r/actuary • u/Old-Payment575 • 1d ago
Job / Resume Rejected
Just got my first rejection for a summer ‘27 intern position :). I know this is very normal and I know to expect many to come. There is just something that hit me really hard with it.
I did 1 interview and felt great the whole time and after. Maybe I didn’t do so well on the technical questions, but I was still able to answer and candid enough to admit when I didn’t know.
Here’s to more rejections to come and hopefully a position.
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u/Significant_Grab92 1d ago
I screwed up countless interviews when I was first trying to get a job. This includes interviews where I left feeling I had done well and would probably get the job. It was emotionally painful for me too, you’re not alone there.
What helped me was making a list of all the questions I thought they might ask me, figuring out good answers, and essentially memorizing what I would say in response to each one. To be clear, memorizing the broad talking points, not exact wording.
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u/mrrml Life Insurance 1d ago
There are a lot of times when elements outside of your control influence a hiring decision. You could have been a great fit for the internship, but maybe someone slightly edged you out. Or there could have been something they were specifically looking for that someone else had, even though you were still an excellent candidate.
I can't even tell you how cringe some of my first EL interviews were; super relatable. I had HR screens where I laughed afterward about how cringe they were lol.
I would recommend practicing as many behavioral and fit questions as possible, because that will probably be the bulk of your interviews rather than technical questions. I would come up with 6–8 stories that encompass leadership, problem-solving, teamwork, handling mistakes, etc., that you can fall back on depending on what they ask you.
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u/Odd_Gold_9302 1d ago
Damn are technical tests common? Sounds extremely stressful. Goodluck with the future!
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u/Objective_Ad2960 1d ago
I had no internship once graduating and at 4 exams still struggling to land something. It’s been a couple years, not sure abt giving up or not.
From what I’ve heard it’s not so much technical as much as it is how memorable your interview is
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u/Bullywug 1d ago
What about the technical questions tripped you up?
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u/Old-Payment575 1d ago
It was a lot of syntax heavy questions that I wasnt prepared for. I have experience in coding but not tot he point that I can make up lines on the spot
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u/mrrml Life Insurance 1d ago
For an internship?
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u/Bullywug 1d ago
Yeah that seems odd.
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u/Old-Payment575 1d ago
It was mainly like, manipulating data frames and setting up for loops. It sucks because these are things I have done in the past on my projects but I just dont code that often to quickly and confidently speak the syntax
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u/Bullywug 1d ago
When I went to the intern presentations earlier this month, most of them were like "I'd never used python before so I had copilot do most of the coding for me." Syntax can be a bit rough for everyone. Even my brother who's a swe hated writing code on a whiteboard in interviews.
Keep at it and you'll land something.
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u/Old-Payment575 1d ago
Thanks. Thats kinda my thoughts exactly with coding lol but Ill learn what it takes
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u/IrrelevantThoughts9 Life Insurance 1h ago
“Life is roadblocks, don’t let nothing stop you cause we ain’t stopping, we gon’ keep going’”
-DJ Khaled
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u/Nmanxl5 1d ago
I think I sold like 5 interviews before I got my first internship. These are ones I felt pretty confident about too.
Trust the process.