UTAR Alumni

MARCH 2011

The Next Stage of Life

Tan Hui Yin, Karen

Bachelor of Science(Hons) Actuarial Science

(Class on Aug 2010)

Six months have gone by since I start working. As a graduate from Actuarial Science Degree, it is common for us to look for a job in banking, insurance or reinsurance and investment industry. Thus, here I am, working in a reinsurance company. Internet and newspaper are a friend for job seeker, thought much prefers internet as it is the easiest and quickest way to find a job.

I still remember the days that I went for interviews. I am lucky to be able to pass all the three interviews. But, I can only choose one among the three offers that I got. One of it is from a bank while the other two came from a direct insurer and a reinsurance company. I choose to turn down the offer from the bank since it is not a position that I wanted. However, I have a trouble choosing between the other two offers. Both offers are equally attractive and have the same position. Nevertheless, I have decided to accept the offer that came first, that is from the reinsurance company.

Reinsurance industry is not an industry that was well known as they did not deal directly with consumer. Up to today, I still have difficulty trying to explain what a reinsurance company does. To sum up, reinsurance can be define as the insurance for an insurance company and they help to spread the risk throughout the world. It is a complicated but interesting industry as every direct insurer required a reinsurance programme and it is an international business. I am working as an executive in Corporate Development Department.

My job involves risk management and compliance and finance as well. As a fresh graduate that do not have any experience, most of my duty involve filing, data entry, writing report and sending out notification and reminder. However, I did learn a lot from this simple task. My background as an Actuarial Science undergraduate do help me a lot in my job especially the ability to read annual reports, understanding of financial ratios and insurance and also some understanding of what is reinsurance.

Nevertheless, challenges still exist in my job. In a corporate world, communications are very important.

As part of my job, I have to check for errors and solve the problems that arise from it. Besides that, I have to send a reminder to respective departments to submit a certain report too. All of this involves communication within the company. Imagine, sending an email telling your senior management to clarify a certain error and at the same time trying not to sound impolite. We have to be extra careful on the wording of the emails or it will turn into an email war which actually did happen in my six months working.

There are ups and downs in a working life.

Sometime it is bored and sometime it is challenging. There is a motivational factor that drives me on in spite of all that. There is a dream where I wish that it will come true. Set a goal and dream of it. It will become your most valuable motivational factor in the world. If you have achieved one of the goals, continue to the next one or set a new one and head towards it. The satisfaction feeling from achieving a goal through hard work is something that is most amazing and unforgettable. Think of your previous successes and you will want more of it again.