My great internship experience at IAG

Posted on: February 17, 2023

Post Category: Professional Development

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Earlier last year, I took a course called Actuarial Data and Analysis, and IAG sponsored the course by offering a brief for the group assignment component.

And the brief was interesting.

Later in the year, an email went around the School of Risk, mentioning that IAG’s IIA Pricing team is looking for summer interns. I was in my final year, but I met the criteria, so I applied.

I sent in my resume and cover letter, and I sat the interview. But I really didn’t expect much.

After the interview, I thought the candidates I got to work with during the group interview were of high calibre. So I REALLY didn’t expect much.

But I got a phone call, and I actually ended up receiving an offer!

I accepted it. I got to work in the IIA Pricing team for about two months. And it was a very memorable experience.

My great internship experience at IAG

During my internship, I got to join the Agribusiness team. The Agribusiness team manages the Agribusiness portfolio, which involves insurance products for farm businesses. When thinking of the Agribusiness, think of insurance cover for things like livestock, farm machinery, farm property, etc.

From a project perspective, I won’t specifically mention what I got to work on – for the sake of confidentiality. But, I got involved in pretty hands-on work that added some value to IIA’s strategic priorities. I got to develop new tools to enable greater capability within the team, and I got to perform and present some analysis to advance the business’s profitability.

I got to taste a whole lot of Microsoft Excel, along with some R. And it was interesting to see how different things I learnt from Uni come together in the workplace – general insurance theory, data analytics, statistics, accounting, etc.

During the early weeks, there was a bit of reading, and after that, I would look over or replicate some of the analysis that has been done in the past. Eventually, during my second month, I led a handful of projects/analyses.

During my experience, I also got to go back to my Tableau Student Ambassador roots and run a workshop on Tableau Desktop, for some of the analysts and interns within the IIA pricing team. Though, I wish I had a bit more time to prepare for it.

From a domain knowledge perspective, I learnt a lot about end-to-end pricing and the specific processes/steps involved at IAG, to translate raw policy and claim data into the actual prices/rates. I got the opportunity to have insightful one-on-one catchups with the members of my team, and they helped me understand the relevant processes, concepts and considerations involved in pricing.

And finally, I got to make a lot of connections, with the other interns and analysts, and this owed to the face-to-face component of the experience. Earlier in my University journey, I interned at American Express and Deloitte, and I got to meet a couple of the interns in my cohort. But those experiences were different, because I had to work completely online. During my experience at IAG though, the interns were asked to come in three days a week. And because of this, I got many opportunities to bond with the rest of the interns and meet heaps of people in the broader IIA pricing team.

What’s next?

During my internship, the interns were given the opportunity to stay on part-timers, and unfortunately I chose not to pick up that opportunity, since I will be starting a new role at another company.

I’ve said it to a lead, I’ll say it again: I’ll miss IAG.

It’s a shame that I will be leaving, but because of the experience, I am grateful that I got to meet people who I can call friends and can reach out to for catch-ups sometime down the road.

With regards to my direct Agribusiness team, I hope my documentation and handover helps them continue building on the work I got to deliver during my internship.

And with regards to the internship program, I sincerely hope the program runs again sometime in the future. I got a lot of value out of the experience, and I know most current Actuarial students will benefit from the program.

Early on in my University career, I decided to pivot in data analytics/science, and I haven’t really looked back. But this experience I had at IAG did make me think again – about actuarial work and, more broadly, work in the general insurance space.

I applied for this internship because I was open to the experience and I wanted to learn. I learnt a lot and the learnings made me rethink about staying within the Actuarial profession and general insurance space.

The next few years for me will involve non-traditional Actuarial work, but who knows… perhaps because of the people I got to meet through this internship, I may end up back at IAG or within a more Actuarial role.

In saying these things, I would like to thank and recognise everyone who supported me throughout the program:

• My direct Agribusiness team: Simran, Lillian, Clare, Cameron, Roland, Daniel, Ziyi
• The other interns: Dickson, Gorden, Thomas, Peter, Vicky, Angela
• The leads I got to meet throughout the application process, who decided to give me a chance: Emily, Amy, Kevin, Rosanna and Lillian (from the Agribusiness team)
• And all the other leads, analysts and specialists I got to meet during the application process and the internship program: Leanne, Andrew, Yvonne, Laura, Luke, Alex… (there’s a lot of you!)

Some pictures from my experience – a highlight reel