Actuarial Retirement Intern Review

I really enjoyed working at Willis Towers Watson, everyone was very helpful and supportive throughout my time here. The work I was given was challenging, interesting and it pleased me that I was doing client specific work. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the clients at meetings and conferences and to see how the team consults with clients face to face.

I felt valued throughout my internship, everyone in the team included me in activities and they always tried to find work for me. I felt my work was valued and appreciated, especially at busier times. The team always asked my opinions and feedback on the training they were delivering and the work I'd been given.

Everyone that provided me with work was always helpful with initial explanations and also when I had follow up questions. Everyone always provided me with feedback afterwards too to highlight any errors or possible improvements. My line manager also made sure I always had everything I needed or sorted any issues I had.

On most days there was a perfect balance however on a few others I was not very busy at all since the office was quite quiet in general. It was rare that I was too busy except for my second week when I was getting used to the systems and how to do the work.

I believe I was given a good amount of responsibility, the senior members of the team allowed me to attend a pensions conference, conference calls with US teams and client meetings. The majority of the work I did was work that would be sent out to a client once checked and reviewed.

I believe the skills I have developed will assist me greatly after my degree. A lot of my work used Microsoft excel and actuarial specific software, although this may not help me massively with my mathematics degree next year, it will almost definitely serve me well when I begin my career.

I found that the general atmosphere was fantastic, everyone was very friendly and helpful and even if they specifically couldn't solve one of my questions they would happily direct me to someone who could. There was never any presence of tension between colleagues and it was obvious that everyone enjoyed working with each other.

My internship was very well organised with lots of training sessions at the beginning to help me grasp the work. Meetings were always planned far in advance and there was never any sign of things being a last minute rush. On my first day everything was well set up for me and minimal time was spent fixing simple issues.

I felt that Willis Towers Watson invested a lot in me with providing lots of training sessions on different lines of the business and what the role of each of the team members are. Some training sessions were ran by juniors and others by seniors which I felt was really good for everyone to dedicate their time to me.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing. I firmly believe Willis Towers Watson is a great place to work since everyone is helpful, friendly and professional. The retirement sector for actuarial is an exciting place to be right now with lots of change expecting to happen over the next few years.

There was a good social scene amongst colleagues with many of them organising events that the office could go to. Events included beer festivals, watching sports or TV shows and pub quizzes. Everyone enjoyed socialising with each other and there was a real positive vibe that everyone enjoyed spending time together.

The cost of rent was around £100 per week with food being relatively cheap also. Drinks were expensive in some places on Friday/Saturday nights as expected, haircuts were also a lot more expensive than I've had before. I walked into work to save money but travel would have been around £3.50 a day if I was to get the train.

The nightlife was good, I went out with the other interns a few times for drinks and went clubbing once at the weekend. It wasn't over busy for a Saturday night and much of the people out at the same time were older than us, possibly because university doesn't start until September.

There were plenty of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, on many occasions the office went for drinks after work, we had two opportunities to celebrate exam success of some of the team members also. There was also an actuarial retirement sports day organised by a couple of people from the office.