Husker Internships: Whitney's Actuarial Intern Experience

College of Business Author

01/25/2024 Added

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Whitney Schwisow, an actuarial science major from Beatrice, Nebraska, talks with Assistant Dean Rachel Larson about her college out-of-state internship experience at Northwestern Mutual and how the College of Business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln helped her get it.

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[00:00:00.630]Hello, my name is Rachel Larson,
[00:00:02.430]and I'm the Assistant Dean
[00:00:03.570]of Academic and Career Development
[00:00:05.190]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln College of Business.
[00:00:08.280]One of my areas that I oversee
[00:00:10.140]is our business career center,
[00:00:11.430]and one of my passions is helping
[00:00:12.870]students find their career path.
[00:00:14.820]I'm joined today by one of our fabulous students,
[00:00:17.550]Whitney Schwison, who's here to tell us
[00:00:19.620]a little bit about her internship.
[00:00:21.300]Welcome, Whitney.
[00:00:22.140]Thanks, Rachel, I'm happy to be here.
[00:00:23.850]Great, so why don't you start by telling us
[00:00:26.520]where you're from and what your major is?
[00:00:28.620]Yeah, so I'm from Beatrice, Nebraska,
[00:00:30.510]so here in state student, and my major is actuarial science.
[00:00:34.380]Excellent and I know that you had
[00:00:36.210]a really great internship experience this past summer,
[00:00:38.910]so will you tell us a little bit more about
[00:00:41.070]where you interned and what you did as an intern?
[00:00:43.560]Yeah, so this past summer I had the opportunity
[00:00:45.870]to be an actuarial intern for Northwestern Mutual
[00:00:48.750]at their headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[00:00:51.330]I was the annuity pricing intern
[00:00:53.730]for their actuarial department.
[00:00:55.470]And in that role I had a very real application project
[00:01:00.720]for my team, and that was repricing
[00:01:03.660]one of our variable annuity funds.
[00:01:06.210]And so with that, I was using an in-house model
[00:01:08.460]to update assumptions
[00:01:10.170]to the current macroeconomic environments,
[00:01:12.480]and I'd update them one at a time
[00:01:14.010]and then run scenarios through the model
[00:01:15.960]to see how it affected profitability.
[00:01:18.300]And then I would adjust our profitability lever as needed
[00:01:22.260]and repeat the process with updating more assumptions.
[00:01:25.080]That's awesome.
[00:01:26.310]So, how did you find your internship?
[00:01:28.213]Yeah, that's a great question.
[00:01:29.730]So, my usual strategy was to start on Handshake,
[00:01:34.500]and though I didn't end up completely using Handshake
[00:01:38.340]to find it, it kind of came a different route
[00:01:40.350]that was always the way I started for my internships.
[00:01:42.960]And actuarial internships,
[00:01:44.730]I feel very fortunate
[00:01:45.810]because they're all pretty generically
[00:01:47.640]titled Actuarial intern for their position.
[00:01:50.220]And so I would filter for that,
[00:01:51.390]and I looked through companies to apply for,
[00:01:54.900]but this one actually was completely off my radar
[00:01:58.590]and came through the career fair type route.
[00:02:01.440]So for the career fair last year,
[00:02:03.990]the Business Career Center did a resume book
[00:02:06.870]where actuarial students uploaded their resume
[00:02:09.450]to this Handshake.
[00:02:10.890]It looked like an application,
[00:02:12.090]but it was just an upload your resume,
[00:02:14.160]and they distributed it to employers that were interested.
[00:02:16.680]And so I had received an email from a Northwestern Mutual
[00:02:19.740]recruiter saying,
[00:02:21.037]"We saw your resume
[00:02:22.080]and we are interested in interviewing you.
[00:02:24.180]And so I signed up because I was like, why not?
[00:02:28.410]And I went in feeling just relaxed, loose, and confident
[00:02:32.610]because I didn't expect much to come out of it.
[00:02:35.100]And I left with just a smile on my face.
[00:02:37.260]I felt like I had connected with the recruiters.
[00:02:40.800]It was a fun interview,
[00:02:41.730]and if I am smiling leaving an interview,
[00:02:43.890]I feel like that was a really good sign,
[00:02:45.450]and so I just kind of ran with it.
[00:02:46.950]Yeah, now, you said you were born and raised in Nebraska
[00:02:50.250]and your internship was out of state.
[00:02:52.290]So, how was that experience, were you nervous, intimidated?
[00:02:57.030]Yeah, I was hoping to go out of state.
[00:03:01.440]I had stayed in state the year prior,
[00:03:03.810]and I am a homebody, so I love Nebraska
[00:03:07.560]and I plan on coming back someday,
[00:03:09.600]but I wanted to try out something different
[00:03:12.840]in a temporary period of time.
[00:03:14.910]That's the nice thing about an internship
[00:03:16.260]is that I know I would be gone for 10 to 12 weeks
[00:03:18.660]and I would come right back to Nebraska.
[00:03:20.160]So, it felt like a very low stakes opportunity
[00:03:22.950]to try moving somewhere else
[00:03:24.240]and see if it was even a possibility.
[00:03:27.180]And so I did it.
[00:03:29.010]I found this one.
[00:03:30.090]I went to Milwaukee and I had a great experience
[00:03:33.360]exploring the city.
[00:03:34.710]I loved the professional sports teams.
[00:03:36.540]That was a huge element that kind of drew me to the city.
[00:03:40.080]Being on Lake Michigan,
[00:03:41.280]when I thought of Wisconsin,
[00:03:42.540]I didn't think of beach and there was beaches.
[00:03:44.850]So, it was super fun to explore the different things
[00:03:47.940]that a city not in Nebraska had to offer.
[00:03:50.940]That's great.
[00:03:52.080]Now, I know in the College of Business
[00:03:53.820]we have what's called
[00:03:54.900]Professional Enhancement Program courses,
[00:03:56.910]so or PrEP for short,
[00:03:58.770]which is a series of four classes to try
[00:04:02.040]to help students learn more about themselves,
[00:04:05.070]how to find internships and jobs,
[00:04:06.900]and then how to transition to life after college.
[00:04:09.450]So what have you learned in those courses
[00:04:12.510]that have helped you on your career journey thus far?
[00:04:16.140]I think the big one
[00:04:17.400]that's like the easy ticket item is just resume building.
[00:04:21.000]Coming from high school where I just had my resume
[00:04:24.180]as a list of things that I had done
[00:04:26.220]and accomplished to then in college
[00:04:28.860]where it's the expectation that you should reflect
[00:04:31.770]and show what you learned,
[00:04:32.880]what skills you are able to transfer
[00:04:35.460]from that experience to a potential new experience
[00:04:37.890]that I wasn't sure how to craft before.
[00:04:40.200]And so I think what was really helpful about the course
[00:04:43.080]is that they provided us with templates
[00:04:45.450]that gave us a starting point.
[00:04:48.420]And then, you also had the flexibility to be creative
[00:04:51.810]and kind of tailor it to your personality
[00:04:54.150]and your design choices,
[00:04:55.800]but within the realm of the template that they provided.
[00:05:01.320]Now, actuarial science resumes,
[00:05:04.500]they are a little bit different.
[00:05:06.780]So, was that coaching experience
[00:05:09.540]on how to do an actuarial science resume
[00:05:11.340]versus kind of a regular major resume helpful for you?
[00:05:15.570]Yes, I think that especially with us being
[00:05:19.020]a Center for Actuarial Excellence,
[00:05:21.180]I knew that that was something
[00:05:22.470]that was important to have on my resume.
[00:05:24.450]I knew that the exam section
[00:05:27.090]of a resume... Yes, very much.
[00:05:28.830]Yes, is not standard
[00:05:30.810]and even across all of the majors.
[00:05:33.330]And so, having a specific template
[00:05:35.340]for actuarial science majors was very helpful
[00:05:38.580]and made me feel like I had a little bit extra guidance
[00:05:41.910]on such a specific major, yeah.
[00:05:44.380]Yeah, so the very first course
[00:05:46.860]in the Professional Enhancement Program
[00:05:48.270]focuses on investing in your strengths,
[00:05:50.670]and we really talk about what is internationally
[00:05:53.310]known as the Clifton Strengths Finder Assessment.
[00:05:55.680]So, how has knowing your strengths helped you
[00:05:58.080]as an actuarial science student and in your internship?
[00:06:01.200]Knowing my strengths
[00:06:02.130]and through the BSAD 111 course
[00:06:04.500]that had us take the Clifton Strengths Finder
[00:06:07.890]was huge for me in the interview process.
[00:06:11.610]Coming from high school to college, I knew who I was,
[00:06:14.340]but I was learning a lot about myself.
[00:06:16.380]It was a transition where the things
[00:06:18.960]that were always true about me weren't necessarily true.
[00:06:21.540]You know, I wasn't playing organized sports anymore,
[00:06:23.850]and that was a huge part of my identity before.
[00:06:26.280]And so, people here didn't know that about me,
[00:06:28.380]recruiters don't know that about me,
[00:06:29.970]and it's not the biggest part of who I am now.
[00:06:33.420]And so kind of trying to find who I was
[00:06:35.850]and what pieces of that athlete
[00:06:37.560]that I could transfer into being an actuary,
[00:06:40.320]being a student
[00:06:42.120]was something that I think the Strengths Finder
[00:06:44.340]helped me to do
[00:06:45.510]because I had these tangible things that were unique to me
[00:06:48.420]and that I could spend time reflecting with,
[00:06:50.760]having a coach was super helpful
[00:06:52.860]because they were knowledgeable about the strengths
[00:06:55.080]and kind of the intersection,
[00:06:56.190]how did the strengths compliment each other?
[00:06:58.470]And knowing that in going through that process
[00:07:01.770]helped me to bring just my full self into an interview
[00:07:06.300]because I knew who I was, I knew who my strengths were,
[00:07:08.700]and I knew what I could provide to a company.
[00:07:11.070]And so then it was easier to kind of match
[00:07:13.770]does this employer value the strengths that I have,
[00:07:17.820]and do I think that I can provide the type of skills
[00:07:22.020]they need, and are they going to have an environment
[00:07:24.600]that fosters my strengths?
[00:07:26.250]Yeah.
[00:07:27.083]Well, and I know you for several years,
[00:07:29.070]and I know you're a Clifton Strengths Finder,
[00:07:31.350]positivity strength is really a key value
[00:07:35.640]and personality characteristic of yours.
[00:07:38.520]So, and I've always appreciated your positivity, Whitney.
[00:07:40.740]So...
[00:07:41.573]Thanks, Rachel.
[00:07:42.406]Yes.
[00:07:43.380]What did you accomplish in your internship this summer
[00:07:45.780]that you are the most proud of?
[00:07:48.330]Yeah, I think one of the things I'm most proud of
[00:07:50.910]is that I kind of went off script with one of the projects.
[00:07:54.480]It was kind of in tandem with their innovation day,
[00:07:58.140]which is just a day that the actuarial department devotes
[00:08:00.720]to updating a process that may be becoming outdated.
[00:08:04.980]I think innovation day is important to Northwestern Mutual
[00:08:07.290]because as a large corporation in a very defined industry,
[00:08:10.740]it's easy to just go with the flow,
[00:08:12.630]go with what you did last quarter, last year,
[00:08:14.580]the last time you went through the process.
[00:08:16.560]But ,with technology improving,
[00:08:19.410]there's so many opportunities to grow.
[00:08:21.330]And so just a day to have some creative juices flowing.
[00:08:25.050]And so, I had noticed earlier in my internship
[00:08:28.710]that there was a very manual project
[00:08:30.720]that was not a huge project, but it was repeated annually.
[00:08:33.690]So, I thought that improving it
[00:08:37.230]could have a longstanding effect.
[00:08:38.730]And so, for the manual process
[00:08:42.150]instead of just looking at a PDF
[00:08:43.800]and typing it manually into Excel, I decided to,
[00:08:46.470]so my innovation day, writing in a script in R,
[00:08:50.490]which is a coding language that input
[00:08:53.580]or kind of read in the PDF file,
[00:08:55.980]then spit out the text into an Excel document.
[00:08:58.800]And, since that was something
[00:09:00.450]that I had kind of created myself, it was my own brainchild,
[00:09:03.150]I was super proud of the impact
[00:09:06.240]that I was hopefully leaving on the actuarial department
[00:09:08.100]that can be implemented in the future.
[00:09:10.020]Yeah, I'm sure you save them a ton of time
[00:09:12.750]just by turning something very manual into something
[00:09:15.240]that's much more automated.
[00:09:16.500]Yeah.
[00:09:17.333]So, well, you mentioned R and using R programming language
[00:09:20.340]for that, is R something that you learned
[00:09:22.260]in your actuarial science classes here at UNL?
[00:09:24.390]It is, yes.
[00:09:25.223]I got my introduction into R
[00:09:27.060]from my college of business classes.
[00:09:29.520]So the first kind of taste I had of R
[00:09:31.680]was in a supply chain management class
[00:09:34.740]that's an actuarial elective,
[00:09:36.360]and that class was called predictive analytics.
[00:09:38.670]Oh, yeah.
[00:09:39.503]So that class walked us through the basics of coding,
[00:09:41.490]just kind of the basic how to assign a variable,
[00:09:43.740]but then it also got into various statistical tools
[00:09:47.610]that you could use, and we had data cases
[00:09:51.330]that we applied those tools to.
[00:09:53.337]And so that gave me a taste of statistical analysis and R.
[00:09:57.390]And then in my other actuarial elective
[00:09:59.610]that I'm in currently, we are doing different data cases
[00:10:04.020]with statistical regression modeling,
[00:10:05.940]which has given me a another glimpse of R
[00:10:09.810]and its use cases for actuarial science.
[00:10:12.750]That's awesome.
[00:10:13.583]I especially think that it's cool
[00:10:15.060]that you were able to take something
[00:10:17.220]that you learned in class
[00:10:18.720]that you hadn't known before you came here to Nebraska,
[00:10:21.270]and then was able to apply that into a real world company
[00:10:24.870]and a Fortune 500 company.
[00:10:26.490]Yes. So that's great.
[00:10:27.870]Yes, it was nice because actuarial interns,
[00:10:31.230]it's a lot going in.
[00:10:32.340]There's a lot of unknowns,
[00:10:33.450]but having some tangible technical skills going in
[00:10:36.330]was a huge difference maker in my confidence
[00:10:38.970]of who I was.
[00:10:40.260]Absolutely.
[00:10:41.460]Well, final question for you.
[00:10:43.320]What skills did you learn in your internship that you expect
[00:10:47.520]to utilize in your full-time position after you graduate?
[00:10:50.520]Yeah, so one big skill that I learned
[00:10:53.430]and I had to build up that I didn't expect to have
[00:10:55.620]to learn is prioritization of tasks and time management.
[00:10:59.880]A lot of the times I had more than one project task
[00:11:03.540]going on at the same time,
[00:11:04.560]whether it be a couple different things
[00:11:06.120]within the same project or two completely separate projects,
[00:11:09.360]and knowing which one should take the most of my time
[00:11:13.740]that day, that week was a bit of a struggle.
[00:11:16.710]And so, I learned that communicating with my manager
[00:11:20.160]and understanding like what is the deadlines,
[00:11:22.260]what are the time expectations for this was huge.
[00:11:24.780]And then transferring it back to my own organization,
[00:11:27.930]making sure I have everything kind of lined out
[00:11:31.380]where and when it's important
[00:11:33.360]for these things to be completed.
[00:11:35.070]And then another huge aspect was with question asking.
[00:11:39.390]A big part of an internship is learning
[00:11:42.060]because they know that actuarial interns,
[00:11:43.890]there's a lot of industry knowledge
[00:11:45.750]that we just haven't had the chance to build yet as interns
[00:11:48.750]that we learn through these internships.
[00:11:50.730]So there is an expectation
[00:11:52.080]that we'll have a lot of questions,
[00:11:53.910]but as I got deeper into the summer
[00:11:55.350]and more experienced, more aware of the resources available
[00:11:59.730]to me it was a balance of can I dig into this
[00:12:04.020]and try to figure out the answer,
[00:12:05.280]my answer to the question myself
[00:12:07.620]because you learn a lot along the way in that process.
[00:12:10.680]Or is it something where I don't wanna waste an entire day
[00:12:13.470]of work and I should ask my manager this question
[00:12:16.050]that will maybe take them five minutes to answer.
[00:12:18.900]Well, Whitney, I think that's really insightful
[00:12:20.400]because the skills that you just mentioned
[00:12:23.220]can actually transcend industries and job functions.
[00:12:26.520]So whether you stay in actuarial science
[00:12:28.650]and as an actuary, you're gonna be able
[00:12:31.290]to utilize this regardless.
[00:12:32.790]So, that's wonderful.
[00:12:34.020]Yeah, thank you.
[00:12:35.130]Well, thank you so much for your time today.
[00:12:37.680]We absolutely love learning about your internship
[00:12:40.080]and just really appreciate having you
[00:12:41.670]as part of the Nebraska business family.
[00:12:43.470]Well thank you, Rachel.
[00:12:44.623](upbeat music)

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Husker Internships: Whitney's Actuarial Intern Experience

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