Actuarial & Risk Intern Review

The programme was well structured with an emphasis on developing skills useful for working life. I was encouraged to make the internship unique and relevant to me by organising meetings with senior managers across the business to hear about their line of work. My tasks were meaningful and I was rarely doing the same thing for two consecutive days.

Early on I was invited out to lunch with my team to give me the opportunity to get to know them better. They were interested in my background and what I wanted to achieve over the ten week placement. I was asked for my opinion on pieces of work and they were keen to help me learn as much as possible. There was a friendly connection within the intern community helped, in part, by the fact that many were living in the company provided accommodation together. Socials were organised most weekends and it was a brilliant opportunity to make some new friends.

My line manager organised regular meetings with me to assess my progress on the tasks I had been set. It was made clear to me that I was not expected to get everything right first time and that I should ask questions accordingly if I was ever stuck. The team manager was willing to help out too.

Very! It was very uncommon for me to find myself with nothing to do but even if that was the case, I could ask for more work. The hours passed quickly which I always think is a good barometer to test how interested I am with a certain task. I was given clear deadlines for the projects I was working on and I had to make sure I applied myself to meet them.

I honestly felt like a graduate. There were times when I was working on the same spreadsheet as my manager and we would be completing parts to send back and forth to one another. The work was a mix of amending established files and constructing my own. I know that my work was relevant because some of the data analysis I was investigating had been published in a similar format in last year’s board paper.

Prior to the internship, I believed I had adequate excel skills and actuarial knowledge. The office environment quickly taught me that I still had plenty to learn! I have since picked up plenty of helpful skills which will help me when I get back to uni ranging from new excel shortcuts and commands; to having the confidence to speak to senior figures on different issues; to harnessing an actuarial judgement when looking at a set of results.

My team was relatively quiet but we could still have a laugh. Other teams around us could have a good time too! Hardly anyone would stay super late and there was no strict policy on starting time either.

We had scheduled development sessions each week which ranged from chatting with executive members of the business to strength finder workshops. The actuarial internship in particular was very well organised. The roles we had were completely different to one another and but we all had relevant work to do.

Financially, Standard Life invested in our strength building material so that we could get an idea of our top five strength and how they related to our work in the business. We were also given presentation lessons and networking sessions. I am going back to university a far more confident person with transferable skills for the corporate world and first-hand experience of genuine actuarial work.

The company is growing with the pension reforms coming into effect meaning that people are looking for imaginative ways to invest their life savings. Standard Life is making year-on-year fee-based profits and is looking to expand its operations abroad including its joint ventures in China and India.

This was one of the unique selling points of the internship at Standard Life. For all interns needing to travel to the head office in Edinburgh, the company provided free accommodation in the city centre for ten weeks (during the Edinburgh Festival). This made it very easy to go out for food or a drink and the festival spirit in the city was fantastic. The accommodation also provided an excellent way to make lots of new friends and there was a real community atmosphere within the group.

Edinburgh is a relatively expensive area of the UK to live in so the offer of free accommodation for over two months was amazing! The Fringe festival provided a wide range of entertainment (some shows are free) and there are plenty of other things to do without breaking the bank.

There are plenty of clubs in the city centre and it gets particularly busy when the festival begins in August. It is probably important to add that I have never felt unsafe walking home too in Edinburgh.

The company organised a few socials during my time there. Because there were so many interns, we were able to organise our own game of football each week and meet up for drinks or a film.