INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Actuary positions are at a 24% growth rate, which is much faster than average. With that said, there are currently 27,700 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 6,800 to 34,500 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Actuary jobs was $111,030 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $66,030, and the highest 10% more than $196,010.
Our conclusion? The Actuary job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Actuary sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Actuary resume experience section
Actuary Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Actuary resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Extensive use of Excel, writing complex VBA software to clean and manipulate data.
- Validated data for over 400 contracts that made up their $420M Aquilo Fund.
- Produced forecast profit distribution for use by CEO in investor pitches.
- Structured a bepoke lapse risk reinsurance cover for a major UK Life Insurance company
- Led the financial modelling of the solution the projected cashflows and financial metrics of the transaction
- Assessed the sensitivity and robustness of the structure by designing and implementing stress-test scenarios
- Designed the management process of the transaction
- IFRS standards : Financial impact assessment of IFRS 17 standard on both participating and non-participating contracts
- Modeling/ALM : Implementation of a MTP (P&L and Balance sheet projection over 5 years) on health/protection/life savings/retirement scope for a provident institution
- Audit : Review of French GAAP and US GAAP technical reserves of insurance/reinsurance companies
- Working with product owners and analysts to map and improve recurring analytics processes, including tariff revisions, KPI prognoses, and Solvency II estimates
- Part of the internal advanced analytics virtual team, working across business areas to educate, inspire, and support trial initiatives in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in all parts of the insurance value chain
- Evangelizing the use of open source in core insurance analytics processes: R, Shiny, Python, TensorFlow, Prophet
- International P&C Reserving (incl. set of Group Actuarial Guidelines)
- Responsible of Solvency II P&C Technical Provisions reporting (Pillar III)
- M&A (Strategy and Actuarial workstreams)
- EVM production New/Renewal business EMEA and Latin America. Main EVM contact for ALHM, SRI and IptiQ.
- Modelling experience for Spain and Portugal: 2 death businesses has been moved from the loss ratio model to a proper Moses projection.
- Iberia market owner: quarterly US GAAP and STAT evaluation.
- Migration of the Life portfolio on a new software: actuarial formulas and testing.
- Profit Testing for developing new products.
- Reports development using Power Pivot.
- Pricing of most of L&H Lines of Business
- Tools development
- Support to client mangers for client meetings
- Head of Finance Transformation
- Senior Manager, Planning & Actuarial Services
- Actuary, Strategy & Planning
- Benefits calculations of retirements, terminations, deaths and marriages breakdown's for Irish Pension Plans;
- Issuing benefits statements;
- Constant communication with Dublin’s team;
- Training and support of new colleagues;
- Keep up to date the calculation tools and the training documents.
- Benefits calculations for retirements, terminations and deaths;
- Production of annual statements;
- Continuous communication with clients and plan members.
- Benefits calculations for retirements, terminations, deaths and marriages breakdown;
- Production of annual statements;
- Production of the year end data collection files in order to update the database;
- Pension adjustment calculation;
- Production of data files for audits;
- Continuous communication with clients and plan members;
- Testing changes made on the informatics tools;
- Production of data files for the actuarial valuations; etc.
- Lead pricing and risk activity for Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece & Belgium
- Countries and product P&L monitoring
- Team management (2 FTEs multiple locations)
- Carried out the quarterly closing and annual analysis of the American portfolio, for various lines of business, mainly focused on: credit & surety, workers' compensation
- Analyzed SCOR's homebuilders portfolio in order to improve the reserving methodology for this line of business, in collaboration with the underwriter and the cedants
- Participated in working groups on various topics involving reserving actuaries (e.g. Credit & Surety, Communication)
- Performed the pricing of some treaties during the renewal for the Middle East market
- Led the Standard Formula calculation for SCOR Group and its entities under the Solvency II regulation
- Participated to the testing for the industrialization of the Standard Formula (VEGA® tool)
- Validated the Economic Scenarios Generator and the Asset model of SCOR's Internal Model
- Coordinated various regulatory stress tests exercises (ACPR stress tests, EIOPA stress tests)
- Presented the SCOR Campus for clients: impact of reinsurance programs on the solvency of an insurance company
- Developed new pricing models for new business (NB) deals
- IFRS 17 model development
- Validation of Internal Model changes (Solvency II)
- Validation of capital reporting impacts and projections
- Validation of NB aquisitions (pricing)
- Improvements in modelling approaches for pricing NB
- Member of the Technical Sub-Commitee (TSC)
- Developing & Improving risk-based capital models under the local regulatory standards (such as Solvency II)
- Developing IFRS17 models for EMEA/AP clients
- Asset-Liability Model (ALM) development
- Designed, developed and supported the work for the completion of the ReAssure Group Partial Internal Model (PIM)
- Focused on all Market, Credit, and Operational risks
- Developed and implemented the Solvency II data quality standards
- Developed and implemented the validation model for the Matching Adjustment under Stress
- MATLAB Economic Capital Model Validation
- Member of the Expert Judgment (EJ) Panel
- Took ownership and further developed the following Life & GI market risks for the NFU Mutual Solvency II Partial Internal Model: Credit Spread Risk, Inflation Risk, and Counterparty Credit Risk
- Took ownership of the life cost of guarantees closed form (Prophet) model used in the calculation of the component, independent, and combined stresses for Solvency II
- Took ownership and further developed the Matching Adjustment under stress model for the Solvency II independent and combined stresses
- Process improvements as it pertains to our internal model (Life) for operational risk mitigation
- Developed and implemented the market risk EWI's for the Solvency II pillar II ORSA
- Calibration and production of B&H ESG base outputs and stresses for Solvency I and II
- Scenario and stress testing analysis for Solvency I and II
- Monthly and quarterly valuations (Prophet)
- Credit risk modelling and analysis (MCCSR and Solvency II basis)
- Experience and expense investigations
PRO TIP
In writing your Actuary resume, you will no doubt want to list your previous duties - as you should. But steer clear of just listing your duties, instead of your achievements. Make your resume stand out by communicating what you have done, and not merely what the job needed you to do.
Action Verbs for your Actuary Resume
Recommended reads:
Actuary Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Actuary resume
SpaCy
TextaCy
Pandas
Numpy
StatsModels
SKlearn
SciPy
Theano
Prophet
PostgreSQL
Communication
Planning and organisation
Prioritization
Efficiency
Responsibility
Problem-solving
Attention to detail
Customer service
Phone Etiquette
Discretion
PRO TIP
Avoid getting sidetracked by Applicant tracking software by including a tech skills' section matching the job description and your own qualifications.
Actuary Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Actuary Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have non-discrimination policies about what kind of information can be included on your Actuary resume. This might include a photo (which is often included in a resume header and might be on personal web pages you link to). You can always email the company’s HR department to ask about their policies before you apply.
Actuary Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Actuary resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
You’re not going to get hired simply because of a good summary or objective. However, your recruiter can bump you up in front of similarly experienced candidates who didn’t demonstrate such passion and drive.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Actuary resume
SOA Exam P: Probability for Actuaries Part 1 (Actuarial)
This course, along with Part 2, provide the necessary skills and knowledge to pass SOA Exam P and CAS Exam 1
What does an actuary actually do?
The course that provides a practical overview of the day to day work of an actuary in an insurance environment.
Mathematical (Actuarial) Statistics:(Exam P/CT3/CS1)
By MJ the Fellow Actuary
Foundational Mathematics for Actuaries / CFA / FRM
MJ the Fellow Actuary
SOA Exam P: Probability for Actuaries Part 2 (Actuarial)
This course, along with Part 1, provide the necessary skills and knowledge to pass SOA Exam P and CAS Exam 1
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Actuary. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Actuary Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Actuary Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Actuary resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Actuary resume:
Actuary Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Actuary resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Actuary Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
