I joined BBS Consultants & Actuaries in 2018 after finishing my degree in Physics with Astrophysics, and BBS was acquired by Broadstone in late 2019. I am a Senior Actuarial Consultant working in the Pensions team and having started my career in Bristol I now work in our Manchester office.

Why did you want to become an actuary?

Whilst at university I never had any idea of what I wanted to have a career in and ended up applying for graduate schemes across a wide range of jobs. However, this quickly became very tiresome so I decided to write a list of what I was after in a career.

• Dealing with numbers;
• Obvious progression path
• Well-paid and good security

…were the main criteria, and it quickly became obvious that the actuarial route fit the bill on paper.

Having not heard ‘actuary’ once in my 23 years, I concentrated on applying solely for actuarial jobs, thinking that if it didn’t work out then I could always try something else. After 7 years have flown by, I’d say it’s working out pretty nicely.

What do you particularly like about working at Broadstone?

The best thing about Broadstone is the people, for sure. It’s full of good people who look out for each other and have a passion for what they do, which is infectious and makes you enjoy working.

What follows from that collective passion is that you’re naturally producing work to a really high standard and that’s really satisfying. That’s even more true in my eyes given I work in pensions, as I know that the pension schemes we work with are in the best possible place to provide all of the right benefits to their members.

What does your day-to-day role involve?

I provide support to our client managers who work directly with pension scheme trustees, primarily working on the actuarial calculations involved in valuing member benefits.

Alongside this, I’ve been heavily involved with a company-wide project to put the infrastructure in place to deal with GMP equalisation for all our clients. This is a set of highly technical calculations, testing my mathematical skills as well as working with different teams across the business to deliver the desired results.

What’s the best thing about your job?

I’d say there’s two things… firstly, knowing the end product of the work I do has a positive real-world impact, (people get the pension benefits promised to them), is really satisfying. This is especially meaningful for me as when I spoke to my grandparents about working in pensions, their immediate response was that workplace pensions were a scam, having been let down by the schemes they were part of. Knowing that won’t be the case for the members of the schemes we work with is pretty great.

Secondly, the variety of the work that I get to be involved in is really engaging. No two pension schemes are the same, each having their own quirks and complications. As a result, whilst my day-to-day work might have a similar goal (e.g. valuing a member’s benefits or an entire scheme’s benefit commitments on a particular day), there are always complexities which mean no two jobs are the same. The pensions environment is always changing too, with regulations and legal advice evolving all the time, meaning there’s always new projects to get stuck into and new aspects to think about and communicate.

Do you have any advice for someone thinking about entering the profession?

Go for it!!  I’ve found it a really rewarding experience.

If you are unsure if it’s the right career for you, (and want more information instead of jumping head-first like I did!) then reach out to people working in the areas you’re interested in and ask questions.  I’ve found that all my actuarial colleagues are incredibly generous with their time and help will always be given to those who seek it.