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#MyWTW: A Day In The Life Of Henna Nagpal, Senior Actuarial Advisor, Mumbai
Henna Nagpal, Senior Advisor, talks us about joining Willis Towers Watson as a graduate and her favorite parts of her role.
How long have you worked at Willis Towers Watson?
I started my career at Willis Towers Watson nearly a year and a half ago, fresh out of college with no prior corporate experience. Since then I’ve been continuously evolving and motivated to go that extra mile!
What are you responsible for at Willis Towers Watson?
I’m a part of the Actuarial Valuation Team where the major portion of our work involves liability calculation and data analysis. It is a challenging yet dynamic role that gives me an opportunity to work collaboratively with colleagues all over the globe.
How does your day usually start?
I start my day with a prayer and some fun Zumba. Formerly a trainer, I’ve always urged my students to start their day on a healthy note for a happy soul converging to a zestful work day. I follow the same.
What are some of the other activities that you might do on a typical day at work?
Apart from client deliverables and meetings, I work on special projects, mentor new hires, participate in cultural events, and interact with teams across the world. Leisure times include enhancing my table tennis skills at the space set up at office.
What is your favorite part about your role?
My favorite part about the job, is my job itself!
Being a part of a pilot team coupled with the dynamic nature of business urges me to strive for professional excellence. In the early stages of my career I’m encouraged to learn, broaden my horizons, empowering me to share my ideas and contribute to Willis Towers Watson’s success.
What is your favorite part about working for Willis Towers Watson?
Willis Towers Watson gives us a glimpse of the competitive corporate world and a professional platform to work and shine. It is an employee centric place to work, coupled with exciting people and a vibrant work culture. As well as this, work culture is based on the perfect blend of inclusion and diversity, excellence and opportunity.
Learn more about our different roles and business areas here.
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#MyWTW: From Retirement Graduate To Actuarial Analyst
Basil Al Hatoum, Actuarial Analyst and former Retirement Graduate in Toronto, discusses his experience at Willis Towers Watson.
Can you tell us about the day-to-day responsibilities of your job?
I am a member of multiple client teams. As the most junior person on the team, I am generally responsible for preparing data, doing benefit calculations for our clients, setting up processes in our programs that reflect the plan we are working with, preparing deliverables for clients, and much more.
What was your greatest challenge or learning in this role?
The key challenge for me, especially at the beginning, was learning about all the different pension plans that clients set up for their employees. They are all unique either in their plan benefit formulas or their assumptions, or in the benefits they offer. While the basic idea of a pension plan is simple, clients’ needs vary greatly and their plans will reflect that.
What is your proudest achievement since joining Willis Towers Watson?
Definitely my first in-person client meeting. I was given the opportunity to deliver a portion of the presentation that we had prepared. The senior consultants on my team had faith in me, and that gave me the confidence I needed to deliver calmly under pressure.
How would you describe the culture at Willis Towers Watson?
People who like to work hard and are self-motivated will do very well at Willis Towers Watson. If you put your hand up and ask for interesting new projects, you will get them! The more you put into your work, the more opportunities you’ll have to lead new projects or work on things that interest you. People here are very supportive and like to have fun as well. I’ve had the opportunity to play sports in many corporate leagues with my co-workers, not just from Retirement but from the entire Toronto office.
With the WTW Toronto Basketball Team:
What do you like best about working at Willis Towers Watson?
Definitely the people. My colleagues are supportive of my work and have become great friends as well. We regularly go out for lunch, play sports outside of work, and we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Also, the business casual dress code of ‘dress for your day’ is amazing!
What is your hope for your career in the future?
I would like to continue to grow within our company. I don’t think of progress as a role or a title, I’d like to get to a point where I’m using my experience to simplify problems for my clients. I’d like to solve real world problems.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give someone considering a graduate opportunity at Willis Towers Watson?
Obviously, the technical skills are very important, but what recruiters are looking for are great people they can connect with. Having a meaningful conversation with a recruiter where you can demonstrate your people skills is a great first step.
Learn more about our different roles and business areas here.
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#MyWTW: Anxiety, Autism And Successfully Completing An Apprenticeship
Mathew Stewart, Cloud Delivery Analyst, shares his experience of applying for and joining Willis Towers Watson.
Tackling Self-Doubt And Learning A New Skill
This may be a long read, but in order to understand the impact that working for Willis Towers Watson has had on me, it’s probably best to start with a bit of a background.
Before joining Willis Towers Watson I had been out of employment for some years. Being a person who is on the autistic spectrum, as well as a long-time sufferer of anxiety and depression, I had always held a somewhat bleak outlook about my future. I’d shy away from social interactions or anything that I considered myself to be incapable of dealing with, which meant I spent a lot of time at home alone. For too long I just accepted my issues and resigned myself to feeling like my life was stagnant and would not become any more than it was.
However, I eventually concluded that fighting against my own issues was essentially fighting against a part of myself, so I began to change my way of thinking to one where I could work with my problems instead of trying to avoid or ignore them. I initially decided that a job involving working from home could be an ideal fit as I could still be productive even when having difficult days, which would see me not wanting to go out and face that big scary world that lay beyond my one bedroom flat in Ipswich.
I began to make use of my free time to start learning IT skills with the help of whatever free internet materials I could find. It was hard and frustrating work, but over time I improved, and my confidence grew so that I felt ready to apply for a role that would let me build on the basics I had learned.
A New Challenge: Applying For Jobs
I had previously signed up to several job websites and one day received an email update which included a listing for an apprenticeship at Willis Towers Watson. I didn’t think there was a chance anything would come of this, but eventually I decided to apply and completed the online aptitude test. “This is pointless, it won’t happen,” I told myself.
But days later I’d receive a call from Jolie, a recruiter at Willis Towers Watson. As expected, she was interested in the gap in my work experience, but we also talked about what I’d been doing in my free time and how I’d been trying to learn new skills in an effort to make myself more employable.
We also talked at length about my interests, hobbies, and even about my issues and how they affected me (something I always found difficult but in this instance, it was surprisingly easy; Jolie was a good listener, kind, encouraging and made me feel really comfortable). Jolie took the time to get to know more about me as a person and not just what was on the CV in front of her. She spoke with me at length for some time before saying that she was aware of another possible position in another team that might suit me better and would speak to the hiring manager about a possible interview. It didn’t take long until I received an email confirming this and providing all the details.
Conquering Interview Nerves
Fast forward to the day of interview.
I almost didn’t go! I spent well over an hour at home arguing with myself because my clothes didn’t fit as well as I might like, my hair wouldn’t stay quite the right way and telling myself a hundred different reasons why it just wasn’t meant for me.
However, I decided that regardless of the outcome this would still be a learning experience and I could at least ask for feedback on why I hadn’t been offered the role.
I wasn’t as nervous as normal in the interview. The people interviewing me were really friendly, open and wanted to get to know more about me, my hobbies, interests and the conversation seemed to flow really well. They also took the time to make sure I was comfortable and happy to go ahead. I was able to remain calm and answer all the questions well; I made an effort to make regular eye contact and engage in conversation rather than using the typical question and response style most interviews take.
I left feeling like the interview had gone really well, but didn’t think I had a chance to actually get the role: I kept telling myself not to get too excited because there was bound to be someone with more experience, more qualifications, or that little something extra… That is up until that evening when I received a call from Jolie asking me how I was and how the interview went and, to my surprise, tell me I GOT THE ROLE!
My Willis Towers Watson
I began working at Willis Towers Watson in September 2018 and I’ve seen myself grow from strength to strength. The support and encouragement of my team (Cloud Enablement), my buddy (Jackie Hay) and other colleagues, plus the general culture embraced by the company has not only made me feel welcome, comfortable and engaged, but has also enabled me to grow.
I have learned technical skills and picked up knowledge from my apprenticeship and other team members. I’ve learned to deal with challenges and obstacles in a different way and have grown in confidence. What’s more, my role has not only seen me regularly leaving the house, but travelling to London (which I’d avoided for some years) and even leaving the country. This was big for me!
The team are always happy to take the time to help with my learning and development: whether that be stepping back and giving me space or getting involved and hands on, even giving me opportunities to expand my learning outside of the apprenticeship.
More Than Colleagues
Even with the above, the biggest impact has been on a more personal level. The rewards have also flowed over into my life in general and I feel like I am now on the road to becoming the person I was meant to be, which I can only attribute that to Willis Towers Watson. Particularly the Cloud Programme Director (Karen McDonagh-Reynolds) and Cloud Delivery Lead (Adrienne Hipkin) who are a constant source of support, encouragement and praise and to the Head of Cloud Engineering (Stuart Wright) who has sought to challenge me outside of my role in learning more technical skills and expanding my capabilities. These are people (amongst many others) whom I have come to think of not only as colleagues but also as good friends and have changed my entire outlook for the better.
So, that is my story which I wanted to share to let others know what life is like at Willis Towers Watson, to say thank you to those who supported me and to inspire other people who are thinking of applying. It goes without saying that I would definitely recommend anyone considering a role here, as I didn’t just gain a job or an apprenticeship, but also a part of myself.
If you would like to learn more about Inclusion and Diversity at Willis Towers Watson, you can find out more here or you can take a look at our current roles here.
Cloud Program Team: Myself, Adrienne Hipkin (Cloud Delivery Lead) & Karen McDonagh Reynolds (Program Director)