Actuarial and Risk Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my 10 week internship at Standard Life. From day one I was given meaningful work to do with plenty of support from my manager and other members of the team. It was made clear to me from the start that my work was of value to the company andit was great being given such responsibility.

I was trusted to produce my own work and was regularly asked to help my colleagues out with their own work. Although I was allowed to work independently, the other members of my team were happy to spend time with me to help me whenever i needed it. I definitely felt like an asset to the team rather than a burden.

In the first few weeks I was given a lot of information to read and had meetings with different people around the department to ensure that I had solid background knowledge before I started my project. I had weekely "catch-ups" with my manager but he was also available at all times if I needed his advice/guidance quickly.

I was kept busy for the entire internship but never felt that I was overwhelmed with the workload. My time at my desk was balanced with meetings with senior figures from throughout the business every few days and formal intern development sessions with other SL interns which were all very informative.

Although I was given goals for my various projects, the way in which I conducted my work was left entirely to me. When my managers briefed me about my tasks they would be happy to recommend how I went about them but were always happy to trust me if I could see any better ways to tackle them. Another intern joined my team after I had been here for 3 weeks and I was trusted to spend some time with him and explain to him about what our team does and about SL as a whole. This was very beneficial to me as I found that explaining things to someone else helped me to reinforce what I had learned and it was also probably benefical to the other intern as I could give him advice on specific things that I had encountered when joining the team as an intern at first.

Coming from a purely Mathematical background my knowledge of the actuarial profession was limited. Having spent the summer in an actuarial role and meeting a variety of senior and junior actuaries I now understand a lot more about what actuaries do and that it is a career that I would definitely be intereseted in. I learned a lot about working as part of a team in a large organisation - which will be beneficial to me no matter what career I choose. An added bonus of my placement was the huge amount I learned about pensions (both in general and the more technical side), which will be of great use to me in the future - no matter what kind of job I have.

Everyone was very friendly and welcoming when I joined. As people got to know me they would chat to me about different things that I was interested in (such as sports and TV). There was informal "break-out" areas in the office which meant that quick meetings (especially catch-ups with my manager) could be done in a comfortable and relaxing environment, away from our desks.

It was very well organised. When I arrived I was given a clear understanding of what my main task would be and then once that was finished there were plenty of smaller tasks that I was given. There were no points where I was sitting doing nothing.

The company provided free, serviced accomodation which was extremely beneficial. All of the interns were living in the same block of flats so that made the social side of moving to Edinburgh very enjoyable. The company held sessions every few weeks where all of the interns got together to develop certain skills or listen to a senior figure from the business speak.

The actuarial graduate scheme at Standard Life is one of the best in terms of support for professional exams. I have had the chance to speak to several student actuaries (including some who also interned here) and they are all very positive about the graduate programme.

Yes very much so. The fact that we were all living together made it very easy to organise social events. Almost every night there was something going on: such as going to play pool or football during the week, or nights out in Edinburgh at the weekend. Standard Life also subsidised a Ceilidh night at a local venue for us which was great. Living in Edinburgh during the festival was brilliant.

The accomdation was paid for which was excellent. The cost of food/drink is no more expensive in Edinburgh than in any other major UK city. There were a few discounts available to us through the company that owned our accomodation - such as discounts at the local cinema and pool bar.

Very good. There are a hige variety of clubs and bars in Edinburgh that cater for all needs. There are expensive and up-market bars as well as cheaper, more "studenty" places. Edinburgh is not as intimidating as other major cities at night, and as such is great for a night out in both large and small groups.

Yes Standard Life gaves us the opportunity to take part in a charity day with a local charity partner. This involved us splitting into a few groups and helping them out by completing both physical jobs out at their facility and by trying to enhance their website and social media platforms to help them to showcase what they do. There were also commitees organised by SL such as the Intern Social Commitee and groups to look at how SL market their intern/graduate schemes that we could get involved in. We were also given access to establish clubs and societies at SL (such as sports and social clubs) if we wanted it.