I applied through college or university. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Allianz in Oct 2014
Accepted offer
Positive experience
Difficult interview
Application
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Allianz (Minneapolis, MN) in Nov 2013
Interview
They hold multiple interview sessions whether by phone or in person. You will likely interview with the relevant directors and VP's of the hiring areas as well as an HR representative. Sometimes the interviews can be all in a row which is a little tough for some people. Interviewing with senior leadership can be tough for entry level new hires.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How you would invest a billion dollars to get a good return?
I applied through university career website and had an on campus interview. Interview questions included to talk about myself, why actuary, familiarity of their company's products, and talked about excel functions. No unexpected questions. But the interview ended in 15 mins. They called a week later saying that there was no offer.
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Allianz (Minneapolis, MN) in Nov 2013
Interview
Allianz Life was a pleasure to work with and their recruiting process was pretty straight forward.
I applied for the position through my college's career services and meet with representatives at our school's Actuarial Career Fair.
First interview was a phone interview with a HR representative and was generally a behavioral interview.
The second interview was another phone interview, but it was two 30 minute interviews with some of their senior actuaries. This interview was part behavioral and part technical. Most of the questions in this interview were regarding things listed in my resume. Heavy focus on what I did during my actuarial internships with a different life insurance company.
The third and final interview was a full day interview. I was flown out to their office in Minneapolis. This was a pretty grueling day because they set up eight 30 minute interviews. The people who interviewed me were a combination of people who would of been my peers, individuals who would of been my direct managers, and finally an interview with the director of the group. One interview with a direct manager was particularly difficult because he covered this face with a sheet of paper after asking every question, making it difficult to gauge his reactions to my responses.
After the third interview I was informed I received the offer approximately a week and half later. The offer had a two week deadline to respond too.
In my job hunt process, Allianz had the best HR representative which made the whole process very smooth and simple.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical Questions: Included answering questions about how specific things in Excel work (such as what do pivot tables work, how to use VBA macros, etc). Similarly there were technical questions about my understanding of how Universal Life Insurance and Variable Life Annuities (their main products). Finally since I was interviewing for a role within in their more Modeling and Systems group, I was asked some specifics about my knowledge of SQL, JAVA, and C++.
Behavior Questions: Can you provide context to why your GPA is what it is (I had a 3.0 while I believe most of their candidates tend to be in the 3.5 range)? Can you talk about a time when you have failed? Standard behavioral questions for the most part.
Hardest Questions: Some of the technical questions were pretty difficult, but my intern experience allowed me to answer them. I think I would of been stuck if I did not have the intern experience, because it was things we weren't taught in school ( I am an actuarial science major).
The one question I froze on was ironically: What makes Life Insurance profitable?
I was confused whether they wanted a technical answer like explaining how to price life insurance or if they were looking for something else.
The interview with the director of the group was probably the most interesting. He only asked one question and it was pretty blunt(and pretty creative if you ask me). He asked more or less "What makes you different from all the other Actuarial candidates we see and why should I give you a shot at this job?"
