Christina Maragoudakis

Individual Life Business Graduate

The University of Notre Dame Australia

Bachelor of Commerce

2023

What's your job about?

I am on TAL’s Graduate Program working in one of TALs largest business units, Individual Life. Graduates on the program have the opportunity to complete four rotations across a two-year period, where each rotation has a length of 6 months. So far, I have completed rotations in Marketing, Business Management and Training and Development. I am currently on my last rotation of the program and will soon be looking to roll off into a full-time role at TAL once this finishes.

My current rotation is working for the Project Management Office as a Business Analyst. The Project Management Office runs and manages all projects across Individual Life, as well as key enterprise programs. My role is to work closely with the broader business to ensure their needs and interests on a project are met. My role is to act as the person who is the conduit between the technology development teams and the business to ensure business needs are translated into software specifications. I am specifically in charge of ensuring the requirements are accurately documented, met, and that they deliver a positive benefit for the business overall.

What's your background?

After completing my HSC I went on to study a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Notre Dame Australia where my subjects had a focus on Human Resources & Management.

A pivotal moment throughout university for me was in my last year of study. As part of my degree, we were given the opportunity to complete an internship in our chosen area of interest. My focus was Human Resources, so I set out on a journey to find an internship in this field.

I was searching LinkedIn for internships when I came across TALs campaign for the next Graduate Program intake. The first thing I did was to research the business, I hoped onto the website and read all about what they do and what they stand for. TAL’s purpose was what stood out to me the most, I knew that for me personally it was important to work for a company that had similar values, putting their customers at the heart of what they do.

Because of this, I messaged the recruiter for the Graduate Recruitment campaign about the potential of an internship opportunity in their People & Culture Business Unit. The recruiter messaged me back and a few weeks later I found myself walking into the beautiful TAL office in Sydney and knew in my heart that this was the place for me.

I went on to complete a 6-month internship in the People & Culture team, where I was part of the Organisational Development team. Because of this experience, I submitted an application for the graduate programs next intake for Individual Life and received an offer, which is how I got to where I am today!

Could someone with a different background do your job?

One of my favourite things about TAL is that it welcomes people with diverse backgrounds and study qualifications. I started at TAL with limited knowledge in relation to Life Insurance. As I progressed through my rotations, I learnt so much about the business. The most important part of a Grad Program is curiosity and drive to learn. One of my business sponsors used to say that one of the main jobs as a graduate is to ‘be a sponge and soak up all the knowledge that you possibly can’. If you have a passion to learn and are willing to give things a go there will be space for you at TAL no matter your background.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The things I love most about being a graduate at TAL is the community and support network. We have wonderful managers, team members, business sponsors and graduate program coordinators who ensure our experience is running smoothly and that we are getting the most value out of it as possible. This goes hand in hand with the culture at TAL, the way I would describe it is warm and welcoming. Everyone that I have met and/or worked with has been incredibly kind and generous with their time, especially if you need a hand with something.

What are the limitations of your job?

I would not say this is a limitation, more so a challenge I have had to learn to overcome. This is learning to be comfortable with ambiguity. I’ve often experienced this when transitioning into new teams. It can be unsettling going into a new role every 6-months and having to re-learn an entire new team and discipline. Learning to be comfortable with change is what will help the most with this. Taking unrealistic expectations off yourself and genuinely doing your best to learn and ask questions is the most vital thing a graduate can do. I frequently remind myself that without change there cannot be growth, and so change should be embraced and not avoided.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Remind yourself that you don’t need to know everything right now. The purpose of being in a graduate program is to continuously learn. Be willing to ask for feedback and implement it.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone is on their own individual journeys, and it is unfair if you are comparing yourself for being at a different stage to others.
Take time for yourself to recharge. There is strength in knowing when you need a break.

Christopher Beck

Actuarial Graduate

The Australian National University

Bachelor of Actuarial Studies

2023

What's your job about?

I’m working as an Actuarial Analyst in the Individual Life division of TAL. In a nutshell, my job involves helping to set prices for ‘retail’ insurance policies – insurance sold through financial advisers. While it sounds simple on the surface, these policies are highly customisable, meaning that there can be tens of thousands of unique policies that must be priced both competitively and sustainably. This pricing is a balancing act, and it involves careful analysis and research.

To do this we use a variety of tools, such as Excel, R and Power BI. It’s not all technical, though – a large part of the job involves discussing findings and potential changes with others on the team and gathering as many opinions as possible. Communication skills are just as important as technical skills, and many decisions are not solely based on objective analysis.

What's your background?

I moved around several different cities (and countries!) while growing up, although most of my time was spent in Newcastle, NSW. During high school, I discovered that I had quite an affinity for maths, especially when the problems had real-life relevance and applications. However, I found most high-school level maths very abstract, dulling my enthusiasm towards it. This drove me towards pursuing a degree which combined mathematical concepts with real-world applications.

After much research, a degree called Actuarial Studies sounded like the perfect fit. The only problem was that it was not offered at my local university, meaning that I had to move to a different city to study it. I decided to take the leap and enrolled in a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies at ANU.

My time living independently at university taught me a lot of valuable life skills. During this time, I picked up a variety of jobs – some related to my degree, and some completely unrelated. These included being a university tutor, an intern for the ANU investment office, a data centre security guard, and an after-school care worker. This wide variety of jobs was a huge benefit to building many of my soft skills that would become essential for my later work, such as communication.

During my final year of University, I applied online and was accepted into my current graduate role at TAL, which I have been in for around 9 months.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I think it would be possible, although some level of mathematical/technical ability would be necessary. The most important skill for my role is logic – not mathematical logic, but the ability to look at a figure and understand whether it ‘makes sense’ or seems reasonable. This helps with solving the (inevitable) errors that will arise through analysis, which is not a skill inherent to the Actuarial Studies degree. Most industry-relevant knowledge can be picked up in the job, although having a baseline knowledge of how insurance companies operate is important.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love the open-ended nature of the problems that I have to solve at work. At school, and in your studies, technical questions are often limited in scope (as they need to be fit into exams). However, in my role, my tasks will often be open-ended and involve multiple days and weeks of problem-solving and analysis. This can include making a new dashboard to visualise our pricing or doing a ‘deep dive’ into our pricing structures for certain policies to see how they can be improved. I really enjoy the freedom of these tasks, and the ability to use my creative side.

What are the limitations of your job?

The limitations of my role go hand-in-hand with the favourite aspect of my role – the large, open-ended problems. While these are enjoyable pieces of work, they can often be very frustrating if you run into roadblocks in solving the problems. While open-ended problems can bring out interesting, creative solutions, the lack of ambiguity of each problem can also feel overwhelming at times, especially when starting in the role. However, my coworkers and manager are always happy to help when I feel frustrated or stuck on a piece of work.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Apply for jobs sooner rather than later. It’s easy to put off job applications, but starting the process early makes it so much easier.
Meet people and network. This can be people in your degree, at your university, or in the corporate world through networking events. This is especially valuable if you’re someone like me who had no prior exposure to the corporate world through family or friends.
Enjoy your time at university! It can be easy to get caught up on the academic side, but the university experience is so much more than just academics.

Duke Wang

Technology Grad - Group

The University of Melbourne

Master of Information Technology

2022

What's your job about?

As a technology graduate, my role involves diving into application development and dealing with data streams. My specialisation is AI and Machine Learning, so during the past rotations on the TAL Graduate Program, I have helped my teams develop AI products and provide AI business solutions to different departments. One of the AI solutions that I worked on to build a chatbot specifically relevant to the life insurance industry. The chatbot acts as a virtual TAL employee and has expertise in the company’s insurance products.

What's your background?

I grew up in China and moved to Melbourne in 2018 as an international student. I spent 4 years in Melbourne completing a Masters of Information Technology at The University of Melbourne.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes. The trend of AI in the future is non-coding, which means more people can engage in the product process, sharing their ideas and bring more innovations, even if they don’t have a coding background.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

Every time there are any improvements for my AI model, my favourite task is the entity extraction task (recognise people’s name and other information). During this process, I made a lot of breakthroughs, which allowed me to keep improving the model’s benchmark. I’m passionate about achieving the best solution at every step.

What are the limitations of your job?

As an AI Engineer at TAL, most of my job happens in the algorithm part and back-end part, which takes me away from highly engaging a product’s development cycle. In the future I hope to spend more time working with product development as my role evolves.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Keep studying consistently. Most people’s IQs are about the same, the key thing that distinguishes people after graduation is that they formed good habits and a growth mindset so they can keep learning.
Maintain a good relationship with your lecturer and don’t hesitate to contact your lecturer no matter how small the problem is.
Be humble but be brave. I got my first job after writing a straightforward email to the company’s CTO. Even though the application date for recruitment had closed, I still got the job!

What is the coolest thing about your graduate program?

The Japan business trip stands out as the coolest experience so far. TAL is part of the Dai-ichi Life family, and to promote Dai-ichi Life's global initiatives and communication, graduates are provided with a valuable learning opportunity to visit their Tokyo headquarters. TAL graduates go to Japan in the second year of the program to experience Dai-ichi Life's corporate culture, history, and spirit firsthand. We visited the underwriting team's office and had meaningful discussions with Dai-ichi Life graduates.

What impressed you most about your graduate program?

As a graduate at TAL, we participate in many enriching activities. The Graduate Development Days we attend throughout the program stand out to me. These provide opportunities to learn soft skills such as leadership, empathy, and problem-solving abilities. While these skills aren't directly related to my technical role, they're essential for my career development. I appreciate how TAL invests in graduates with a long-term perspective, focusing on overall professional growth rather than just technical skills.

I'm also impressed by the wellness benefits TAL provides. The gym on level 9 is actually my second favourite place in the office (after my desk, of course!). I enjoy exercising there after work, where I often run into other graduates and team members. It's a great way to unwind and stay healthy.

Michael Lin

Business Graduate – Individual Life

University of New South Wales

Bachelor of Commerce/Science

2021

What's your job about?

I’m a Business Graduate at TAL, Australia’s largest life insurer. Throughout the program, I have been involved in three different rotations, where I have had the opportunity to partner with the leadership team, helping them maximise performance and deliver business strategies. I’ve owned and facilitated trading performance forums, playing a part in maintaining our reporting and analytics portfolio. A lot of my role is also initiative and strategy related. I’ve completed rotations in our program office and corporate strategy, working closely with the business to understand their needs and interests and then delivered presentations to stakeholders. I’ve also had the opportunity to develop comprehensive strategic plans, helping to run a strategy workshop with our leaders.

Overall, my job has been quite diverse, but having the flexibility to choose my rotations has allowed me to focus on areas that are continually improving and involved in managing our business. Being a graduate has also given me access to several extra-curricular and development activities. Throughout the year, we attend development days to develop our soft skills such as presentation delivery, personal branding and design thinking. These extra-curricular opportunities have allowed me to step out of the office to places like Western Sydney University and even cooking for a cause at OzHarvest.

What's your background?

I grew up in the Sutherland Shire area of Sydney. I wanted to study Commerce, Education or Science as these were the areas I resonated the most with throughout school. I decided to study a Bachelor of Commerce/Science at UNSW. After university, I started working at BT, Westpac’s Wealth Management arm, in customer service. This introduced me to life insurance and inadvertently TAL, as TAL acquired Westpac’s life insurance business not long after. I transitioned to TAL with an open and curious mindset. This curiosity led me to TAL’s graduate program, which I applied for and was fortunate enough to be offered a position.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, being a graduate in Individual Life opens the door to a very diverse range of areas. The Individual Life business unit is involved in essentially all aspects of the insurance value chain from product development, pricing, sales, marketing, customer service and numerous support functions. Whilst some areas will require some technical knowledge, being a graduate means you’re able to upskill and learn whilst working. For example, the reporting function in my first rotation required some more advanced Excel skills, and I was able to naturally learn and improve throughout the rotation without feeling pressured. If you have a positive attitude, motivation and are willing to learn whilst challenging yourself you will enjoy being on the graduate program at TAL.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love that as a graduate, you are valued and exposed to so many opportunities. As graduates, we are given, meaningful work that is fulfilling and valued by the business. I love being able to take inputs, whether it be business information or research and find creative ways to present and show that information to drive decisions. I’ve been able to identify improvement areas from my past role, and drive action in enhancing these aspects whilst being a graduate.

What are the limitations of your job?

The level of responsibility and workload varies from rotation to rotation. Each new rotation comes with new challenges. One challenge I have faced is having enough knowledge and creativity to participate in some meetings and ideation activities. Life Insurance is complex, and TAL, being Australia’s largest life insurer has no shortage of distribution channels and products. This is something that you’ll get better at over time, just make sure you take lots of notes and ask questions.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Connect: being a grad naturally exposes you to many people in the business across your four rotations. Building your personal brand is highly advantageous, especially if your paths cross with people you’ve met or worked with.

Engage: the grad program is your ‘ticket’ to a world of opportunity, choice and fun! Use your time as a grad to choose rotations you would find useful and enjoyable, participate in extra-curricular activities, and network!

Learn: be curious, ask questions, explore and learn as much as possible – strive to achieve, that’s what being a grad is about.

Alanah

Claims Consultant at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy)

What's your current role at TAL, how long have you been doing this sort of work?

My current role is a Claims Consultant. I have been in the Life Insurance industry for just under five years.

What's your background?

I studied a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy) and worked for a number of private clinics for a few years before moving into the Life Insurance industry. I started off as a Claims Consultant before moving into a Rehab Consultant role. I then transitioned from Westpac to TAL, moving back into the Claims team as a Claims Consultant once again.

Tell us a little bit about working in Claims at TAL (what it involves, how you learn, what new skills and knowledge have you developed in this time)?

Working in the Claims team at TAL is a very rewarding job. We spend each and every day assisting customers throughout what is usually a very difficult time in their lives. It involves a very high level of empathy – we really need to put ourselves in their shoes to understand just how life changing their illness could be, how it affects their everyday lives and what we can do to make it easier on them. You learn to be a very good listener and communicator; to see things from different perspectives and communicate in a way that people can understand. It has definitely made me a kinder person – you start to understand just how important life insurance is for people in their time of need and how providing a high level of service can really brighten their day.

What were some transferable skills that you have brought to TAL from your previous career?

My medical knowledge and background have definitely helped me as I transitioned from a Physio to a Claims Consultant. Additionally, my ability to understand function and how this translates into everyday tasks, as well as how a lack of function can prevent someone from returning to work. Having an allied health background has helped me understand treatment and potentially some extra services we can provide to assist our customers in their recovery. Above all, working in healthcare provided me time to really perfect my communication skills, which in my opinion is the single most important skill we need in claims.

Tell us about some of the things that attracted you to this line of work?

The work-life balance! TAL is extremely flexible, allowing us to work from home two days per week. This cuts down travel time and means we have more time left in the day to spend with the ones we love the most. There are a number of perks, including lifestyle days, ongoing learning opportunities and an amazing office culture!

Tell us about some of the challenging things about this role that anyone from outside the industry needs to be aware when deciding if this is a career path for them?

Dealing with people who are unwell everyday definitely takes its toll. Not all customers are happy and excited to talk to you, and not all of them appreciate the lengths in which we go for them. It can be difficult to deal with some of these more difficult customers, in combination with tight time frames and the other stressors of the role.

3 pieces of advice to anyone thinking about making a career change into Claims or the Life Insurance Industry:

People choose to work in healthcare because they have a desire to help people. Although this is in a different way, we spend every minute of the day helping those in need. If this is something you really want to do, I suggest giving the Life Insurance industry a go!
Really embrace the culture – this is a great place to work, and we spend so much time with our colleagues – make the most of it and get to know people through attending social events and making friends. It makes our job a lot easier to know we have people around us to support us!
Ask questions! No question is a silly question. There is a lot to learn – sometimes you will need to ask the same question multiple times, please do not be afraid to do so. There is so much support and so many people here to help you through your transition, you will never feel alone.

Tell us about some of the things that make TAL a great place to work?

I only have great things to say about TAL. The culture, opportunities, flexibility to balance life and an overwhelmingly large sense of job satisfaction is just the beginning!

Marina Santanelli

IT Grad Data Engineer at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Information Technology, Co-operative Scholarship

University of Technology Sydney (2022)

Change is inevitable. Welcome it. Embrace it.

What's your job about?

My current rotation is within the Enterprise Data team, which essentially looks after managing data for TAL. My role within this team is a Data Engineer role, which in simple terms involves developing, managing, maintaining and optimizing systems to effectively collect, store and transform client data to provide organised, readable data for TAL teams to analyse. This helps facilitate TAL's IT operations in which we strive for accurate, secure and readily-available data so that we can ultimately offer the best service to our clients.

A typical day in my life in this role involves daily 'stand-up' meetings with my team to catch up on everybody's work progress and identify any blockers. After this, I may have some other meetings regarding the work I am doing, for example, I may organise a one-on-one call with a teammate so that they can clarify how our databases are structured or answer any questions I may have. If I'm in the office, I tend to go for coffee runs with my team, or catch up with other Grads for lunch together, which is a nice way to break up my day. During most of the day, I work on my assigned tasks that our team has planned at the beginning of the 'sprint' (which is a working increment of two weeks). A typical work task could include automating data processes, testing new changes in our systems, updating new data fields, developing pipelines in Azure DevOps, and much more!

What's your background?

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Western Sydney. My parents had immigrated to Australia several years back from Argentina, in seek of a better lifestyle and more opportunities. I had always been encouraged by them to get involved in different activities and to learn as much as possible. So, from a young age, I participated in many sports including swimming, dancing, gymnastics, physie, touch football, netball, and even oztag and cheerleading at my high school. I also attended the Secondary School of Community Languages on Saturday mornings, to improve my Spanish language skills, which enabled me to meet so many different types of people from so many different cultures. Throughout high school, I enjoyed being part of the leadership team, and in Year 12 I became the school vice-captain, which was the most enriching aspect of my Year 12 experience, in that I could advocate for my classmates. Outside of school, I worked as a barista, which taught me a lot about people and how to handle working under pressure - as well as how to make a mean cappuccino!

After high school, I felt it was a natural progression to go to university and get a degree. So that's what I did. I went to UTS for a Bachelor of Science in Information technology, which I completed for a year, until I received a call, offering me a place in the Bachelor of Information Technology Co-operative Scholarship program, which I had applied for previously. This
opened up so many doors, in which I was able to complete two 6-month internships during my studies, where I learnt about Cloud infrastructure, Cybersecurity and IT Risk. One of the internships was with TAL, so I applied to the TAL Graduate Program and successfully received an offer, which is how I got to where I am today!

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely! People from all different walks of life are welcome at TAL. If you are keen on joining the Grad program, TAL is always seeking people who have diverse backgrounds and talents that can be brought to the table, as your fresh perspective adds value to your work.

For my role specifically as a Data Engineer, I entered the role not knowing anything about what I would be doing, but after time I learnt so much, and I can now take responsibility for my work. It just comes down to one's drive, curiosity and keen desire to keep learning, as in IT everything is constantly changing! I know of so many people who studied something in university other than IT but ended up in a career in IT, so no matter where you are right now if you would like to work at TAL or in IT, there will always be space for you.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

What I love most about my job is the level of flexibility it provides me so that I can lead a strong work-life balance. Being able to work either from home or from the office enables me to become more productive and manage my lifestyle better. Additionally, the culture at TAL is very cool - the people you meet and work with are always willing to have a conversation and to help you if needed. Your efforts don't go unnoticed at TAL and while it is a large company, you get to know everybody so quickly as you are treated as a valued employee rather than a number.

What are the limitations of your job?

Rather than a limitation, I would call it a temporary roadblock. With each new role, comes its challenges, no matter where you work or what you do, as it will all be new to you. However, I would say a limitation/roadblock I have experienced is gaining enough context and TAL-specific lingo to be able to understand technical conversations and approach problems with a more rounded understanding of what processes are happening. This is especially true for IT roles, as there are so many acronyms and business jargon to learn! While this is challenging to navigate, you will surely gain an understanding over time, just make sure to ask lots of questions and write everything down as you go so you don't forget.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Remind yourself that you don't need to know everything right now. Especially in the first few years in your role, take that time to learn, learn, learn. Don't compare other people's timelines with yours. It's not a race between you and other people, it's about who you were yesterday compared with who you are today!
Life is not about what you know, it's about who you know! Networking is extremely valuable in most industries. Add everyone on LinkedIn and take value in small talk, as that may develop into bigger opportunities later!
Change is inevitable. Welcome it. Embrace it. The more friendly you get with change, the more relaxed you will feel when things don't go the way they were planned. Every day will bring something new, and that is the beauty of life!

Vivek Mishra

Actuarial Graduate at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies

Macquarie University (2021)

Learn the fundamentals and accept that you just need to keep learning forever, you will find the process quite pleasant.

What's your job about?

I work in the Actuarial IFRS methodology team and my team is helping life insurance transition into a new accounting standard called IFRS. We interpret the new standards, and aim to answer the what, why, and how of it.

It is difficult to put a finger on my day-to-day work since it ranges from using simple data manipulation to break down large numbers into their unit parts to exploring and explaining how parts of our actuarial model work. The purpose of all my work is to justify why we are doing what we are doing.

What's your background?

I was born on the frozen peaks of Mount Everest and then I moved to Sydney when I was 11. Experiences at high school opened me up to more possibilities for future careers and one of them happened to be a niche field of "Actuaries". I picked it up and enjoyed it all years at my university except for year 3, semester 1, so I stuck to it.

I applied to TAL's graduate program as I heard great things from alumni, and here I am enjoying it since February 2022.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes! The concepts are all pyramids built using the first principles of accounting, life insurance industry semantics, and simple maths.

The key characteristic to work in this team is asking questions. It is easy to memorize the answers you are given without understanding its core logic and then you fall prey to the Dunning Kruger effect. Luckily, in TAL's culture of open discussions, sharp and insightful questions will quickly disperse such misunderstandings. And then you start learning again.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

My job entails asking questions, figuring out answers and then finding out why my answer could potentially be wrong and then the control cycle again. This process is the coolest thing about my job.

What are the limitations of your job?

It's an entry-level role so it is certainly overwhelming when you see how much you must learn to even gather what the team is talking about during morning meetings. It is difficult to establish a rhythm at the start since you keep jumping between distinct projects.

But once you learn the fundamentals and accept that you just need to keep learning forever, you will find the process quite pleasant.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Question every process.
Ask the same question to multiple people.
Use Onenote to store all your questions and answers.

Cindy Ding

Actuarial Graduate at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Commerce (Actuarial Studies)

University of Melbourne (2021)

It’s important to have a vision for your career, especially since you may feel somewhat lost in the first few years after university.

What's your job about?

I am currently an Actuarial Graduate rotating through the actuarial functions at TAL, one of the largest life insurers in Australia.

My first rotation in the graduate program is in Group Pricing, in a team for one of our cornerstone clients. The particular project that I have been working on over the last six months is our Annual Pricing Review, whereby – broadly speaking – we review the contract’s past year’s experience, and put forward the next year’s rate changes after accounting for future adjustments. My role in the team has spanned verifying data, setting new discount rate assumptions, evaluating our membership profile, deriving Covid-19 adjustments, and more. Throughout the process, we communicate closely with our client, our reinsurer, and our internal governance teams. On top of this, we also receive various requests from other teams to help with ongoing initiatives.

What's your background?

I was born overseas and moved to Brisbane when I was eight.

After high school, I moved to Melbourne to do a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne. During my time at university, I worked part-time at a U.S.-based general consulting firm in my second year, and then I interned at AIA Australia in Retail Pricing in my final year.

I enjoyed life insurance when I was interning at AIA, so naturally, I applied to the TAL graduate program. I started at TAL in February 2022, and have loved it since.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes and no. It is fairly easy to transition if you’ve come from a background similar to actuarial (e.g. data analytics), else it might be a while until everything’s clear.

As an analyst, technical knowledge will be important, but not more important than your ability to pick things up quickly and your attention to detail. It is also important to be able to communicate efficiently and confidently.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

In general, I enjoy actuarial for its value in technical excellence and its blend with the business context.

From my first rotation, I’ve found that I love the last stretch of a project – when I’ve gained an understanding of all of our assumptions and outputs, and where the focus would be on finalising and communicating the results. You see the value of what you’ve completed then.

What are the limitations of your job?

I bared a lot of responsibility during my first rotation; as a result of this responsibility, I’ve gained a much broader and more in-depth understanding of pricing than I could have ever expected. Nevertheless, I’ve never had to work on a weekend, and my team is always available to help if I’m too busy.

The biggest limitation of any entry-level actuarial position would be your limited technical understanding. There’s only so much that can be learned from university, and the application in the real world is often quite different. Nonetheless, everyone’s always happy to help here at TAL if you have a question, so rest assured!

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Plan out as much as possible where you want to be in the next five, or ten years. It’s important to have a vision for your career, especially since you may feel somewhat lost in the first few years after university.
Connect with people as much as you can! People are always happy to chat, especially with a fresh graduate.
And finally – always be eager to learn. I feel that I’m learning even more every day while working compared to my first few years at university, so the learning never stops!

Isabella Sheman

Individual Life Graduate at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Marketing and Public Relations,
Bachelor of Media and Communications Masters of Leadership

The University of Notre Dame Australia (2022)

Don’t be afraid to put up your hand or get involved, life happens when you are getting things done and you will look back with fond memories of all the things you were able to accomplish.

What's your job about?

TAL is Australia’s largest life insurance company. It is the people at TAL who ignite the purpose, ambition and priorities of the organisation. TAL assists everyday Australians to look after what we consider to be the most important asset, life.

For my first rotation in the marketing department within Individual Life, I work as part of TAL’s graduate program where we each complete four rotations. Three of the four rotations will be in your business unit and the other rotation can be completed in any other across the company. My responsibilities include managing several adviser communications, assisting with updating marketing collateral and supporting other marketing projects.

So far, I have thrown myself into the deep end, and am proud to be part of the social committee for TAL called TAL Connect. This is a great way to meet new people from different business units and is a great opportunity to network. I have volunteered for ABCN Future Thinkers mentoring program and was a part of the National Reconciliation Week 2022 working group.

TAL has several opportunities for you to get involved beyond your role, whether it be through different projects, extra co-curricular activities or volunteering opportunities.

What's your background?

Both my parents were born overseas. My mother was born in Malta and my father was born in Croatia. Both my parents did not attend university; therefore, they saw it as necessary for me to have a good quality education.

I grew up in Sydney’s North shore, attending Loreto Kirribilli from Kindergarten to Year 12. Therefore, transitioning to university was a big change for me.

I went to the University of Notre Dame Australia where I completed a double degree and a master’s qualification. During my time at university, I was involved in various extra co-curricular activities including Founder and President of the Notre Dame Sydney Business Society, President of the Student Association and Board member for the National Student Board. I also represented the university at National University Games in Hockey, Baseball and was team manager for Table Tennis. My time as President set me up for the challenges that Graduate Program recruiting presents. Notre Dame values the student's voice, and because of this, I spent my weeks throughout that year representing students on a variety of other committees in addition to those already mentioned. I am still so grateful for the professional experience I gained from the many mentors that helped me through this time.

While I was completing my undergraduate degree I completed a short study abroad experience in Prague, Czech Republic. This was one of my favourite experiences at university as I made friends for life and experienced a different style of teaching and learning in another country.

The experiences I have had at Notre Dame have given me the confidence to be open to new opportunities. Last year I was allowed to tutor a class at university, which I was initially scared about as I had never had any experience in teaching, nor did I have a desire to teach. Looking back, this is something I would like to peruse later in life when I am considering completing a qualification in teaching at a higher educational level.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, someone with a different background could be an individual life graduate. As individual life graduate programs you with a broad understanding of how TAL operates as a business. An individual life graduate is someone who can be a team player and can manage multiple projects.

Most people are from diverse backgrounds but they all have one thing in common: A willingness to be proactive and the motivation to succeed!

TAL is a very supportive culture and everyone in the business is given the tools to succeed to provide the best outcome for our stakeholders.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about my job is the opportunities that you have as a graduate, especially since your people leader and business sponsor want to help you grow within the company. When I accepted my offer at TAL both my business sponsors called and gave their congratulations and wished me luck for upcoming exams. This really set TAL apart from other organisations that I had applied to, and the care I felt in those initial interactions has stuck, and I can now go to work knowing that my company has my best interests at their core.

One of the reasons I enjoy working at TAL is everyone in the business is supportive and wants to help you grow and develop your skill set.

What are the limitations of your job?

I found that one of the limitations of my role is the learning curve. For the first few months, I felt lost and confused, which was challenging, after being so involved and organised at University.

I am sure, like most companies these days, there are several systems and processes which you will need to learn when you get started. TAL is no different and saw me learning things that were very different to anything I have done before. Insurance is not something that is generally taught at university or studied at school which meant I was starting from the ground up.

Thankfully, everyone at TAL is willing to teach you, and no question is a silly question. If you need help or you are struggling, there is always someone around, whether it’s your people leader, team member, business sponsor or graduate buddy.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Be involved – At university I was involved in various extra co-curricular activities whether it was leadership, volunteering or mentoring. Don’t be afraid to put up your hand or get involved, life happens when you are getting things done and you will look back with fond memories of all the things you were able to accomplish.
Be open to opportunities – I was given various opportunities at university, which to this day I am still grateful for. At the time, even though I was scared or thought I might fail; I gave it a go. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Have fun - make the most of your university experience. Some of the best memories I have come from spending time on campus and hanging with friends before class. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Jeremy Newton

Graduate – Individual Life at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Economics

University of Sydney (2021)

Being a student is about learning, and building soft skills that will be of great value when you eventually look for a job after graduating. Look for ways to challenge yourself and be open to new ideas.

What's your job about?

TAL is Australia’s biggest life insurer, paying $2.7 billion in claims to 39,628 customers in the financial year 2021. My first rotation in the program is in the Data and Analytics Management (DNA) team. A standard day for me would start at 8.00 am to ensure the daily reporting has been sent to the business correctly. Then at 9.00 am my team will have our daily morning meeting where we discuss what we’re working on, any progress or big achievements we’ve made, and anything we need help on. After the meeting, each day will look slightly different. A typical day’s work will be split into a couple of categories which include: meetings with internal stakeholders to discuss report requirements, report building using Power BI and SQL, and presenting/ showcasing new reports. On top of this, there is a lot of project work the team and I work on whether that is moving our data onto cloud-based storage, helping integrate data capturing processes for new software systems in our claims teams, and optimising our reporting catalogue. The main project I’ve been working on in my first rotation is the optimisation of TAL Direct’s reporting catalogue which has seen me interact with many of our internal stakeholders to determine which reports provide the most value to the business. I have then had the opportunity to build new reports that consolidate key pieces of information to help improve business efficiency.

What's your background?

I was born in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, I lived in the lower parts of the Blue Mountains my entire life until I got married in January of 2022 and moved to the city with my wife.

I went to school at St Paul’s Grammar School just north of Penrith from Kindergarten to year 12. I had several great experiences at school, having the opportunity to be school vice-captain, visiting Cambodia on a service-learning trip, and completing my Gold Duke of Edinburgh award hike in New Zealand.

After high school, I initially went to UTS and was studying Civil Engineering, however, after the first semester I wasn’t quite enjoying it. So, I took some time off and found myself working at EML a worker’s compensation insurer. During this time, I worked across several different claims teams and had some great experiences. While I was at EML I had some time to think about what I wanted to do and decided I’d go back to university and study a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Sydney. At university, I also began volunteering for Foster the Future, a charity that provides free tutoring for students in foster care and after a couple of years I became a director of the charity. During my final year of university, I began applying for several graduate programs, I was fortunate enough to be offered a position in TAL’s graduate program which I accepted.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, in the Individual Life graduate program there is a broad range of areas you will be exposed to, and you aren’t expected to be an expert in all of them. While having good technical knowledge is certainly useful, much of the knowledge in the insurance industry will be learnt on the job. If you have a willingness to learn, enjoy challenges, and are motivated and proactive, you will have every opportunity to succeed. TAL’s culture is also really supportive, so if you are ever stuck, there is always someone willing to help you out.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about TAL is the work we do has a real impact. TAL is Australia’s biggest life insurer, which means we have a responsibility to provide for the community when they need it most. My job at the moment has me providing reporting insights into different parts of the business. This reporting then allows TAL to provide better support to our customers and claimants. With every improvement to our reporting, I know this will improve our ability to help Australians when they need it most.

What are the limitations of your job?

Depending on which part of the business you end up in and what kind of work you’re doing, it can all be a little overwhelming. There is quite a bit to learn as TAL is such a big company with a broad range of products and functions. The life insurance industry is also constantly adapting and changing with new regulatory changes so there is always more to learn. Thankfully, the work-life balance is excellent, I’ve never had to work weekends, and the stress level is manageable.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Learn: being a student is about learning, building soft skills will be of great value when you eventually look for a job after graduating. Look for ways to challenge yourself and be open to new ideas.
People: connect with people where you can, most people are nice! Making friends is a great way to help you achieve more, have support when times are tough and will help you establish good work relationships in the future.
Enjoy it: being a student is a great time of life, make sure to take the time to have fun with it!

Justin Lie

IT Graduate at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Cyber Security

Macquarie University (2021)

What's your job about?

I spread my responsibility over many key areas. I am in the Cyber team, which is divided into 4 key teams – Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Cyber Threat Management (CTM), Identity Access Management (IAM) and Security Architecture. I am currently working for the last 3 respective teams with business as usual (BAU) tasks or aiding in projects.

My current focus is within the Identity Access Management team, spearheading a project regarding Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). I am consolidating the mapping of the certificate requests and renewal process as there is currently a disjointed understanding of the current process among the team. My responsibilities include liaising with the relevant stakeholders of the process to understand their responsibilities and the general lifecycle to create a process all stakeholders can agree on.

While mapping the current process, we have found other methods or services which can be integrated to optimise our current process. Thus, I am also responsible for coordinating the installation

What's your background?

I grew up in Seven Hills and started my education at Seven Hills Public School. As a kid, I was always interested in video games – playing them for hours nonstop and constantly arguing with my brother to play on the single computer we had at home. Mind you he is 7 years older, and I never stood a chance. Forward along a couple of years to high school (Castle Hill High School), where subjects such as Information Process Technology and Software Design and Development furthered my passion and fascination for video games and similarly technology. I was interested in the hardware the games were played on, the way technology is used in everyday life, and the concept of coding. I was hooked.

By the time we had to choose our university courses, I knew it had to involve technology. After some consideration and advice, I discovered that cybersecurity was a rapidly growing field and something I should look at. My high school studies never discussed cyber security other than the basic malware or cyber dangers, so I picked a Bachelor of Cyber Security at Macquarie University to discover what Cyber Security holds. This further piqued my interest in what cyber security and information technology look like in a professional setting. So while applying for grad roles, and browsing GradAustralia’s graduate stories for TAL, one of the rotations was cyber! A perfect fit.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

The IT graduate program offers so many different opportunities that any person that is willing to learn can benefit significantly and grow towards their desired path. So yes, someone with a completely different background from myself has a great chance at excelling at my role and even more so at the grad program.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about the program is not only the breadth of exposure you can achieve in a short time (rotated between 4 teams in just 8 months), but it is also the faith and trust that’s placed in you for that short period. I was placed in Identity Access Management for just 3 months, but in those 3 months, I was given the opportunity to support and even spearhead 4 different projects. Project work is nice to experience as it feels meaningful and, in some cases, able to see tangible progress in the sense of its integration with the company.

What are the limitations of your job?

The main limitation of the program is time. Sometimes when you are put into a team, you may enjoy it too much, to the point where you don’t want to leave. I am currently experiencing this, as I wish I had more time in the team to explore and learn more. But the opportunity to explore different career options so easily is not something presented often. Considering my next rotation is software development, I am still excited and happy to move on.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Take the opportunity to study abroad / Student exchange program. Never did it when I was at university but wish I did.
Don’t let a casual job limit your opportunities to apply to internships. During my time at university, I was working at Coles for 38hrs/week so i felt like I didn’t have to time apply for other jobs.
Be more involved and join more societies. As an introvert, I often shied away from joining societies which I wish I had the courage to do as it could lead to lifelong connections and experiences.

Zachary Drysdale

Finance Graduate at TAL Australia

Bachelor of Commerce (Co-op), Majoring in Accounting & Finance

The University of New South Wales (2021)

Everyone is new at some point, and you aren’t expected to always get things right the first time – however, try not to repeat the same mistakes – learn and adapt!

What's your job about?

I work for TAL which is one of Australia’s leading life insurers protecting over 4.9 million Australians and their families. Currently, I am in the Performance Management team as a Commercial Analyst taking care of our Group Risk and Investment Businesses. As part of Performance Management, my responsibilities include management reporting and analysis of key performance indicators to help the commercial business understand where their profit drivers are coming from. As the name suggests, we help provide insights into the performance and position of the business and how it is tracking to Plan. This means we often work with people within the business line as well as actuaries to help develop our analysis. Although we spend a lot of time in excel doing our monthly analysis, most of the job is developing a narrative of what is happening within the business and why from a financial perspective and presenting this in a way that is straightforward to understand. However, as part of the finance graduate program, I will rotate through four different teams within the business. Three of these teams are in finance and one of them is a choice of mine anywhere in the broader business.

What's your background?

Born in Sydney, I moved to Singapore at the age of 3 due to my parents’ careers in the shipping industry where I spent half of my childhood. I lived there for 9 years before moving back to Sydney in year 6 and lived here ever since. In school I enjoyed a broad education with a significant interest in Art and History, inspired by travelling, and Maths due to a natural skill. In year 9 I took Commerce as an elective and loved the methodical and balancing nature of accounting which came paired with the practicality of business theory. However, towards the end of school, and like most people my age, I had little idea of what career I wanted to pursue. Originally, I had planned on pursuing a more creative career having attended a film school week at AFTRS driven by a passion for cinematography and photography. My next phase was wanting to study software engineering at university, which ended up being my second preference in my university applications. Finally, after a great work experience week at CBA and a suggestion to apply for the Co-op program at a UNSW open-day stall I was influenced to pursue a career in financial services. Having been accepted into the Co-op scholarship program I studied Accounting and Finance at University but had the amazing opportunity to pair my studies with real-world work experience at companies like Coca-Cola Amatil, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (now owned by AstraZeneca) and JP Morgan. These placements showed me the necessity for accounting knowledge in business but also its transferability as a skill across all industries. TAL being a sponsor of the Co-op program reached out to me towards the end of my studies due to a presentation I had given and offered me an interview. After hearing great things about the company and its graduate program from previous grads I was excited to get an offer and accepted shortly after. I started the finance graduate program here in February 2022 and have now been here for almost 8 months.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, anyone with an eagerness to learn and an interest in the area can do this job. Accounting is an international and widely applicable skill that rewards anyone who pursues it with practical and useful life skills. Also, it is important to note that it is not required to have an accounting background to start or work in finance, but I do think it offers a core skillset that is invaluable and is worth pursuing if you want to. More specifically with regards to working in the life insurance industry, don’t be dissuaded if you don’t have experience or do not know much about the industry. As I said before, accounting skills are highly transferable across industries and the life insurance industry itself offers a highly engaging and interesting experience from a financial perspective.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love the ability to rotate through teams and experience different parts of the business. I think as someone new to the industry and to the company, it is great to work with as many people as possible. Not only does it allow you to understand the business and its people better, but it allows you to find out what work and areas you enjoy. I think another great thing about the company is its culture and its values. TAL is a company that puts its people first, whether that be its employees or the millions of Australians it helps to protect. Not only do I feel that my work is meaningful, and my time is respected, but my colleagues are incredibly friendly and always willing to help. It is evident these values flow down from the leadership team and are embraced by everyone at TAL.

What are the limitations of your job?

I think the job comes with significant responsibility with regards to the initiative, self-checking your work and learning curve but at the same time, this provides a great challenge and opportunity to feel rewarded for the work you do. With regards to the limitations of the job, I think the work is typically quite technical and a business background in finance or accounting would be very useful starting. Otherwise, I believe anything can be taught on the job if you have the willingness to learn.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

If possible, try and get some work experience in areas you are interested in as soon as possible. This could even just be shadowing someone for a day or week or reaching out to people and asking lots of questions. Not only this could help set up job opportunities in the future and it will help you figure out what you are interested in (…or not so interested in!).
The time between school and work goes very quick – make sure you make the most of that period whether that be learning new skills, travelling or even just taking time to yourself to reset.
Never sell yourself short. Be confident in your abilities but also be prepared to learn from mistakes. Everyone is new at some point, and you aren’t expected to always get things right the first time – however, try not to repeat the same mistakes – learn and adapt!

Jade Su

Brand and Communications Graduate

Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) and Bachelor of Media (PR & Advertising)

UNSW, 2023

What's your job about?

In my role, I have the opportunity to do four rotations across the business in 2 years. I did my first rotation in Internal Communications and now I am currently in the Brand Reputation team. My role as a graduate allows me to gain a variety of experiences and skills by exposing myself to different teams and people. Currently in Brand, we keep track of our Brand health and execute fun and meaningful campaigns throughout the year! An example is our partnership with the AFLW and our engagement with our partnership clubs through activations and campaigns. This includes campaigns like TAL Assister, which helps to support female players on and off the field. A current active campaign is Spot Checker, which is focused on raising awareness of UV risks and skin safety in Australia. My job involves strategically increasing category awareness of the TAL brand through meaningful partnerships and campaigns.

What's your background?

Despite growing up Chinese Australian, my parents were open and accepting of whatever career I chose. I have always had a creative side and enjoyed meeting new people. However, I wasn’t the best with maths or science subjects. Out of all the Commerce majors available, Marketing called to me the most because it had the best of both worlds - connecting with people while being creative and strategic. At UNSW, a dual degree was popular with Commerce, and I found out the combination of Commerce/Media was unique to the university. Additionally, it would go well with my Marketing major, so I felt like I found my match made in heaven.

Throughout Uni, I was on the lookout for any opportunity and hands on experience to boost my learnings. I had two marketing internships at financial services companies and one of them had a London based HQ. I got to have an all expenses paid trip to the UK for the 10-year anniversary celebration! I never would have imagined that would happen. It was such a cool experience which I am very grateful for. Before I started at TAL, I worked at an e-commerce agency as a social media assistant. I looked after Rebel Sport’s social media. It was special to work with a household Australian brand and get to know the social side of things. Although it was a fun 8 months, I think I can confirm I don’t want to do social media for my career long term (my screentime skyrocketed while I was there and had to be on it on the weekends as well)! To sum up, there are so many teams, niches and specialties in the marketing/media/brand/comms world and there is still so much to explore. I am learning so much from each opportunity, but I am keen to keep learning and find out more about myself and my passions.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, to an extent! Brand involves a lot of stakeholder management, copywriting, and attention to detail as we mainly deal with agencies, internal stakeholders and campaign management. This encompasses strong soft skills and people skills which are key in every job. Someone with a different background could do my job but they would still need a good base skillset, as there are technical components to understand when it comes to brand reputation and guidelines.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love the cool opportunities we get to have due to the nature of our partnerships and campaigns. For example, our partnership with the AFLW provides the opportunity to be invited to games and cool events. I had the opportunity to dress up and go to two dinners at the Crown and W hotel! It’s really inspiring to see the impact our sponsorship with the clubs and the players at the end of the year.

What are the limitations of your job?

I would say Brand is broader compared to marketing, which comes with its limitations. Marketing is more acquisition and customer journey based, where you see from end to end and adjust your eDMs or email campaign based on the data and results. For brand, its more about category awareness and consideration. You still get to see the impressions and reach but the results are not so black and white. Sometimes you are not 100% sure which element of the campaign is influencing the overall result, and it can also be a huge investment to start new campaigns. The main limitation would be ensuring the creative/ambition side is shown but at an appropriate level within the allocated budget and resources.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Take risks and opportunities you may be a bit hesitant about because you miss all the chances you don’t take (cliché I know) but very true!
Branch out and become uncomfortable at times – we tend to stick to what we know and people we know but there is so much out there to learn, which can really help you build relationships and knowledge.
Join university societies or extra curriculars! I met some of my lifelong friends through these networks and I am so grateful. It’s hard at times to meet new people, especially as you start full time work so make the most if it while you still have time and opportunities.
Find what brings you joy and have hobbies - it’s easy to get swept up in work and life so make sure you have time for yourself to do what you love outside of that!

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