Summer Student Review

I very much enjoyed this placement. The people and the culture at Hymans Robertson are very friendly and you definitely feel respected among colleagues. The work itself was very interesting yet challenging and overall the internship was a very positive experience. I would definitely recommend this internship to anyone looking at actuarial consulting careers.

I felt very valued among peers, being respected and listened to from all different colleagues and seniorities. The people here are extremely friendly and value you as a person as well as the work you do and the hard work you put it. Everyone is very considerate and aims to make your internship as enjoyable and run as smoothly as possible.

I had plenty of support when I needed it. I had a buddy who was there to answer any of my questions and to make sure I was settling in. I had two project leads who were happy to answer any questions about my projects. I also had a people manager who I had meetings with weekly to discuss progress and also had a one month review and an exit review.

Towards the beginning of the internship, I was not very busy as expected when you are settling into a job. However, I shortly had plenty of work to do and became busy yet still managed to have a lunch hour every day and also leave on time most days (5pm). So despite being busy during the day, I had a good work life balance while on the internship.

During my placement I was given a lot of responsibility and I had two projects which were purely my responsibility. However, when help was needed I had plenty of support in place to never feel lost with this responsibility and to be able to produce good work that could be used elsewhere in the business and be useful within the company.

I learnt a great deal of excel skills and VBA coding here which is a very transferable skill and will assist me in future career plans. I also developed communication and time management skills with the help of my people manager which will be useful in my degree and in future careers. I also developed my commercial awareness particularly in pensions.

The general atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly while still maintaining professionalism. During office hours, it was never too loud or too quiet and there was always a good working environment. A lot of work is done across offices so there is good communication between offices via video and also Skype which never had too much technical difficulty attached.

The work placement was very well set up with introductory talks in the first few weeks and weekly catch ups in place with your people manager. The time spent on work was well thought out in consideration to the scope. The beginning set up ran very smoothly and enabled a fast settling in period and the work throughout the placement was very well thought out with even getting exposure to different departments within the company.

I got a lot of feedback in weekly catch ups from my people manager for areas to develop. I also was given support and training related to excel and learning VBA. I was also given support with presentation skills for the internship presentation I had to give at the end of my internship. I also was given a lot of introductory and training talks on areas of the business.

Future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing and the grad roles that they offer here are challenging but very much supported and there is a good work life balance. If I were to be offered a job here then I would take it in any department. Each department has its good qualities and there is a lot of opportunity to work in different areas of the company once you are here.

There were 8 interns in total and we all got on well and went for lunch together several times a week as well as going for an evening meal. With other colleagues, there was a good social life. There are end of month drinks in the office and many social events such as a treasure hunt and games/poker night. I ended up attending a social event with the company at least once a week.

As the internship was in London there was a considerable cost while in London. However it is easily accessible by train so commuting from home was not a problem and was relatively cheap. Socialising in the area again was considerably more expensive due to being in the centre of London but I suppose you get a London adjusted salary to counter this.

Seeing as it is in the middle of London there is nightlife of all sorts and something for everyone.