We’re celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2024 with a new story to mark each day. Clarence Er reveals the lesser known benefits of volunteering in the fifth interview in the series.
How did you get into volunteering with the IFoA?
I've started my volunteering journey with the IFoA as many people would by joining working parties on selected topics and contributing to top leadership and research in those areas. Over time I've started to take a step back and explore roles that give me access to different parts of the IFoA and provides a broader view of what's going on within the organisation.
What is your volunteer role at the IFoA?
At the moment I am the Deputy Chair of the Life Board and I'm going to be stepping up to Chair in June 2024. I've taken on the DEI champion role for the Life Board as well. Additionally, I'm also the Chair of the Finance and Investment Research Sub-committee, which reports to the Finance and Investment Board.
I still remain active in a few working parties such as the Private Credit Further Development working party and the Modelling Pre and Post Retirement Products working party.
What is the most important thing you have learned as a volunteer?
It’s to learn from each other. You work with people within your industry and even within the same company most of the time, so depending on your role you might not get that much exposure to other people. Whereas with volunteering, you get to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures who bring different views. The IFoA being a global organisation also provides opportunities to be exposed to people from different parts of the world.
Do you have any advice for new volunteers or people considering volunteering?
Think about it in two ways. People tend to focus on the giving, but also that there’s a lot of things to take from the experience. The exposure you get from volunteering can be valuable for your personal development, and it is a good opportunity to influence the institution that we're all part of.
My advice is to really think about what you want to do and what you enjoy doing- whether it's more technical (contributing to research) or you want to get experience that you don't get from work (like helping out on committee or a board). Volunteering does take up time outside of work, so it needs to be managed accordingly. I've seen people who were quite keen and start volunteering for a lot of different things and almost burnt out at the end.
Clarence Er is Group Head of Credit Risk at Just Group and is a life and investments actuary with over 13 years’ experience. He is the Deputy Chair of the Life Board and Chair of the Finance & Investment Research Sub-Committee.
From the lesser-known benefits to the impact you can have as a volunteer, delve into more stories in the series. We are publishing each day of Volunteers’ Week 2024.
