I'm looking for some advice finding an actuarial trainee position. I am graduating in June (MMath from Warwick, 1st or at least 2.1) but unfortunately have failed to get any relevant experience. Didn't find any internships last year and have had no luck with them and full-time positions this year either (applied to 10-15 each year). I have, however, made it to several final/penultimate interview stages and I am very confident about my understanding of the profession. I have experience explaining difficult concepts to non-experts (Supervisor of Maths to first-years) and a solid work experience otherwise, I just cannot seem to impress all kinds of people.
I have followed some advice on here (e.g. JohnnySPal's) and applied to agencies specializing in actuarial recruitment (in addition to graduate schemes), but with no luck. One of them called me to explain that they usually deal with part-qualified students or at least people with exemptions (I might gain at most one - CT3 due to doing statistics at uni).
What else is there that I could do? I don't mind waiting another year and start in 2013, but what can I do differently? I have been thinking about taking (and passing) the CT1 as a non-member of the faculty in September, is it likely to give me an advantage when reapplying?
I would very much appreciate any kind of answer. Thanks!