Matt in New York: 13 February 2010 - 12 March 2010
US projects
During this month, whilst continuing to serve my UK clients, I have been gradually picking up more and more projects from offices in the US (these include projects run mainly out of the New York office, and also assisting on projects run out of the New Jersey and Connecticut), as well as assisting with a global acquisition project.
Some of these projects focus on technical actuarial and modelling issues, and involve applying many of the skills that I have developed during my professional career in the UK to these relatively unfamiliar issues. By comparison, some of the other projects (such as assisting in preparing a Request for Proposal – a document which companies will ask potential advisors to submit when considering appointing a new advisor – and assisting on the global acquisition project) give me exposure to a wider range of disciplines. In particular, working on the acquisition project broadens the horizons beyond usual pension benefits into all areas of employees’ compensation and benefits packages (including, for example, healthcare benefits, severance plans and performance incentive plans) and companies’ other HR considerations.
These have been interesting projects for me on a few levels, as they represent a diverse selection of challenges and each call for different skills to be applied to meet these challenges.
Life in Manhattan
This month, I have done less “sight-seeing”, but am well settled into life in New York, and am enjoying many of its characteristics. However, as my British friend over here keeps pointing out, it takes a while to get past comparing everything between the US and UK. I’ll certainly miss the convenience of food here (I’m not sure how I’ll cope without the choice of 20 types of bagel each morning!).
This month featured the qualification party of one of our colleagues in the New Jersey office (following completion of his exams). It’s good to see that there is little difference between UK and US traditions for such an event, and we enjoyed a great night out in Manhattan, finished off in style at a Karaoke Bar belting out the classics!
I also had my first visitors from the UK come over to stay, which was a lot of fun. They seemed to accomplish more in four days than I’ve managed in two months, and even managed to get a photo of themselves broadcast on a billboard in Times Square!
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