FRESH out of Nanyang Business School and barely a month after her final examinations, Li Xue, 23, has already hit the ground running with her first full-time job as an actuarial executive with QBE Insurance (International).
It is unsurprising that Ms Li has set her sights on a career in insurance or finance since her early undergraduate days, having chosen to major in actuarial science with economics, a combination which required an extra semester's study.
But as most of her university seniors graduated to start work in life insurance companies, where actuaries are in higher demand, life insurance, rather than general insurance, seemed to be the more natural choice.
Hence, she did not really envision herself going down the less-trodden path of general insurance till only recently.
In July, the opportunity arose for her to participate in the newly launched Global Internship Programme (GIP).
When considering the programme's offering, Ms Li knew she was unlikely to gain much exposure to actual actuarial work as most of the host companies this year did not have dedicated actuarial departments in their local offices. But she had other objectives in mind.
'I wanted an overview of the industry, and to better understand the different job functions. Also, I hadn't made up my mind on whether to join the industry, but knew I was about to graduate and had to make a career choice soon. So I saw it as a very good chance to explore possibilities.'
With an outstanding academic record and the confidence with which she carried herself during her interviews with both GIA and the host companies, Ms Li was soon selected as one of the GIP's pilot batch of five interns.
She thus embarked on her whirlwind GIP experience of two weeks in Singapore with Ascot Underwriting Asia, two weeks in London with Lloyd's and Ascot, a Lloyd's syndicate, another fortnight at QBE's headquarters in Sydney, and two final weeks with QBE's office back here.
'It was such a wonderful eye-opener,' she enthused. 'I had a really good combination of attachment too. I got to see first the Lloyd's market, then the companies market with QBE, and the differences between the two.' The Lloyd's market and companies markets are governed by different regulations.
Snippets of her action-packed days in London included: job-shadowing underwriters as they negotiated deals with brokers on the Lloyd's trading floor, sitting in at exciting high-level meetings with potential claims involving government parties, and working on a presentation delivered to the senior management at Lloyd's.
At each office, Ms Li said, she learnt more about the industry. Along with her fellow interns, she was treated to a host of presentations by senior managers from different departments, and was thus equipped with a basic understanding of key insurance principles, underwriting, claims handling and business development.
'It was quite a different experience from other internships I've been on where you're assigned to a single supervisor and department and work with them for the entire duration of the internship,' said Ms Li.
Under the GIP they were able to interact with senior management in charge of varied operations, and could ask all sorts of questions. 'This really helped me to understand the 'why' and not just the 'how' of operations in the insurance industry', Ms Li explained.
Mingling with insurance professionals at after-hours social events also allowed her to glean 'the different perspectives insurance professionals might have on a single issue', Ms Li said.
In the month abroad, she even managed to squeeze in some sight-seeing and catch up with friends living in Sydney and London, in between the hectic internship programme, adjusting to the different seasons and recovering from jet-lag after long-haul flights.
However, in Ms Li's case, the icing on the cake had to be the fact that GIP paved the way for her career with QBE Insurance.
'I am really grateful that I was hired as an actuarial executive. I think they probably hired me for my performance during the GIP, and also because what I could offer with my actuarial background matched their own growth needs,' Ms Li said.
This article was first published in The Business Times on December 17, 2008.
