work and Studies
When doing a placement as part of your university degree, it is common to have assignments that you must complete while working. For example, you may be required to meet with your boss and the university, as well as submit a report detailing your placement experience. This can make balancing work and university difficult, especially if you work full-time. However, this provides a good insight into working and studying together, which is a necessary skill to have if you want to pass professional exams.
Opportunities for Actuarial Interns: Beyond the Desk
You will have the opportunity to gain valuable experience and apply what you have learned outside of the classroom. This will better prepare you for the workplace and will help you land a job in the actuarial sector in the future. This experience is excellent for your CV, and demonstrating what you have learned in an interview can help you stand out from the crowd.
Networking and Professional Growth for Actuarial Interns
During your internship, you will meet a variety of new people with varying levels of experience, ranging from graduates to the head of the actuarial function. This will provide you with an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded actuaries who can share their experiences and provide you with advice on professional exams and other matters. If your office is holding any social events, you should try to attend as these will give you great opportunities to speak to colleagues from different departments that you do not usually have the chance to work with.
Career Advancement and Professional Development
You can make an impression on your colleagues during your internship, which may lead to the company contacting you and offering you a permanent position. This provides you with several advantages. If you complete an internship as part of your university degree, you will be able to return to your studies and focus on your final exams without having to worry about finding graduate employment.
You will also be returning to an environment where you know what is expected of you, and you will be able to continue to build relationships with colleagues you met during your internship.
Professional Development and Learning
During your internship, you may be required to complete eLearning, which can cover important topics that are often not covered in university degrees. This could be general health and safety training or more specific financial services training on topics like anti-money laundering. You can also attend in-person training sessions, which may cover similar topics such as GDPR or legal compliance.
You will also be able to rule in or rule out whether, for example, the pensions industry is a good fit for you in a low-friction way, as opposed to making the move later in your career. It may be advantageous to complete your internship in a different city, such as Dublin or London, if you believe you may want to work there later in your career but want to get a sense of what it would entail before committing to long-term accommodation, for example.
Gaining Real-World Experience as an Actuarial Intern
While the benefits to the student are more obvious, training an intern may necessitate significant supervisory time, which, depending on the duration of the internship, may not result in a high return on investment for the employer.
However, the company is provided with additional benefits. For one thing, it allows the company to get to know and build a relationship with a future actuary. This allows them to learn more about the intern than can be demonstrated in traditional interviews and assessment centres. This can result in the company securing a talented future employee while also allowing them to retain the experience the intern gained during their time at the company.
Another benefit offered to the company is that interns can help to relieve some of the pressures of high workloads from other colleagues. Interns also offer a fresh perspective which can lead to long term benefits for the firm.
Maximising Your Actuarial Intern Experience: Tips for Success
1. Securing an Internship
If you are currently enrolled, your university will often send job postings to your student email address, and your university may even have a placement office. It is worth contacting your lecturers to see if your university can assist you, as they frequently have relationships with employers and may be able to put you in touch with students who have previously interned with the company.
You could also check company websites in the careers section to see if there are any openings. If you are invited to an interview, make sure you are well prepared because this is your chance to impress and ask questions of the employer.
2. Setting Goals and Making a Plan
If you’ve already landed an actuarial internship, you might be wondering how to make the most of it. Setting goals and creating a plan is a great place to start. This can help you focus on what you want to learn and achieve.
Goals will also encourage you to learn new skills and keep you motivated. This Bramework article discusses 11 interesting statistics about the benefits goal setting, including that people who set goals are 43% more likely to achieve them.
3. Keeping a Diary or a Journal
This can help you remember important information and tips that you may pick up and otherwise forget. It will also aid you by giving you the opportunity to review the tasks you have completed and compare your progress to your goals.
If your actuarial internship is part of a university degree, you may be required to write a report about your experience, and keeping a journal will ensure you document all important events.
4. Effective Communication with Mentors and Colleagues
Communication skills are essential because you will likely be required to work as part of a team during your internship. Clear communication ensures that everyone working on the project is on the same page.
Clear and concise communication is also an important skill to have throughout your career. Whether you communicate with clients or colleagues via email or in person, it is critical that you pitch at the appropriate level to ensure you are understood.
5. Organising and Managing Your Time
While you may be working on multiple projects at the same time, being organised ensures that you are maximising your productivity by prioritising tasks. By staying on top of your tasks, you can also help to reduce stress. It is also critical that you keep your projects organised.
Using inbox folders and flagging important emails can help you organise your workloads.
If you are struggling with your workload and don’t think you will be able to meet your deadlines, contact your resource manager as soon as possible. They may be able to get someone else in to help, ensuring that client deadlines are met. This will also help to relieve any stress you may be experiencing.
6. Make the Most of Evenings and Weekends
Because this might be your first full-time job, you may have less free time than you are used to, so make the most of your evenings and weekends. If you can, get outside and be active because it will benefit you both physically and mentally. Exercise can help to improve your performance in the workplace by increasing concentration and leading to faster learning, along with many other benefits, as discussed in this article by Harvard Business Review.
7. Being Proactive and Taking the Initiative
If you want to impress, take the initiative and be proactive in demonstrating your knowledge and ability, which will help you stand out. If, for example, you have completed your assigned work, you should notify your mentor and inquire whether there are any other projects that you might be able to assist with.
You should also speak up if you see anything that you believe is incorrect or not following proper procedures. This may be difficult for you, especially if you are new, but it is best to double-check anything you are unsure about. It is much easier to correct errors as they occur rather than avoiding them and potentially allowing them to worsen. If you have any suggestions for a better way to complete a task, please share them as a fresh set of eyes can often help to identify inefficiencies that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Concluding Thoughts on the Actuarial Intern Journey
For students, an actuarial internship can present both challenges and opportunities. The experience offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to gain real-world experience, build a professional network, and provide opportunities for career advancement as well as professional learning and development.
However, you may face difficulties with time management, complex actuarial concepts, computer software use, developing relationships with colleagues, and balancing work and study.
By following the advice provided above, you can ensure that you are well prepared to face the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities provided by an internship. An internship can help you prepare for a successful and rewarding career by providing you with unique opportunities.
