Summer Actuarial Intern Review

I really enjoyed my time at Punter Southall. The people were lovely, the work was interesting and challenging, and just overall it felt like the six weeks flew by without me noticing.

The interns were always invited to out of office activities, such as cricket and celebratory drinks when exam results were announced. I felt like a valued member of the team, especially towards the end of the internship.

Each intern was given a mentor, who was typically an actuarial student who had been working for about a year or so, to help with any questions the intern may have. This was a very helpful system, and even though my mentor may have been quite busy at times there was always someone else in the office willing to answer my questions.

Most of the time there was lots of client work to be getting on with. For a large part of the internship, we had a group intern project to be working on whenever we didn't have any client work to be doing. When we had just started there were a few times when we had to go looking for more jobs, but this quickly changed as we gained more experience, and work gets passed on very quickly and efficiently!

We were given, for the most part, graduate level responsibility, with lots of guidance towards the start of the internship and by the end we were getting on with our own client work as soon as it was passed on to us.

I feel like my knowledge of the financial world, especially in pensions, has expanded a lot since my internship. This will no doubt help with any future career paths! Some of the cash flow ideas we had explained to us in training sessions should come in handy in the third year of my degree. It has been a great experience for developing my interpersonal skills.

Very friendly, everyone is willing to help everyone else, and people regularly bring in cake when it's someone's birthday!

The internship was very well structured, with training sessions at the beginning to help with our everyday client work, as well as being given a project (consisting of a written report and presentation) to be completed, drawing on what we had learned.

The training sessions were very helpful and the office encouraged us to socialise with everyone else and other interns, both in our office and from different locations.

I am hopeful that after the fourth year of my degree, I will be considered for a graduate role with Punter Southall. I had an offer as an actuarial trainee for next year, but unfortunately I couldn't take this on as I would like to go into further study.

The social scene was fantastic. There were two other interns in the Guildford office (where I was based) and we got on with each other well - often going out for lunch together. As an office we frequently went out for lunch together, such as at the start and end of our internship, and after work on a Friday there's always a few people who will go to the pub with you! I also took part in playing cricket for Punter Southall, and even though I was awful at it, they were still very supportive and it was great fun having the opportunity to take part.

The drinks were fairly pricey, but not ridiculous. I didn't live in Guildford throughout my internship, as I commuted each morning.

We went to the pub fairly often, and on one occasion went to a club!

There was cricket (which was quite popular in the office) and I also took part in a quiz night at a local pub. If there are any other activities that you want to get involved with you could easily ask someone to see who else would be keen.