Lisa Yu

On Purpose London October 2019 Fellow.

Can you tell me about your background and your career prior to On Purpose?

Prior to On Purpose I had been an actuary for 14 years. (Jeez that sounds so long!) I had worked in the general insurance sector doing lots of risk analysis, creating pricing options and products. Lots of boring things that no one really ever wants to hear about in extensive detail.

What are your greatest strengths?

This always feels like an interview question that regardless of how you answer, always makes you sound like a dunce. I think I am a great juggler of plates, however big and numerous the plates are. I believe I can juggle them well, not forgetting about any plates and making sure the plate owners know I'm taking good care of their plates. Aside from this I am pretty whizzy with Excel and coding and love data and analysis, all of the cool things to bring up in conversation at parties.

Can you tell me more about your placements?

My two placements were at a social investor and an NHS academic health sciences centre. Both amazing and inspirational places, I definitely feel that I hit the placement jackpot. My most recent project involved enabling ICUs in the UK with a digital solution so that people in intensive care units, during COVID-19 were able to stay connected with loved ones. It was an amazing project which was made possible by bringing in key partners and since the beginning of this project, there has been a report conducted to look at how this solution could be implemented outside of COVID times to assist in the mental health of patients and staff.

How did you find making the move to join On Purpose?

Really scary and exciting in equal parts. I felt like the new person who was learning and I'm sure like lots of other Associates, I felt I wasn't adding enough value. It was however exciting every day and made me feel pumped to get up for work in the mornings. It took me many years to finally take the jump to change careers. It is surprisingly difficult to walk away from a career you spent many many years building, made harder by the fact that I liked my job and what I did. The whole onboarding experience with On Purpose made everything seem less scary and my gosh my cohort were an absolute dream.