Tariq Al-Sharhan

After completing six months within the RFP team at AXA IM, I moved to Clients & Markets to experience the research side of asset management, and how
markets vary from country to country in terms of asset allocation. Roles central to this department included the searching and compiling of asset management
news articles from both our institutional and distribution databases, in order to capture market sizes and demand by country. This would in turn help feed
into our strategies and give us focus on what countries we need to target and with what specific asset class.

As part of my placement year I worked with a well-established Asset Management company, AXA IM UK. Roles central to my position included the
participation of answering RFP's and RFI's for institutional and retail sales forces across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East; updating the
standard material (Corporate Document, Standard RFP etc.) and participating in completing consultants databases. This position also included liaising
with colleagues in the Paris office to help answer any RFPs/RFIs I may have been working on at the time. Typical duties included the drafting RFP's/RFI's
by sourcing information and relevant materials from past RFPs and data files; formatting documents and setting up the filing structure for each RFP.
This internship role boosted my confidence in the workplace, and enabled me to enhance my numeracy skills, specifically when dealing with statistics.

I have had an on-going interest in the business world and its
ever-changing state. My family's association with the investment industry allowed me to undertake some valuable work experience. Throughout my week at Lloyds I worked at the insurance syndicate, Atrium, and circulated the various departments and types of insurance on a daily basis. I had the opportunity to write out my own cover note on several quotes, and quoted the commercial paint company "Jotun" on terrorism cover. The week at Lloyds allowed me to explore and use the various I.T risk models they had formed in order to assess certain risks. It was interesting to see how a model perhaps formed in a spread sheet package, could evaluate certain risks in order to make the underwriters' decision easier. My second week of work experience took place at Towers Perrin Reinsurance. This week consisted of more 'hands on' work, editing cover notes and policies, making sure spelling and grammar was correct in wordings and so on. I learnt that human validation is as important as spell check on any system. I was also shown the financial side to policies and shown past losses and gains the business had made, and
how to work out such losses. Work experience offered me an insight into business and its links with I.T both in software and risk evaluation.