HADIYAH QURESHI


OUR WEEK AT SWISS RE



19/02/2018



Swiss Re was kind enough to offer us a week’s work experience at their company. We came in with just a passion for maths and a million unanswered questions about life beyond university: where can we go with a degree in maths? What are the different kinds of careers we can go into? How do we even begin a career in maths? We are glad to say that, after this week, we feel far better informed not only on the variety of careers, but more importantly, on what actuaries do.



DAY 1: MONDAY 12TH FEBRUARY



The day started with a lovely breakfast where we were introduced to both the staff that we would work with and some great pastries! We then got our first introduction into the world of actuaries and reinsurance, which helped us to gain a solid foundation for interaction within this world. Following this, we had a meeting about the Graduate programme. This gave us a clear view of the competitive path following university into the actuarial world. What we found the most interesting was the international connections that are built when training with people from across the world. Renae Childs kindly took us up to the top floor of the Gherkin!


The panoramic views of all of London (we were able to spot City Hall!) left us awestruck. Then we had our first project, where we compiled data from the main competitors within Irish Health Insurance. The fact that people within the company would use this to help with their work greatly motivated us to try our hardest and do a really good job. Our day ended calmly, with a meeting about data analysis. We got a true perspective into the sheer amount of data an actuary works through, and the impracticality of said data without human touch and assumptions.



DAY 2: TUESDAY 13TH FEBRUARY



Our day began with a meeting about illness costings. This allowed us to see the inner workings of Swiss Re: how the huge amounts of data they collect from their clients allows them to make predictions. However, these predictions are useless without clients, which brings us onto the underwriters. Insurers cannot cover everyone, and the way they distinguish and decide who to cover is by analysing potential customers’ medical histories for existing conditions.



DAY 3: WEDNESDAY 14TH FEBRUARY



We were introduced to our next project, cancer registration data, in our favourite friend Microsoft Excel. Before we tackled this we had the great opportunity to attend the monthly costing meeting. This gave us another peek into the inner workings of Swiss Re, and how teamwork makes the dream work in this company. All of the separate teams all help each other out. This meeting also helped us to understand how much each person does within their role, and how different every role is. There isn’t one set job description of an actuary, and you can specialise in many different fields which vary greatly. After this, we had Chanita’s leaving lunch! It was very fun to socialise with everyone in a more informal setting, and the food was great!


Then we had our first interaction with a team outside of life. We were introduced us to Property and Casualty, and this meeting taught us not only about the ways that insurance varies, but also about the differences in actuarial degrees within Europe. To end our day we had a lovely chat about longevity - the other side of the coin in life and mortality. We learnt about how they could predict a person’s lifespan based on only their post code!



DAY 4: THURSDAY 15TH FEBRUARY



Continuing on the theme of interacting outside life, we got to go over Property. What struck me about this meeting in particular was how much maths is applied in actuarial work - even though he is working with insurance of properties he needed to know large amounts about natural disasters and modelling them. It was also extremely interesting to hear about the unpredictability there is within property insurance, unlike life, where they are fairly certain about their predictions. After this we got to speak about group insurance. We were really impressed with how such a small team makes such a large difference and allows Swiss Re to be able to offer group cover. Then, we got to see the final part of the reinsurance process: claims. We then had a meeting where we able to see both how Swiss Re pays out on claims but also the genuine help and support they offer with rehabilitation. We also got to look through the Terms of Trade, helping us see just how many assumptions are needed to price accurately. These assumptions were then transposed when we looked at the Computer Pricing Tool . Before this, we spoke about PVC (Pricing Value Chain), which really interested us as it was a unique approach to what Swiss Re does. It featured cool techniques that we’d never heard of before – such as white labelling. We were also given an explanation of the actuarial exams to complete our basic knowledge of the pathway into the career.



DAY 5: FRIDAY 16TH FEBRUARY



We began the day by speaking about one of the key sections of Life and Health: Income Protection. Although it was initially confusing, we eventually came to grips with what was going on. And, for our final meeting, we spoke about the Critical Illness Terms of Trade. This helped us get a better perspective on how far ahead Life needs to predict in order to avoid issues. We then had an amazing lunch with Rowan's mum in UBS' canteen! We really were spoilt for choice there!



Overall, we had an amazing time at Swiss Re and are so happy to have had this opportunity! We feel so much more informed now and we are so lucky to have met such great people! We would like to give an extra special thanks to Renae Childs and Aisling Kennedy for organising everything, supporting us throughout everything, and providing a helpful and friendly link into a career we’d never heard of before – but we definitely want to explore more!