Summer Intern Review

Working at Hymans Robertson was a great opportunity to develop various skills and the internship gave me an insight into the work of an actuarial consultant. It allowed me to paint a clearer picture of what is involved in becoming an actuary as well as the day-to-day work that they are involved in. It was an enjoyable experience overall and I felt that the work was an appropriate level, challenging me and helping to broaden both my analytical and people skills. The internship was split over two departments - Risk Management & Consulting (RMC) and Actuarial & Benefits, Private Sector. This allowed me take part in a wide variety of work and it meant that I was able to get a more rounded view of the business as a whole and the different career opportunities that they have to offer. On one or two occasions I felt that there could have been more of a clear structure to the internship but overall I really value my time spent at Hymans.

All of my co-workers were great, they were all friendly and very welcoming. Everyone was willing to get me involved in the various tasks and client jobs that they were working on and I felt that the work I was doing was actually useful to the company. Following on from that point, the project I took part in throughout the duration of the internship was both informative - it helped me to learn a lot about the Life Insurance market - and useful to the company. My role in the project was to test a financial model on excel which would then be developed further and hopefully used as a marketable product in the future, so I felt that the work I did was actually valued by the firm and they put a lot of effort into teaching me and assigning appropriate tasks to cement this learning.

I felt that there was a suitable balance between being closely supervised - more so in the earlier stages which involved a lot of training sessions - and being left to our own devices. Despite my co-workers busy schedules, I could always ask for help or guidance and my supervisors were very easy to approach and talk to if I had questions. The supervisors also made an effort to arrange weekly catch-up meetings and reviews of the placement, giving me the opportunity to ask questions about pretty much anything firm-wide. They were very helpful when it came to practicing my presentation (for the project I was involved in) and offered to set aside time to give me feedback. Completing learning logs throughout the process helped me to consolidate my learning and the supervisors were always happy to review these any time I updated them.

For the most part, there was a great balance in the work I was doing. I was involved in completing tasks for different people in my team (as well as doing work for people in other departments) and I received a broad range of tasks from helping to research new prospect clients to more analytical/technically focused tasks and calculations. Beyond the daily tasks, there were various training sessions to complement my learning, there were video resources and other learning tools to keep me busy during my downtime and for the first 6 weeks I had to balance Project work. The internship offered great practice for balancing work and managing time accordingly but, admittedly, towards the end of the placement I sometimes felt that I was running out of things to do. This reflects my point about having a more clear structure as, especially towards the end of the internship, I found that if there were additional activities set aside for instances where I've ran out of things to do then I would never be struggling for work. Having said that, all of the team made an effort to get me involved if I was looking for additional work.

I feel that I was given an adequate amount of responsibility suitable to my level of skills and experience. As a lot of the work I was involved in was highly technically and complex, I found it to be stimulating and challenging enough whilst not over-bearing as there was a lot of supervision and checks involved. Again, reflecting on a previous point, I felt that a lot of the work I was doing was actually valuable to the company and it was always made clear to me what role I was playing in each task that I was involved with. I helped contribute to a lot of work which would then be sent on to clients and the clear mandatory policies of Checking and Reviewing encouraged me to scrutinise the work that I was doing before sending it to be checked. At no point did I feel that the work I was assigned was just to pass the time.

I feel that having now completed the internship I am a lot more equipped going into my final Honours year at University. I am a lot more organised now and I plan my time a lot more effectively - spreading workloads more efficiently and managing various tasks at the same time will no doubt prove useful when it comes to writing a dissertation and taking my final exams. Taking part in the internship has taught me to take my work more seriously and I now have a more positive attitude to approaching new tasks and challenges. Working at Hymans has helped to improve my learnability as a lot of the work I was involved in was completely new to me. Practical skills, such as presentation skills and developing excel models, will also transfer to a lot of the more technical work in my final year at Strathclyde. Beyond University, I feel that the internship will prove to be extremely useful for future employability given the wide range of activities and trainings involved over the 8 weeks.

I enjoyed the atmosphere whilst working at Hymans. Everyone was friendly and approachable - it felt very much like a team atmosphere as oppose to people keeping to themselves and the fact that everyone seemed to enjoy their work made it a pleasant environment to be a part of. The office itself is modern and the facilities are well-kept. The company provided fruit twice a week and on many occasions there was lunch on offer as well. It was fun to be a part of a busy, hard-working environment whilst also being a part of a team who clearly all get on and who are friends.

I felt that the internship was very well organised. From the very beginning, even prior to starting, the application process was very extensive and clearly tested a lot of different competencies and abilities - that in itself was quite rigorous. Prior to starting, HR were in constant communication with us and there was a lunch set aside to give us an idea of what to expect from the internship. Various training sessions were scheduled in our diaries and regularly updating learning logs/placement aims helped to track our progress throughout the 8 weeks. Everything was very well planned out and I felt that I got a lot out of the placement as a result.

The company spent a lot of time to help with my development and I really value the experience as it was clear a lot of effort went into the planning and organisation of the internship. In the initial stages there was a lot of training and Introduction Sessions which helped to give us an overview of the firm as a whole. This was then followed by more technically specific training and following that a lot of the learning took place on a one-to-one basis when I was completing tasks. I find that learning by doing is the most engaging way of learning and so the placement was quite suited to my style of learning.

The company offers a range of possible career paths to budding graduates and there is always the possibility of progressing in the company as you become more qualified. There is a long road involved in becoming an actuary and the company offers a lot of support and development in terms of helping you achieve your goals. For this reason, Hymans is very appealing in terms of job prospects and I would be happy to work for them in the future - they are very people-focused!

Starting the placement with a group of interns and placement students was great in the sense that we were all going through a similar experience - starting a full-time job seemed much less daunting. Everyone who I worked with was really friendly and I felt that I made some genuine friends through talking to other placement students. It made the experience that much more enjoyable as we were able to learn from each other and compare our experience with Hymans Robertson.

I lived at home during my placement, travelling into Glasgow via train. In general, the commute was not too expensive and there are plenty of cafes and restaurants nearby the office to go to for lunch. I've spent a lot of time in Glasgow, both at University and in my spare time, and so I've had a lot of opportunity to experience the nightlife and I think it's great! Working so close to the city centre is the perfect opportunity to explore Glasgow, to go out for dinner and meet friends after work, so I think Hymans is in a great location - especially being so close to Central Station.

The nightlife in Glasgow is great.

The company held an Away Day for the A&B practice that I was working in. There were also many other activities on offer including various sports groups throughout the firm and we were encouraged to take part in any of the additional activities that appealed us.