29 May 2018
In this blog, Chloe Hung, Amazon best-selling author, gives advice on how to plan and structure your actuarial career.
Having a solid actuarial career plan is important in increasing your chances at landing your first full time actuarial job after graduation. Plus, planning for your actuarial career gives you a better idea of where you want to go and what you want to do once you step into the working world.
The actuarial industry is wide and offers many possibilities. As an actuarial student, you have the option to work in a wide range of industries such as insurance, pension, finance, investments, data sciences and so on. Most actuarial students traditionally end up working within the insurance industry. However, more and more actuarial students are currently looking to branch into other non-traditional industries that are not insurance related.
Some students may discover that they have a deeper interest in finance halfway through their actuarial journey. Hence, they decide to pursue a career within the finance industry upon college graduation. Where does your interests lie? This is an important question to ask yourself as you begin planning for your actuarial career after graduation.
Determining your interests will help you gain a better idea on which industry do you want to work in and which companies would you like to kick start your career at. If you are someone who is more interested in the insurance industry, start researching more about this industry because the insurance industry is huge. As an actuarial graduate, you have the option to work in the general insurance, life insurance, pension or retirement field. Which insurance industry would you like to begin your career at?
Once you’ve determined the specific industry in which you’d like to gain more career experience in, take some time to research which are the best performing companies, how many companies offer an actuarial position to fresh actuarial graduates and what is the latest update within these industries. It’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest industrial news in order to advance in your actuarial career.
Now that you’ve identified the specific area in which to launch your actuarial career at, it’s time to determine your career outcomes and set specific career goals. What type of working experience are you are looking to gain when you first start working? If you are looking to work within the life insurance industry, are you hoping to learn more about the different life insurance products in the market at your job? Or are you hoping to learn more about how are life insurance products priced so that they are affordable to the public and profitable to the company? How long will you give yourself to attain these work experiences?
Having a clear vision of your outcome will help you advance quicker in your actuarial career. Plus, it will help you stay motivated when you begin to feel stressed out at work or have a tough time juggling between your job and your actuarial exams. This is why it is so important that you have an actuarial career plan that is focused and customized to your own needs and goals.
Most importantly, envision what will your actuarial career be like in 5 years and 10 years time. Will you still be working in the same company that you started your career at in the next 5 years or 10 years? What type of career growth do you hope to achieve within those time frames? For example, are you looking to be promoted to a managerial position in 5 years and then become a fully qualified actuary in 10 years? Once you’ve created a 5-year and 10-year career vision for yourself, start taking small steps every single day towards that vision of yours.
Finally, be sure to review your actuarial career plan at the end of every year to ensure that you are on the right track towards your desired outcome and your desired career. Yearly career plan reviews are important because this helps you identify what is bringing you closer towards your career goals and what is pushing you further away from them.
Modify your career plan to reflect the steps that will bring you closer towards your goals. You may need to keep modifying your plan on a frequent basis in order to achieve your desired outcome. The key is to remain focused on your desired outcome and be flexible towards the steps needed to help you achieve them.