Challenging and highly technical, actuarial work in pensions presents the opportunity to advise some of the world's top employers on issues that are critical to their ability to reward and retain staff.
What we do
Our HRS actuaries advise companies and pension fund trustees on pensions and benefits issues. As the last few years have seen dramatic and ongoing changes to the pensions industry, we play a vital role for employers, advising on issues arising from M&A activity and private equity takeovers, as well as on running and accounting for pension schemes. We also have a specialist Executive Reward team that advises clients on designing and implementing reward programmes to help them recruit, retain and motivate senior talent. Our combination of thought leadership and robust analysis adds value for the organisations we work with.
By joining this part of our Actuarial practice, you'll be in good company - the PwC Actuarial (HRS) team was awarded the Pension & Benefits Consultancy of the Year title at the UK Pensions Awards in 2008, and we advise 40% of the FTSE 100 on executive reward. Just think of the possibilities for learning through working alongside people who are at the top of their profession.
What you'll do
During your first few years, you'll split your time between office, clients and college, where you'll be studying for Institute of Actuaries exams. In HRS, you could be working with a multidisciplinary team to understand the financial strength of an organisation, with the ultimate goal of determining how much the organisation can afford to pay into its pension scheme. Or you could be advising a company on various options for reducing the deficit in its pension scheme.
Within the Executive Reward team, you'll play a significant role in helping clients design, evaluate and account for equity-based long-term incentives as well as executive pensions. You'll gain extensive financial modelling skills, including stochastic modelling, and use them to help our clients appreciate the key issues they face. Ultimately, you'll be looking to develop your own network of contacts.
Working within HRS and executive is predominantly office-based; although the work does involve client visits, it will be rare for you to spend weeks away.
Our culture
Actuarial work is demanding - your first few years will be intense, especially as you begin work towards your qualification. But the more committed you are, and the harder you work, the faster you will see the rewards.
We have the capacity to offer you a huge variety of clients and projects to work on, as well as occasional opportunities to work overseas. You'll be constantly challenged - but given all the support you need. And we'll encourage you to play to your strengths - for instance, should you develop a particular talent for business development, you'll be able to build on that with client selling or relationship management responsibilities.
In the Actuarial HRS team and Executive Reward Consultancy, we have a strong focus on finding solutions - with the aim of demonstrating to clients that we can do more than simply understand the issues they come across: we have the expertise and business insight to solve them.
Training & development
Under PwC Experience (Specialist Route), your training will involve on-the-job coaching and formal studies - actuarial work a highly technical field, involving many complex issues - as well as your professional studies.
Your study will involve intensive time at college (usually a day a week), where you'll study alongside other PwC students. We pay for study materials and external tutorials, and allocate you a study mentor with invaluable, first-hand knowledge of the exams. We also run internal tutorials, often led by former actuarial examiners, to help reinforce study material and give you an extra edge. As a further incentive, you'll earn a pay rise on passing each exam. You'll have the opportunity to qualify faster than the national average of six years - in fact, you'll gain your professional qualifications within four years thanks to the extra support we offer.
Just as important is the practical experience you gain by working with multi-disciplinary PwC teams including tax, business recovery and deal experts on a wide range of client projects. You'll develop analytical, technical, communication, project management and networking skills, as well as building your business awareness and industry knowledge.
About you
Actuarial work is highly analytical and technical - and as many of our clients are in HR, finance or sitting on the board, the terminology we use isn't something they'll generally be used to hearing on a daily basis. So we need people who can convey their ideas and solutions to non-actuaries in plain English - making communication skills and good all-round commercial awareness high priorities.
Most importantly, you'll need to demonstrate high standards of numeracy, as you'll be involved in complex financial calculations and modelling work.
You'll need a 2.1 degree (in any discipline) and 320 UCAS points (or equivalent), including Mathematics at grade A.
Your work could make a difference in the ever-evolving and high-profile pensions arena - or impact on a major employer's ability to attract and retain - and pay for - top talent. If Actuarial HRS sounds appealing, apply now to find out more.
Next Steps
