Also,
when I was younger, maybe 12 or 13, an actuary came to my school.
I was quite impressed with what he was doing. I did two actuarial
internships and found it very rewarding and challenging.
How
did you end up in the United Kingdom?
I was born in Montreal, and French is my first language. I attended
Concordia University, an Anglophone university in Montreal, because
I knew that if you want to do business on a big scale, you need to
speak English—even in Quebec.
They
had a very good internship program and a good bank of prospective
employers, and some of them were international. I wanted to travel
a bit, and I wanted to work in an English-speaking environment—not
just study English, but also work in English. I looked into working
in the United States, but I didn't find a job, so I ended up in Toronto,
which was close enough because of the Anglophone environment, and
I was hired by Towers Perrin, the company I am working for now.
For
my second actuarial internship, I asked Towers Perrin if they had
any opportunities in Europe. There were none open, but I took an internship
in Boston—slowly getting further from Quebec.
On
a visit to Italy, I fell in love with the country, so I asked if there
were any open positions in Milan or Rome, since Towers Perrin has
offices there. There weren't any open positions there, so they sent
me to London where there is an international unit. So that was an
opportunity to be abroad in Europe and close to Italy. All of the
places I went to were not my first choice, but I've enjoyed the experiences
a lot. I'm very lucky.
Where
are you at in the exam process?
I've passed five exams. I failed Course 6 twice, so now I'm trying
Course 8. Another reason I came here was to get away from all of the
distractions I had in Quebec and try to complete my exams as soon
as possible.
What's
the best way to learn more about a country's business customs?
You need to be very open-minded, because you meet new cultures, encounter
new problems, new people and new ways of doing things. You need to
be open to their ways because you are in their country. You want to
be flexible and try to work their way, but you can still bring the
experiences from your home country. You need to work within their
patterns.
Obviously,
you need to have the desire to learn, because in every country you've
got different laws that are very specific and sometimes go in the
opposite direction of what you're used to. I think if you're in the
actuarial profession, you like to learn because of all the exams.
You could look at every country as another exam. You need to be curious.
You need to like change.
The
best way to learn about a country's business customs is to work there
and get your hands dirty. I don't think you can read a book and understand.
What
are the benefits of working internationally?
I wanted to travel, and not just go on vacation in some other country.
I wanted to work in the country and get to know the people and the
place very well.
Another
benefit is the ability to broaden your horizons. I like change. I
like to experience different cultures. When you go back, you can bring
back the positive aspects of what you've learned from adversities
abroad. In the end, though, all countries probably face the same challenges.
What
are some of the challenges?
You need to adapt and accept a new environment. At first you're lost
because everything is new—the people, the place, the streets, the
languages. After a few months you get acclimated.
Of
course, it's a challenge to be away from your friends and family,
even if nowadays you can phone or e-mail quite easily. Luckily, in
Europe, you get so much vacation time that you can visit your home
country. We get five weeks of vacation to start with. That's one of
the benefits, but it can actually be too much sometimes. You don't
know how to spend it all there. Or you don't have the money to spend
there.
Another
challenge is communicating effectively—especially when it's not your
first language. My first language is French. I've been working in
English, but I'm not perfect at communicating ideas, concepts and
opinions, so it's a bit of a challenge to make people aware of what
you can do, what you know, what you think, so you need to be prepared
for people sometimes not being able to understand you. It can be upsetting
or annoying, but you just keep telling them what you think. At some
point you'll find the right formula.
How
do you find companies that are seeking employees to work internationally?
In my situation, the internship program at Concordia University shared
a database on employers outside of Quebec, so I used that to go to
Toronto. From Toronto, they knew people at the Boston office. Boston
is a big office for Towers Perrin, so they had contact with the European
offices.
There
are some placement agencies that specialize in international jobs.
The best thing to do is to look locally for people that you know that
know people where you want to work, because if you knock on the door
of a French company from Montreal, even if you speak the same language,
they really don't know who you are or how good you are. The education
systems are different, also.
Did
you have to do a lot of convincing or did you just talk to people
at your company about working internationally?
The first thing is to let people know what you want to do, and the
second thing is to give them a reason to move you. You need to work
hard to sell yourself. If you put the word out there and keep talking
to people, they'll think about you first.
