Summer Intern- Commercial Underwriting Review

Whilst unsure if his is the career path I would like to pursue (then again, an internship is where you go to find these things out!), I did genuinely enjoy my time with Allianz, being given real responsibility from the first day, working on my own projects, presentations and quotes, and integrating with the team in my office.

My colleagues, without fail, always made an effort to explain things to me, find me more work to do if I had run out, and to just generally be friendly and welcoming, even if that meant going out of their way or increasing their workload by having to check over what I had been doing. That they all had this attitude was certainly key in making me feel valued and welcome.

My line manager, along with the rest of my colleagues, always offered support to me in explaining tasks, finding me work and guiding me through my internship.

Clearly over the course of 9 weeks there are going to be days when there isn't much for an intern to do; on occasion if everyone in the ofice had important things to focus on I would hae less work, and I could not expect them to put their own jobs to one side to find me stuff to do all the time. Conversely, on some days there was a huge amount to do, keeping me busy and engaged all day. Generally, on a normal day, my workload fell somewhere between these two levels.

I was given responsibility within about an hour after getting into the office on the first day. Straight away I was shown how to use the software for producing quotes, and then given my own quotes to produce. Obviously these were checked over by one of my colleagues whilst I was still getting used to the systems, but it was still left down to me to contact brokers and quote premiums to them if it was me who had done the actual work on the quote. This was another element in making me feel valued during my placement.

Simply put, the utility of any internship, whether successful or not, will provide an experience relevant to your future. Working for Allianz, for me, provided an opportunity to learn not only industry specific skills, but added to more general skill sets such as teamwork, attention to detail, concentration, patience etc, not to mention the technical skills gained from working with unfamiliar software on a daily basis.

It was certainly not a lively office, but this does not mean it was boring or dull. Everyone got on very well with one another, with conversations and jokes across the office involving numerous members of the team certainly not a rarity. A very positive atmosphere overall.

Being based on a branch network nationwide, I cannot say how well the internship was set up for other interns, but for me, it seems clear that at the top level, the scheme was well planned, organised and executed, and from my own personal viewpoint, my line manager and colleagues in the office seemed well briefed and prepared for my arrival and continued development over the 9 week period.

We underwent an induction/training day prior to our first day in the office and were invited to presentation days to see what the graduate schemes could offer us. However, although this doesn't sound like much training, the branch set up means that training was not done on a national level. but was undertaken in our own offices, continuously developing me over the 9 week internship.

Allianz seems like a genuinely fantastic company to work for. The ethos, atmosphere and people within the company are all massive positives. Similarly, the perks that have been described to us on our presentation days are another reason to work for Allianz; they really do seem like a company that cares for their staff.

This doesn't really apply given that each intern is based in a different location. However, on the occasions that we were all brought together there seemed to be a very cohesive and friendly atmosphere.

Cost of living wasn't too high, but equally wasn't particularly cheap.

The nightlife where I was is renowned for being very good, but I never really got to experience it given that there were no other interns in my office and I had no other friends in the city.

Not knowing anything about the city or anyone in the city, options for activities outside of work were fairly limited for me.