Pensions Actuarial Intern Review

Working for Aon Hewitt at their Epsom office in Pensions Actuarial the working environment was inviting and hospitable, and a balance was stuck between both the work and social aspects of the job. However, during the application process, the internship was advertised as an opportunity to meet with clients and explore the various facets of the business, something that, in practice, has not materialised and opportunities to develop client relationships and use such skills haven't been forthcoming. You quickly learn that this is, in fact, a desk-job.

Being allocated into teams, these being approximately 15-20 in number, your presence is a bit more obvious and there is a great deal of interest paid in the internship programme during meetings and around the office in general. The open plan nature of the office also gives you some exposure and the desk arrangement give you ample opportunity to talk with those around you and make your presence felt. In terms of work, I suppose contributions are valued and the level of interest you show in the work itself will determine how beneficial the whole process is for your colleagues (your 'buddy' in particular). Attendance to post-work social events such as drinks, sports etc. is one of the best ways to show your face and give yourself that extra exposure in the long-run when it comes to receiving work.

Throughout the internship you are allocated a 'buddy' and a line manager. The buddy ought to be your first point of call when it comes to receiving jobs, working on clients and asking for help. You are persistently encouraged to ask questions and informed that "there's no such thing as too many questions". Naturally, this is very helpful, especially during the early stages of the internship. the instant communicator facility in the office gives access to everyone in the office and allows you to contact your buddy/line manager/colleagues instantly, so support is never far away. You line manager may also be a source of work, but their principal role is to gather feedback concerning your progress and monitor your development.

Work load was generally fairly light, especially in terms of client work, and some days is was very difficult to fill the mandatory 7 hour 15 minutes with worthwhile tasks. Upon raising this issue with the company, we were informed that this was partly down to improvements being made in offshoring work, a key element of the Aon Hewitt Actuary business model. As such, low-level client work was fairly sporadic and a backlog was rarely delivered. We were given a corporate social responsibility project for the duration of our internship which was on hand to fill out some of the 'boring' days, however being given a guideline of half a day a week to spend on this, we were often ill-inclined to spend too much time doing this piece of work.

Client work was usually in the form of basic calculations, funding updates etc. that follow comprehensive precedents. As such, much of the maths is based around plugging numbers into set formulas, not giving much opportunity to let loose and actually challenge yourself with new or original pieces of work. Obviously, however, the lack of client work across the board didn't help this side of things. The corporate social responsibility project gave you the opportunity to work in an 8-man team and rise money on behalf of an aon affiliated charity which, in my case, was Help for Heroes. The flexible nature of this programme and the close interaction you have with the charity does give you the greatest sense of personal responsibility and our target of £2,000 does provide you with expectations to fulfil.

Being one of the few interns who came into actuary doing a BA degree, the mathematical side of things will not directly help me in my course. However, with the development of that side of things somewhat lacking as a result of the dearth in client work, it is the general skills attained from immersing yourself in a real office environment and working in a team for the CSR project that are most noteworthy and more applicable to life beyond Aon Hewitt. Exposing myself to the world of maths and dealing in numbers again has, of course, been a welcome and refreshing aspect of the internship and becoming accustomed to this area of work again has been both interesting and worthwhile. Specific training in terms of calculations and mathematics courses have, however, been non-existent as we were encouraged to just "follow the precedent"; which was a bit of a shame.

The Epsom office prides itself on giving employees an inviting and well-balanced environment to work in. The no suit jacket/tie policy is well followed (though not strictly mandatory) and the frequent social events are a welcome additional to the internship, espcially when settling in and getting to know your colleagues throughtou the office and across the business.

Logisitcally, everything was fairly sound; the desk/email address/buddy allocation/line manager etc. were all sorted out prior to arrival so settling in was quick and easy. Despite the general lack of development courses and skills training over the duration of the internship, for the first couple of weeks several introductory meetings/presentations were organised which, again, helped when settling in.

Following dicussion with a number of my friends who have internships elsewhere, it seems that the amount invested in the Aon/Aon Hewitt internship programme is comparably diminutive. Of course, though the situation regarding offshoring improvements is built into the Aon Hewitt business model and difficult to overcome in terms of client work offloading for interns, this could have been compensated easily by offering more development courses/skill development opportunities.

Though we are informed as to the breakdown of how they make the decision, we are offered little indication as to our progress and job prosepcts, and though general guidance as your your development would be appreciated, this is not necessarily a bad thing as I guess it keeps you on your toes.

There were five of us based in Epsom doing Pensions Actuary and all were strong, personable characters and easy to get on which. The frequent social events at the start of the internship definitely helped in forging this relationship early on and stood us in good stead for the remained. For the same reason, the social scene among colleagues was good throughout and getting through some of the more 'boring' days was made bareable because of this good atmosphere.

Epsom is not the largest of places and those at the Aon Hewitt office have already sniffed out the bargains around town. I commuted each morning from home, so although travel cost was extortionate, living was not applicable.

Social events were usually conducted during the day or during lunch hours.

The Epsom office play 5-a-side football every tuesday and thursday and interns were more than welcome which was a great addition to the whole experience.