Are you currently in school and looking for someplace to do an actuarial internship? Ever thought of an internship in damage insurance? Curious about what it’s like to do an actuarial internship with us? What better way to get answers than to ask four of our interns about their own experiences! You’ll also see how many career opportunities are available at Promutuel Insurance.

ALEXANDRE COSSETTE

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career path, and your professional ambitions?

I’m from Rouyn-Noranda. After finishing high school in Ontario, I came back to the area to study natural science at Cégep. I’ve always liked math and numbers, but I wasn’t really interested in accounting or engineering. I had a talk with one of my math teachers and decided to go into actuarial science. What a fun challenge! With the end of my bachelor’s program in sight, I still haven’t fully mapped out my career plan. But my actuarial internship at Promutuel Insurance really opened my eyes about the field of damage insurance. If possible, I’d be more than happy to stick around and be a part of this great team!

What was it like starting an internship remotely?

Since it was the summer of COVID-19, I was in a bit of an unusual situation. I had lost my original summer internship due to an office closure. To my delight, and with a bit of luck, I landed an interview for an insurance internship with Promutuel, which had decided to take on more interns than usual during the pandemic. So it took a while to get into the swing of things, but the teams were very friendly and made the process easy. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to meet and work together with new people, even remotely!

What was a typical day for you during your summer internship?

I’d start by meeting with my supervisor to go over the project I was working on and what I wanted to accomplish next. Then I’d work on my project, trying to be as self-sufficient as possible. I think it was really important to me this summer to find ways to figure things out whenever a problem came up. Of course, my supervisor was always just a phone call away if I ever needed him, but I really felt like he trusted me. Plus, we had team meetings twice a week so everyone was on the same page. I also had to present my project to the team fairly regularly to get feedback and ideas.

What projects were you assigned during your internship and how do they relate to your development?

At the start of my insurance internship, I had some small requests from the mutual insurance companies to keep me busy. That really helped me get familiar with the team, the virtual work environment, and new software. My big project this summer was to put together a Power BI report on the impacts of business insurance underwriting. The purpose of the report was to see whether rate changes had had the expected impact on the various components of the premium, to compare this year’s results with past years, and to identify anomalies in the mutuals. On the more technical side, my project gave me a chance to use tools such as SAS and Power BI. I got to learn a lot about damage insurance, particularly underwriting.

What is the biggest challenge for interns in the current situation?

There were two big challenges in doing my actuarial internship remotely. First, when you’re alone in your room it’s pretty easy to get distracted and lose concentration. It wasn’t always easy to stay focused with such beautiful summer weather outside! Second, it’s harder to forge ties with other members of the team. Aside from my supervisor, I didn’t see the other people on my team very often. When everyone is in the office, you can always take little breaks to chat with coworkers, but when you’re teleworking, people don’t necessarily call each other just to talk about last night’s hockey game or their weekend.

How did your manager adapt to the situation to make sure you got the most out of your internship?

I don’t know how he usually does it, but even during the pandemic, my supervisor was pretty much always available whenever I had questions. Obviously, he had work to do too, so he couldn’t be there 100% of the time, but I always had enough to keep me busy until he had time to get back to me. Plus, he always set aside at least 30 minutes, usually in the morning, to talk to me. I honestly couldn’t ask for more.

What would you say to a student thinking about applying for an internship at Promutuel Insurance?

After spending close to three months with Promutuel Insurance, I’ve got nothing but good things to say. My experience was fantastic. So my message would be pretty clear: apply today! Jump at the chance! If you want to be part of a truly amazing team with great managers and you’re interested in doing an internship to learn more about damage insurance, Promutuel Insurance is really the place to be!

Connect with Alexandre on LinkedIn.

 

ANTOINE PARADIS

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career path, and your professional ambitions?

I’m from Nicolet, on the south shore of Trois-Rivières. I got a DCS in natural science from Cégep de Trois-Rivières and am now finishing up my bachelor’s degree in actuarial science at Université Laval. I’ve always had a penchant for math and computer science, and that’s what prompted me to study actuary science. I eventually want to work in P&C insurance, so doing internships with Promutuel Insurance was a perfect fit for me. Otherwise, I’m pretty sporty and enjoy swimming and playing tennis in my free time.

What was it like starting an internship remotely?

It was great! It’s definitely different when you can see everyone in person, but having video meetings every day with the members of my team made up for it some. But since this summer was my second internship at Promutuel Insurance, I’d already had the chance to meet the others at the office last year.

What was a typical day for you during your summer internship?

First, I’d have a morning meeting with the coach assigned to my project to go over any challenges I may have had the day before and my assignments for the day. Then, we’d also have a similar meeting with the whole team to see what everyone was working on. The rest of the day, I’d work on my project and take part in any other meetings or training sessions.

What projects were you assigned during your internship and how do they relate to your development?

The main project I worked on this summer was filing for passenger vehicles in New Brunswick. Basically it’s a rate review we have to do every summer. Regulations are stricter in New Brunswick, so in the review we have to explain and show all of the processes and calculations we use to come up with the new rates we want to implement. The project was great for my career development, because it gave me a chance to learn a lot about P&C insurance. 

What is the biggest challenge for interns in the current situation?

The internship was completely remote this summer, so it was a different vibe since you can’t see your coworkers in person at meetings or lunch.

How did your manager adapt to the situation to make sure you got the most out of your internship?

Thanks to the daily video meetings with the whole team, we still got to have some social interactions. That made the remote actuarial internship more enjoyable. I also had a morning meeting with my coworker who oversaw my project, and he was available throughout the day to answer any questions I had. 

What would you say to a student thinking about applying for an internship at Promutuel Insurance?

I’d tell them to go ahead and apply! The projects we get to work on as interns are important, and I really felt like part of the team. And since I did an internship in the office last summer, I can definitely say that everyone’s friendly and welcoming and that the atmosphere is great.

Connect with Antoine on LinkedIn.

 

CHARLES COMEAU

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career path, and your professional ambitions?

I’m from L’Assomption, a North Shore suburb of Montréal. It’s also where I did my pre-university studies. After finishing my first year of university in the actuarial program, I got more interested in P&C insurance.

What was it like starting an internship remotely?

Much better than I expected! From the start we had various video meetings with members of other teams so we could get to know each other and learn more about Promutuel Insurance. 

What was a typical day for you during your summer internship?

It depended on the day. I’d say in a typical day I split my time between operational tasks and working on my project. I’d also have a phone meeting or two to go over my work.

What projects were you assigned during your internship and how do they relate to your development?

My first project was to put together an insurance report. The goal was to come up with a dynamic report that illustrated the insurance performance for the business insurance sector. The project helped me become more self-sufficient because it involved technology that I’d never used before.

My second project was to analyze traffic at Promutuel Insurance in recent years. Basically, the goal was to track the evolution of the various types of insurance contracts held by Promutuel Insurance. This project mainly helped me build my analytical skills.

What is the biggest challenge for interns in the current situation?

I’d say, given that human contact was limited to short phone or video meetings, it’s really important to speak up and ask questions when you have the chance. Nonverbal communication doesn’t cut it in this context: you have to speak up to be understood.

How did your manager adapt to the situation to make sure you got the most out of your internship?

We had weekly sessions where we could touch base and talk. These meetings were often less focused on the technical side of assignments and projects, but they were very helpful in clarifying objectives and keeping me on track.

What would you say to a student thinking about applying for an internship at Promutuel Insurance?

I’d tell them to go for it! Due to the pandemic, I haven’t had a chance to meet my coworkers in person, but I do know that Promutuel Insurance has a fantastic team. They’re super nice, down to earth, and welcoming.

 

Connect with Charles on LinkedIn.

 

WILLIAM PERRON

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career path, and your professional ambitions?

I’m 20 years old, I’m from Saint-Félicien, and I finished my first year in actuarial science at Université Laval. Right now I’m most interested in P&C insurance, so I’m looking forward to working in this field in the future—even if we don’t know what the future holds! I’m thinking about doing a master’s in artificial intelligence, because it seems like a growing field that’s very intriguing. My ultimate goal is to pass all the professional exams to become a CAS fellow.

What was it like starting an internship remotely?

The process went well, even though I had to do it all from home. It’s a bit strange how the pandemic meant I wouldn’t be able to take full advantage of the internship experience, such as meeting coworkers in person, visiting the office, experiencing the work atmosphere, and socializing. But I still managed to really learn a lot. 

What was a typical day for you during your summer internship?

My day would start with a team meeting, then I’d get to work. My responsibilities mainly included programming in R, VBA, and SAS, with a bit of Excel thrown in to boot. On average I’d get one or two other calls a day to resolve project issues or follow up on the progress of jobs underway.

What projects were you assigned during your internship and how do they relate to your development?

I had three projects during my insurance internship. The first and most important was to create an R function that could be used as an analysis tool for certain predictions. So a coworker showed me what calculations needed to be done, what the inputs and outputs would be, how to make sure the function could be reused, and so on. Then I’d code and produce an automated report to see if the results looked OK. The project took two to three months, but I was able to use what I learned in other projects. It really helped me improve my R skills and work habits.

The second project was to update some assumptions from previous years, since we were in the middle of a spring rate review. In short, I had to adjust formulas so that they would now point to 2020 data and I created tables with assumption summaries that other teams could use.

The third project was to modify an existing process to make it faster. Since it isn’t always necessary to run the entire process, we had to make it possible to partially run certain modules and to use previously calculated results to save time. I got to learn the basics of SAS, which will be useful any time I need to program in SAS in the future.

What is the biggest challenge for interns in the current situation?

For me, the biggest challenge was to get comfortable and really feel like I was part of the team. Since I had much less interaction than I would in a traditional face-to-face internship, it took me a long time to get to know the people on my team and feel comfortable addressing them based on their age, personality, and status in the company. I figured I needed to always keep it very professional and serious, but in time I got a better idea of how to balance serious discussions and friendlier interactions, which made things more fun!

How did your manager adapt to the situation to make sure you got the most out of your internship?

The fact that my internship was not delayed was huge. Other students in my group who had actuarial internships with other companies had their programs put on hold. Unlike those who lost a quarter of their internship, I got to do the whole thing, so I was able to learn more and do a wider variety of tasks. A short 15-minute meeting was also held every morning so I could see and socialize with my team more. They also added two to three meetings with people from the entire sector to replace the social activities that had to be canceled.

What would you say to a student thinking about applying for an internship at Promutuel Insurance?

An insurance internship with Promutuel Insurance is definitely the right choice. The company has a lot of people who are aces in their field and happy to work closely with interns. You can always ask them questions to learn more. And since it’s a smaller team, you can work on a wider variety of tasks and become more self-sufficient.

Connect with William LinkedIn.

 

We hope these interviews have sparked your interest in applying for an actuarial internship at Promutuel Insurance! Please note that we have service centres Québec City and Longueuil and offer teleworking opportunities. With us, you’ll find the best of both worlds: the advantages of a large company (variety and scope of projects) and a friendly work environment where people come first.