Image: Stacey Lin
B. Actuarial Studies (Honours) 2016
Following her graduation from the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies (Honours), Stacey Lin joined Taylor Fry as an Actuarial Consultant. She is specialised in providing analytical solutions to clients across both public and corporate sectors. Stacey qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries Australia in 2019.
During her time at ANU, Stacey was a CBE student ambassador and completed two internships with Munich Re Group in Sydney. Stacey also spent six weeks in the Czech Republic as a Cultural Education Volunteer (through AIESEC) and undertook the summer school program at LSE.
Stacey’s responses to questions from CBE students
1. How did internship experiences add value to your career?
- It gives you a taste of the work life, helping you to decide if you want to start working or continue with further studies when you graduate.
- An internship prepares you for the new expectations and gives you a “soft-landing” onto your first graduate job. The expectations on you at workplace can be very different from that when you are a student in university, e.g. accountability, communication, teamwork etc. In a lot of cases, first job offers are a result of internships.
- An internship experience can give your future employer an opportunity to know you as well as a chance for you to decide on whether you want to work for them in the future.
2. What did you do as a CBE student ambassador?
I participated in ANU Open days, gave speeches at student workshops, held a webinar for prospective students and wrote articles for promotional materials. These experiences helped me with my public speaking, presentation, communication and writing skills, which are very important to my career in actuarial consulting.
Through the student ambassador program, I met and worked with lots of brilliant people. For example, I knew Preetham Arvind through the program, who then joined the Taylor Fry a year ahead of me and introduced their graduate opportunity to me. He has been a good buddy at work and a great friend of mine.
3. What can students do to help them successfully reach the interview stage when applying for jobs?
- Figure out what you want as a future career. Actuarial studies, for example, can potentially lead to careers in insurance, analytics, finance, management consulting etc. Reaching out and talking to people working in the industry will help with your decision.
- Being good at what you are interested in. This is not limited to a high GPA in the relevant courses, but also includes extensive reading, research, continuous curiosity and reaching out to talk to the experts.
- Demonstrate your passion and how good you are in the CV and cover letter. Focus on what your advantages are and answer the key question of why you think the employer should hire you.