Mark Sheridan
Edgeworth prize and Gosset price. (Statistics exam awards).
Maynooth is a great place to study. The relaxed and professional atmosphere really helps you focus during exam periods. Especially in the South campus, where the Mathematics Department is located.
The lecturers are extremely helpful and are interested in you understanding the material, and not just getting you through exams.
The modules are diverse and interesting, changing nearly every year. Sure I even did a module through Irish, and I can hardly speak a word of Irish!
With my degree specifically, the structure in which is was set up allowed me to explore subject options. For example, I studied some business modules in first year, which I didn't enjoy at all and ended up switching to statistics, which was the best decision I made.
Studying mathematics at Maynooth helps you to think logically and form rational arguments which can ultimately be applied to any discipline once you move on from your studies.
I started looking for a job during the summer before my final year. By Christmas, before the Christmas exams, I had secured a role in EY. I started working in EY the following September where I attended a whole host of training courses on "how to become a consultant". After a few weeks of training and induction, I started working in the Non-Life actuarial department.
From November to May my job is to audit major insurance companies under new EU regulation, mostly Solvency II. As boring as this sounds, it's really not. The actuaries almost always get the interesting work where we get to calculate reserves and capital requirements, which require a lot of statistical testing and numerical calculations.
From June to October I can be working on a host of different advisory engagements, depending on what clients we have. Some of these engagements involve creating models for banks to predict bad debt, assessing implications of future regulations on clients and pricing insurance contracts for insurance companies.
Throughout, I am studying towards my professional actuarial qualification.
The point is, once you get in to a big company, like EY, you can gain a lot of valuable experience which will be a great foundation for your professional career. Even if you don't necessarily want to become an actuary, having a mathematics degree from Maynooth will give you the option to try any financial services area that you are interested in.