Interview Stefan van Duijn – Finance and Risk trainee at NN Group

Reading time: 5 minutes

Have you always wanted to know what it’s like to work at a prestigious finance company? Here at Magnet.me, we spoke to a number of entry-level professionals and trainees in the finance & banking industry. In this series of interviews, you will find out what it’s like to work at NN Group, Van Lanschot Kempen, De Volksbank and PGGM.

Stefan van Duijn, our first interview candidate, is working as a Finance and Risk trainee at NN Group. Continue reading to find out more about what Stefan did before starting at NN Group, how he is experiencing his role as a Finance and Risk trainee, what stands out about working at NN Group and what he had wanted to know before starting in his role.

What is your name and what is your position at NN Group?

I’m Stefan van Duijn, currently working as a Finance and Risk trainee within the Actuarial Modelling and Reporting team of NN S&I.

What did you do before starting at NN Group?

Before I started working at NN Group, I studied Financial Economics and Financial Law at the Radboud University Nijmegen. During my study I focused mainly on my academic career following an interdisciplinary honours programme on Health Disparities and extra law courses.

Moreover, I also worked as a tutor teaching Economics and as a volunteer in a legal clinic. These experiences have helped me in communicating with people from other backgrounds and getting across my ideas in understandable terms.

How are you experiencing your role as a Finance and Risk trainee so far?

My role as Finance and Risk trainee is a 2-year development programme focusing on your leadership skills and personal development, this program offers you the opportunity to work within 3 departments on different assignments.

For my first assignment, I’m stationed at an actuarial department for a year. I am really enjoying my role within the department. Currently I’m concerned with calculating part of the future liabilities of our non-life insurance products. We do so to properly reserve money for expected future claims.

My work days are pretty diverse. During the reporting season, I work a lot on gathering and analysing all the different data needed for our analysis. However, in between those periods I’m busy with making improvements to the reporting process and writing methodology of the underlying models. The combination of quantitative and qualitative work has allowed me to quickly develop a deeper understanding of the insurance world.

What is your experience in working for NN Group and what stands out to you?

What stands out most for me in my experience of working for NN Group is the personal touch. Despite being a large organisation with over thousands of employees and several offices throughout the Netherlands, I never feel like just another employee. Within my team, my manager always makes time for my personal development and guides me in achieving my goals. Moreover, the colleagues I work alongside with are always there to help me in my work.

The traineeship that I’m part of, also offers a lot of guidance in the form of coaching and training. Through all of this you really see that NN lives up to its promise: What matters to you, matters to us.

What had you wanted to know before you started working in your role as Finance & Risk trainee?

If I could give one piece of advice, it would be: broaden your horizon. As someone with an atypical study background for my department, I was initially nervous about starting my first rotation. I would be a Law and Economics student surrounded by actuaries and econometricians. However, with all the help and guidance of my colleagues and peers, I quickly caught up and am now confidently working within an Actuarial department.

Your academic background does not have to be the deciding factor in your ultimate choice of employer, the most important thing is the feeling you have with the company and keeping an open mind to new experiences. Whether I will remain within the actuarial field in the future, I do not yet know, but luckily, I still have 2 more rotations to find out.

Can’t wait to get started as a Finance & Risk trainee or do you want to stay up-to-date about other job openings at NN Group? Connect with NN Group on Magnet.me via this link.