It was during college when I was trying to
decide what to study at university that I found
out more about what it meant to be an actuary.
I wanted to do something which focused on
maths, but I didn't want to do anything too
‘pure' and it seemed the perfect choice.
I joined Hewitt in September 2008 and
currently work in the Pensions field. The work
that I do is surprisingly diverse. On a regular
basis I work on transfer values (calculating
the cash value of an individual's final salary
pension for when they want to transfer their
benefits to a different pension scheme). I've
also recently done a couple of salary sacrifice
calculations for some clients (checking to see
if any employees would lose out as a result
of losing out on state benefits that are related
to National Insurance contributions) and
preparing accounting figures.
Which skills do you consider to be essential
for your job?
People skills are essential if you want to be
great at your job. First and foremost you
have to present yourself professionally and
competently to your clients (not just in person,
but also over the phone and in emails), you
also have to work effectively and efficiently as
a team. Of course you also need the technical
skills to be able to do your job competently,
which are not always about the maths, but
also the ability to spot problems, find the
source of them and rectify them. As humans
we're unable to avoid making mistakes, but
as actuaries we're expected to get our answers
correct (or as accurate as possible) all of the
time. So a particular skill that you pick up is
to be able to spot mistakes soon after you've
made them, so you can retrace your steps and
avoid wasting time.
What do you like most about your job at
Hewitt?
I really enjoy working with the people in my
team. I love that we interact with each other
regularly, often sitting at each other's desks
trying to work something out, solve a problem,
or discuss the best approach to tackle some
work. We're also a social bunch of people
and can regularly be found on a Friday night
at one of the local pubs or bars. It would be
my worst nightmare if I were stuck in a job
where I knew everything and found myself in
a dull and repetitive routine.
How do you achieve a work/life balance?
At the moment, rather than studying to be
an actuary by the traditional route, Hewitt is
sponsoring me (and some of my colleagues)
to do the MSc in Actuarial Finance at Imperial
College Business School. It's a totally
different approach to studying for the exams,
as we attend a full day of lectures every week
with regular coursework assignments, and
have a day of exams at the end of each 10
week term. It's very intense, but forces you
to be very focused with your approach to
studying and working at the same time. In
order to stay sane you also have to fit some
leisure time in too! However I don't find that
much of a problem, as you can fit a surprising
amount of things in a normal working week.
Future plans?
Once I've finally finished all my studying
and reached that glorious day of finally
qualifying, I would love to work abroad
for a bit to experience a different working
culture. Since Hewitt is a global company,
they regularly have secondment programmes
to different countries. Earlier on this year
I worked on a few projects with a qualified
actuary from Hewitt's Chicago office. Not
only was she fantastic to work with, but I was
really interested to hear her views on how
working in the U.K. is different to working
in the U.S.
There's no doubt that to qualify and work
successfully as an actuary, you have to work
hard and put the effort in. It takes a lot of
commitment but the rewards are definitely
worth it.
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