Actuarial Trainee Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship with Punter Southall. This was because of the friendly and social nature of everyone there. Along with the interesting nature of the work that I was given which I really enjoyed, there was lots of opportunities to socialise. At lunch, lots of people socialised together and I even played mini table tennis a lot of lunches, as well as lots of pub lunches. Outside of work hours, I played a cricket match for Punter Southall's Wokingham office which was great fun.

I really felt part of the team throughout the six weeks I worked there. This was even the case from day 1. Although I didn't have much experience of actuarial work I didn't feel like people looked down on me. I was given lots of important work and I felt trusted and valued by my team.

This was one of the best aspects of the internship for me - help was always offered. Obviously, members of the team would be busy with their own work but it always felt like someone was around to give me help whenever I needed it. I felt really comfortable asking for help, even for small, silly questions!

I was happy with the amount of work I was given. All of the interns in the office were given a group project to get on with, which filled some time when I didn't have as much work to do as normal. This was really good so I hardly ever had nothing to do. My colleagues always tried to find work for me to do. Overall, on a daily basis, I had plenty to do and was never bored.

I felt like I was given quite a lot of responsibility. There were a few times when I had finished a piece of work and thought to myself how good it was that I was being given such a lot of responsibility. Colleagues always check over eachother's work, so responsibility can be given to the more inexperienced people of the team, which built my confidence a lot.

I had this internship in the summer after my second year of uni, and am half way through the first semester of my final year, and have already started linking some work I did on the internship with a few of my modules. It helps me understand the wider picture of what I am doing at university. I have also accepted a graduate job with Punter Southall so the training I received will certainly help me when I go back!

The general atmosphere was great in the office. There were times when everyone was quiet and busy with work, which is good because there was no distractions with my own work, but when everyone was a tiny bit light on work, there are a lot of conversations going on. Everyone makes drinks for eachother, asks eachother questions and everyone gets on!

Really good - I finished my internship in the middle of August and had heard by the start of October that they have offered me a graduate job. Lots of the younger members at the office were in similar situations - they had also been offered graduates jobs after their internships. I feel like this is the best way to get a graduate job as you can see whether you will like the job from the internship.

I come from near Brighton and the office was in Wokingham so I had to find accommodation near the office. It's difficult to find accommodation for just 6 weeks but I stayed at Reading University halls for the 6 weeks, which whilst it was quite expensive, it was obviously cheaper and easier than commuting so I would recommend this.

Definitely, there are lots of events organised by the office. These included weekly 5 a side football matches, cricket matches, evening runs and even a book club! There was also a fantasy football evening where everyone picked their teams for the upcoming season so start competing against eachother.