Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Interest in insurance - reinsurance industry / prepared to work in an international environment / ability to switch between many things at the same time.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Be consistent/coherent

Interview Advice: Be confident

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Interview Advice: Be yourself, be honest. They are more interested in the type of person you are than how qualified you are. Make them feel like they would enjoy working with you and have confidence in yourself.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Sell the most interesting and diverse facets of your personality. Focus on key elements of your experience and be specific about what part you carried out or had to play. Highlight, but not in excessive detail, your technical and professional competencies.

Interview Advice: Focus on competencies and examples of such, rather than technical abilities or in-depth company research. Interviewers and recruiters will likely be focusing on whether you are a good 'fit' for a consulting environment, which means that personality is key.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: There is an essay style question on the application, for which I'd say write about something that genuinely interests you. This will come across in your writing.

Interview Advice: I was asked standard competency questions; after each example I gave I was asked what I would have done differently.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Make sure that you meet the pre-requisites of the programme. If you don't have a clear mathematical, economic, or science background, then you're extremely unlikely to be successful applying for Actuarial. That said, there are lots of other AXA programmes that don't have a mathematical pre-requisite. REALLY distinguish yourself in the competency and free-form application questions. Assuming everyone went to a good university and a good degree in maths, these questions are your only chance to stand out - so make it unique and make it specific to us! You might think your cut/paste stock answer covers the key points, but it will stick out like a sore thumb to someone who reads 100's of them (and not in a good way either)!

Interview Advice: Make sure you understand the Actuarial exam scheme. It's important that you demonstrate you are aware of the commitment you are undertaking (15 rigorous and mathematically challenging exams). The details, as well as the guideline study times per exam, are available on the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' website. As with most graduate programmes, there is a competency element to the interview. It helps to be familiar with the competencies and AXA values listed on the website and to have pre-prepared a few examples of how you have demonstrated each competency. It sounds silly, but research AXA and current topics in the UK Insurance industry. It's surprising how many people turn up more prepared to talk about consulting, or try to wing it based entirely on their experience of buying car or travel insurance!

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Technical skills are not the most important criteria that the interviewer would assess for entry-level position. It is mostly about soft skills and your passion to learn new things.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Be yourself, they are looking for genuine, hardworking, motivated people who are good communicators.

Interview Advice: As above.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Use the STAR technique and try to keep examples recent and relevant.

Interview Advice: Don't underestimate how important it is to show that you can get on well with the team - it's a small team so it's very important for a candidate to prove that they could fit in.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Research around insurance and understand what is going on in the industry. Also try to gain a good understanding of the exams you will be taking.

Interview Advice: What is reinsurance?

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: -Research the company properly as you will be asked about this! -Know what the role entails as you don't want to go into a role you don't understand.

Interview Advice: -Be calm and show your true personality. -Show your knowledge of the company in the interview.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Don't just think about the insurance industry currently, think about the future of the insurance industry.

Interview Advice: Do your research then take confidence from the knowledge you have. There are no trick questions and as long as you are prepared and feel you offer something unique then relax and deliver.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Important to do well in the aptitude test.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Don't just be academic, everyone who works here is intelligent. Bring other skill sets.

Interview Advice: Be friendly and honest, know exactly what you have written in your application as well as big ideas in the industry.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Research the company and its competitors.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk

Application Advice: Be curious about the industry and the company. Motivate, why Swiss Re as a reinsurer. Investigate where could reinsurance be in 5 years.

Interview Advice: Be honest, be ready to defend your weak spots.

Industry: Insurance Actuarial and Risk