Leigh Culling - Analyst, Aon Hewitt

Name: Leigh Culling Role: Analyst Department: Retirement Practice Company: Aon Hewitt Location: Bristol Degree: BSc. Mathematics from the University of Bath

What do Aon do?

Aon is the leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage and a global leader in human capital and management consulting. I work within Aon Hewitt's retirement consulting business in which we provide actuarial services to enable effective and efficient management of retirement plans.

How did you get your job at Aon Hewitt?

I started my career with Aon Hewitt by completing the summer internship program. This was a great insight into the business and I was particularly impressed with the Corporate Social Responsibility program, which we were able to contribute to during the internship by organising fundraising events for a local charity. After completing the internship, I was offered a place on the graduate program following the completion of my degree at the University of Bath.

What is a typical day like for you?

I am currently involved in a lot of valuation work, which is a triennial assessment of a pension scheme's ability to pay future benefits to its members. This has exposed me to a wide range of work, as for smaller schemes I am involved in building the valuation models based on our interpretation of the scheme rules. For larger schemes, I am more involved in the management of the valuation process.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I think the great thing about working in pensions is that the retirement landscape is forever changing. The recent low gilt yield environment and the introduction of various pensions - related legislation has led actuaries to continually evolve their methods to keep up with their competitors and has provided a wide variety of work.

What are the most stressful parts of the job?

With a lot of actuarial work, you have to meet quite tight deadlines to keep clients happy. This can be quite stressful at times, when you have to meet deadlines for more than one client. It's important to manage your time well and not be afraid to let your team know if you don’t have capacity to take on additional work, most people would rather you do this than let your work build up and up. And of course, as an actuarial student, getting the right work/study/life balance can be stressful at times!

What would you like to achieve in the future?

I think becoming a successful actuary is about building a reputation as an expert in risk. Therefore, I think I will know if I've achieved this if one day a client comes to me and instead of asking a pensions related question, they want advice on a wider risk area as they see me as that expert in risk.

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to get into the industry?

An actuarial career can be extremely rewarding if you're willing to put the hard work in. I think the best advice would be to do your research. Decide whether you're willing to commit your time to passing the exams and find out which area suits you best. I chose pensions as it offers more of a consulting role and I like the client-facing side of the work we do.

What was the interview process like?

The assessment centre was actually quite an enjoyable day! We had to do a series of group exercises to show how we could arrive at a solution to various problems. For example, we had to play the role of a complaints department and received a series of complaints which we had to prioritise and present our solutions.

How do you manage your work/life balance?

The actuarial exams do take up a lot of your spare time. You have to be disciplined and reward yourself with a night off if you have had a good day of study. I have found getting up early and doing some studying in the morning before work has allowed me to free up more of my evenings to relax. In my spare time I like to play sport and since joining Aon Hewitt, I've met lots of work colleagues who I play squash against!

Any advice for the interview process?

I would recommend doing some research into the industry you wish to apply for. I was asked to give a 5 minute presentation on a pensions - related topic. If you do your research you can show that you have a genuine interest in the industry and how new legislation or economic factors may affect the company you are applying for. I also think it's fair to say that most graduates applying for an actuarial role will have the academic capability, therefore try to stand out from the crowd by sharing your other interests and hobbies.

What challenges have you come across and how did you overcome them?

I think a lot of actuarial students were used to being high performers at school and university and then get a bit of a shock when the office work and exams are very challenging. I think you have to be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them as in our job it's not always easy to get things right first time.

What soft skills have you found useful?

I think one of the most important skills I've learnt is the importance of explaining complex ideas in a non-technical way. When communicating results to a client it's important to explain things in a way they understand. Most actuaries have very strong technical skills but as a profession it's important that we can also communicate effectively with our clients. The profession has started to address this by introducing exams such as CA3, which is a two-day communications course.