Risk Actuary and Director at a life insurance company in Canada
- Where do you work?
Top life insurance company in Canada (one of the three largest life insurance company in Canada that also has presence in the US and Europe).
2. Type of Company?
Traditional Insurance
3. Prior to the pandemic, did you work primarily in an office or from home?
100% in an office
4. Do you travel for work? If so, how much? To where?
Very rarely. Just a few occasions traveling to company’s office in another city
5. What type of vacation benefits do you get?
Depending on the number of years you are with the company and your position. E.g. if you work more than 10 years, you get 20 days of vacations. But you can also get 20 days if you are a manager. Besides vacation days, we also have 3 personal days.
6. How flexible is your company about when/how you get work done?
It depends on your team and leader. The standard hour is 7.5 hours per day with 0.5 – 1 hours lunch break. You can start early like 6-7AM or later like 9-9:30AM. My hours were around 9:30-5:30PM and the flexibility depends on the team and the leader that you have.
7. Are there set “business hours” you’re expected to be working and available?
I think the core hours are around 10-3 but again, it depends on the team and the leader.
8. Do you often work more than 40 hours per week? Is there pressure from leadership or peers to do so?
No, I’m fortunate to not work overtime much in the past 10 years; only during “crisis” time. I think there is some invisible and indirect pressure – if one sees his/her leaders or colleagues working longer hours, he/she may feel the tendency to do that. But overall, I’m pretty good at keeping my working hours contained since I believe I can learn more outside of work through volunteering or continuing education that in turn, can help me do my work more efficiently and effectively.
9. Do you hang out with coworkers outside of work?
Not much. But I have a couple of coworkers that became friends that I talk to.
10. What types of company sponsored events have you attended or has your company hosted?
Company has a lot of events organized for the actuarial community as well as general events. Within the actuarial space, they have actuarial conferences, webcasts, forums or more casual events (BBQ, outdoor games etc). Each department also hosts events with bigger celebrations during the end of the year. Within our department, we have an Employee Engagement team (volunteered by the employees) that help organize events for the employees.
11. What aspects of working for your company or in your geographic location do you love? What would you change?
What I like the most about working in my company is the people. Everyone is friendly and approachable. The company is large and so there are opportunities in different areas; although it can be challenging to switch around. If the company can have some formal rotation program for managerial level and up, that would be great.
12. If you could work anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
I like to be in Canada with my family. However, my parents live in Vietnam and if it’s possible I would love to be able to work 1-2 months in Vietnam per year to spend more time with my parents.