Matt joined our Analyst Graduate Programme in September 2017 after completing his degree in Financial Mathematics at the University of Nottingham.
I studied Maths, Further Maths and Business at A-Level and enjoyed them all. Financial Maths combined these three, plus it gave me the opportunity to learn more about finance. I felt that Nottingham offered me the best of both worlds; it was a campus University and also a decent sized city.
I wasn’t really sure. For me, the normal route for a Maths graduate would have been accountancy, but it didn’t really appeal to me. Hence, I was looking for something a little different.
The Admiral Graduate Programme appealed to me primarily because I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I could rotate around departments. Although Admiral is predominantly known for Car Insurance, I was aware that it was growing into new areas such as Loans, Car Finance and Home Insurance and the opportunity to experience different industries really appealed to me.
It was a really good experience. It was great to have the chance to get to know the other grads before we went on our placements, because we’ve all stayed really close.
We had a series of Port of Calls with various departments from across the business, which gave us a good understanding of the company. The system we used for our training in Customer Services was also really relevant to what I’m currently doing, as I’m required to use it every day.
I’m working in Motor Pricing. When I first joined the team I was dealing with pricing queries from the contact centre agents, when for example, a customer could not understand how a change in their policy had affected their premium. The Pricing Queries team essentially check and confirm that the price is right and communicate this to the agent and customer. I’m now learning about ratings and pricing structures on a deeper level.
Yes, lots! I’ve learned so much about Admiral’s pricing structure and what influences these. I’ve furthered my analytical skills and started to learn some basic coding.
I’d like to look at Loans or Car Finance because they’re relatively new products and slightly more Finance based; it’d be nice to put what I learned in uni into practice a little more and I could take forward what I’ve already picked up in Pricing in terms of factors that may affect our decision to lend to our customers. I’d like to learn more about what the Risk department does and I’d definitely consider applying for a placement there.
I like that my team give me the freedom to look into new areas for rating. I also find it really interesting investigating and identifying correlations between various rating factors.
Yes I would! The people here are lovely and there are so many opportunities, so whatever you’re into, you’ll fit in somewhere! I’ve never worked in a place where it’s so easy to just pop over and speak to someone if you’ve got a problem; they’ll just drop what they’re doing and help you out.
In terms of the written bit of the application process, take your time. Don’t simply give generic answers, because one of the main things Admiral looks for in their candidates is character; the best person to do the job isn’t necessarily the smartest, it’s the person who gets on well with everyone, is proactive and can think outside the box. Just be yourself!
