HSancen
May 19th 2011, 12:59 PM
Hello all,
I just finished up my sophomore year at Indiana University. I'm majoring in Math and Economics and will be taking my first exam, Exam FM, in mid-August. I'm really interested in going into the actuarial field and am taking as many steps as I can to get there. I haven't had any relevant experience yet but I am now sitting on two internship offers and was hoping you guys could help me on figuring out which one would be best to accept so as to improve my chances of getting an actuarial internship next summer.
The first offer I got is for an Account Management Intern at this really small IT company downtown. They weren't 100% clear on what I would be doing but they said I would be shifted around the various departments within Account Management including: customer service, cancellations, billing/invoicing, etc. I would probably spend a lot of time on the phone dealing with clients and I guess it would be a good way to improve my communication skills and get some solid experience working in a business setting.
The second offer is a Summer Intern position at my local community college. It would be for the Department of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning. I applied to it because they needed someone with strong statistic and computer skills. They said I would be working on several projects analyzing data and trends including data manipulation and a whole bunch of other stuff that seemed pretty involved and challenging. I would also spend some type writing reports. I think this is the department that carries out new programs and handles all the statistics for the school because they drilled me on my Excel/Access skills and experience with SPSS and other stats software.
I'm not sure which one I should take that would give me relevant experience I could showcase to a recruiter when applying for actuarial internships next summer. I like the idea of working in an actual business environment but then again I feel like all the stats and analysis work would also be valuable so I'm kinda torn between the two.
Any advice would greatly appreciated!! Thanks again!!!
I just finished up my sophomore year at Indiana University. I'm majoring in Math and Economics and will be taking my first exam, Exam FM, in mid-August. I'm really interested in going into the actuarial field and am taking as many steps as I can to get there. I haven't had any relevant experience yet but I am now sitting on two internship offers and was hoping you guys could help me on figuring out which one would be best to accept so as to improve my chances of getting an actuarial internship next summer.
The first offer I got is for an Account Management Intern at this really small IT company downtown. They weren't 100% clear on what I would be doing but they said I would be shifted around the various departments within Account Management including: customer service, cancellations, billing/invoicing, etc. I would probably spend a lot of time on the phone dealing with clients and I guess it would be a good way to improve my communication skills and get some solid experience working in a business setting.
The second offer is a Summer Intern position at my local community college. It would be for the Department of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning. I applied to it because they needed someone with strong statistic and computer skills. They said I would be working on several projects analyzing data and trends including data manipulation and a whole bunch of other stuff that seemed pretty involved and challenging. I would also spend some type writing reports. I think this is the department that carries out new programs and handles all the statistics for the school because they drilled me on my Excel/Access skills and experience with SPSS and other stats software.
I'm not sure which one I should take that would give me relevant experience I could showcase to a recruiter when applying for actuarial internships next summer. I like the idea of working in an actual business environment but then again I feel like all the stats and analysis work would also be valuable so I'm kinda torn between the two.
Any advice would greatly appreciated!! Thanks again!!!