Wondering how to ace your actuarial internship interview? Campus Club ambassador Ahmad Yahya shares honest, firsthand advice on what to expect and how to prepare without overdoing it.
One of the most underrated challenges in becoming an actuary is getting through the interview. After all, most interviews typically last under 2 hours, with screening interviews usually being 30 minutes or less. This is in stark contrast to the exams, where most aspiring actuaries, including myself, spend hundreds of hours preparing.
Know Yourself Before You Prep
I believe the key to preparing for interviews is to know yourself. I know that sounds vague, but you need to honestly ask yourself: "Am I someone who speaks better with a lot of preparation, or am I someone who gets stressed and stumbles when I feel I've prepared too much and have too much to remember?"
There are obviously many different types of people, but I think you get the idea. I happen to be the type who gets flustered when I feel over-prepared, especially when I start to feel the heat of the interview. I find myself mixing up my words in those situations, so I personally aim to prepare enough—but not too much.
The key to preparing for interviews is to know yourself—and to be honest about how you perform under pressure.
Do Your Company Research
I always recommend that interviewees do some reading on the company they're interviewing with and have answers prepared for what they know about the company, why they want to work there, and similar questions.
These are common questions you should expect to be asked, and walking in without answers is an easy mistake to avoid.
What Interview Questions Actually Look Like
Interviews for internship positions commonly include scenario-based questions.
For example, an interviewer might show you charts displaying the annual dollar amount of claims paid out over a 5- or 10-year stretch in a fictional city, then ask: "What risk factors could be informing these trends?" or "What could be causing a spike in claims paid out in years 6 and 7?"
You'd be expected to suggest reasons like a potential hurricane or natural disaster.
Interviewers want to see how you reason through a problem, not just whether you get it right.
Technical Assessments: What to Expect
From what I've seen and heard, there are usually not any overtly technical components to interviews, like working through an analysis live in Excel. That said, some companies generally considered to be more competitive do give out Excel-based take-home assignments for at least some teams.
Behavioral Questions
More commonly, interviewers ask general behavioral questions like, "Tell me about a time when [situation] happened in school or in the workplace." You'll need to walk them through what you did, what the impact was, and what you could have done better. These questions are standard across industries, so practicing a few solid examples in advance goes a long way.
HireVue and One-Way Interviews
You might also be invited to complete a HireVue or virtual, one-way interview. My advice: just do them, unless you already have an offer in hand. A lot—and possibly most—companies now use this format, so it's simply something we as candidates have to navigate.
Just do the HireVue, unless you already have an offer in hand.
I hope this provides some useful insight into actuarial interviews. Best of luck on your actuarial journey!
About the Author
Ahmad Yahya is an actuarial science student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has passed Exam P and is currently studying for Exam FM. Ahmad also serves as his college's Campus Club Ambassador. Outside of academics, he has a genuine passion for science and history, interests he pursues in his free time alongside his actuarial studies.