Opportunity Makers | Jo Frankham: life in actuarial life

Back in 2001, Jo Frankham was working in a sales support role for a big tech company, wondering where her career was going. When her recruiter sister put her in touch with an actuarial recruitment company, Jo went along for a chat – but didn’t expect it to lead anywhere. 24 years later, she’s heading up our actuarial life division. 

Jo talks to us about an eventful recruitment career to date and shares a few lessons and anecdotes she’s picked up along the way.  

It’s your job to find great opportunities for actuarial professionals in life insurance companies, but what does an actuary do? 

“Actuaries tend to have mathematical or statistical backgrounds,” says Jo. “Their role is all about looking at the financial impact of uncertainty within their particular market, so they will look at the risk and ways to minimise that. My clients and candidates work in life insurance, which is every bit of insurance that relates to people – so things like income protection, life cover, savings and retirement.” 

• What’s the best thing about working in this team? 

“Obviously you get to work with me! Our team’s only three years old, so we’re still a relatively new team to Eames and that in itself is quite exciting. We’re building the team out and have made some great headway establishing ourselves in the market, but there’s still so much opportunity for people to come in and make an impact, carve out their role in the team, play a really key role.” 

• What does being an opportunity maker mean to you? 

“It's bringing people together, it's making connections, it's helping people – our clients and candidates – achieve their goals.” 

• Describe the culture of Eames in three words 

“It’s fun, it’s collaborative and it’s welcoming.” 

• What is your favourite benefit of working with Eames? 

“There's always lots of really good social stuff going on with teams and days out and other events. But also I love the 4pm Friday finish because I've never had that before. So it's a real treat to have a little bit of extra time to spend with my kids at the end of the week.” 

• What does it take to be successful at Eames?  

“I think you've got to be a team player. You've got to be prepared to work really hard, but you've also got to be prepared to work at a really high quality level. I think that's where we stand out from our competitors.” 

• What is your proudest moment in your career to date?
  

“Obviously there have been some memorable placements, but for me, the real highlights have been where I’ve received positive feedback and recognition from clients and candidates for the work I’ve done, whether or not it’s resulted in a placement. I was also extremely proud to be given this opportunity to build the life actuarial division here at Eames.” 

• What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far, and how did you overcome it?
  

“The 2008 credit crisis was the first tough one. The rapid shift from a super busy desk to most of my clients putting their recruitment on hold was brutal. You had to adapt quickly, putting in much harder work for far fewer rewards, keeping relationships going in the hope that things would turn. It definitely taught me not to take anything for granted in this job, and definitely stood me in good stead for when Covid-19 hit in 2020. Although the lockdown juggle of work and home-schooling was an extra level of challenge!” 

• What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
  

“Don’t take things personally! It's really easy to get downtrodden and fed up in this job, but just let it wash over you. There are so many elements of this job that you can’t control, so focus on things that you can control and do them really well.” 

• Why Eames?
  

“I’ve been in recruitment for a long time and can honestly say I haven’t worked anywhere quite like Eames before. High performance is encouraged and celebrated, but not at the expense of collaboration and teamwork. Not only is there a genuine desire for people to achieve success, but this is backed by an amazing support structure providing all the tools and resources to help them accomplish this.” 

If you want to find out more about Jo’s career journey and the life of an actuarial life recruiter, please get in touch with Jo. For more on what it’s like working for Eames Consulting, check out our careers page.