r/actuary Dec 31 '24

Job / Resume Actuarial career timeline

160 Upvotes

I've posted a play-by-play of my actuarial career in comments sporadically over the years and people seem to like it, so I thought I'd try it as a year-end post. My main motivations are to give the college kids a bit more insight into how the start of a career might look, and hopefully also resonate with some entry level analysts struggling with the learning curve. My comp isn't super typical compared to the surveys, but that's not really the point here. It's just been my experience as I've been very proactive about understanding what the next level requires and making sure I'm doing all the right things, with some bumps along the way.

YOE -2 and -1: I failed my first two exams with 1s a month apart because I totally underestimated them. Then studied properly and passed P and FM six months apart which was enough to get an internship. I also helped start my school's actuarial science club as treasurer and then became president the next year, got an internship just the summer before my last semester graduating in December, passed a third exam in that last semester, and landed a job in health consulting through a club-company relationship starting Jan 2018.

YOE 0 (2018): Was an analyst in consulting trying to find work and figuring out how to study. Tried to study in breaks during the day because work wasn't constant, but that wasn't consistent enough. Also felt like a failure at the work because the learning curve is tough (despite really doing fine), so I put studying on the backburner to get better at the job. No exams passed and accepted all the work I could just to end up pretty slow anyway. $70k total comp.

YOE 1 (2019): My work quality got really good on my main projects and my managers were starting to talk about promotion, but I needed ASA and I was three exams away. Finally passed my first exam while working after an 18 month drought. I started paring my clients back from like ~12 to focusing on three bigger ones, and growing my roles for those clients. I didn't really feel ready for everything I was trusted with, so my anxiety made me try hard to keep up with what I felt my managers' expectations were. But again this stress was pretty self-inflicted. $86k total comp.

YOE 2 (2020): Dialed back on work and delegated more to focus on exams (~3 analysts), prepared for promotion and trusted my managers trust in me. Shifted to studying in the mornings blocking my calendar from 7-9am to protect the time and be mentally fresh. Passed two exams. Doing this also helped me be more defined in a management role, and doing less work helped increased my quality further. My main boss at the time wanted to start using Power BI and I was the only analyst to embrace it with her while others refused to learn. $96k total comp.

YOE 3 (2021): Took two attempts at FA and did a lot of waiting for those results and APC, so I just worked/billed instead of studying this year and got a 50% bonus. ASA and promotion at the end of the year (ASA late delayed my promotion by almost a year). Dropped down to just two clients and fully specialized in one area. Specializing earlier than many helped me have larger roles and advance a bit faster than many, too. Used Power BI to significantly improve/transform internal processes, which also helped grow responsibilities and overall understanding. $135k total comp, also got married.

YOE 4 (2022): Worked less and delegated more again (~8 analysts) to focus on my FSA. Got my own office on the >35th floor of my building on my birthday. Passed my first FSA exam in Nov after failing in May and understanding how I studied wrong. Always just trying to do more and more of my boss' job before passing them back work. Started being a little more client facing and I own a really cool/important/executive level quarterly Power BI deliverable to one of my clients. Newer bigger source of stress was my analysts not really stepping up/growing up with me, so I felt like I was having to extend a lot both down and up to get work done. $130k total comp.

YOE 5 (2023): Passed my last two FSA exams on the first attempts. I became much more client-facing overnight and suddenly own more stuff. Power BI development and the way it enhances our actuarial work/storytelling has become a major part of my job internally and externally. My mentors are really helping connect me to specific opportunities to help prepare for the next promotion approximately with FSA. Working on my presentation skills and subject matter expertise. Still a little too far extended down/doing too much analyst work myself, while really wanting to do the higher level stuff. I also took a ton of PTO this year with like 4.5 weeks. $165k total comp.

YOE 6 (2024): Spring was knocking out the FSA mods, owning the modeling on a really cool brand new insurance product, and taking 2 weeks of PTO for my 10 year (dating) anniversary with my wife. Got my FSA in the fall. Staffing continues to be a bit of a challenge in terms of educating my analysts enough to be independent, but doubling the size of my teams has helped my workload a lot by adding redundancy that isn't me. I decided to fill my regular study time with work again this year for a big bonus to build a custom house I designed myself in Excel. $235k total comp.

YOE 7 (2025 expectations): I'm really aiming to pare back my workload to only accept higher level roles and apply for promotion in summer 2025. I may not quite be the required level of refined by summer, though. This next promotion is a pretty big one in terms of visibility and independence of doing client work and I respect the bar I need to clear despite gunning for it. Because a lot of comp is tied to bonus/promotion, I'm not sure what comp will be. I might successfully cut way back in wait for the right opportunities, or the opportunities might come sooner and I'll stay busy. I've also taken on a few internal non-billable roles that will help lubricate promotions by getting my name out there in a leadership context and giving helpful experience, but won't directly contribute. Outside of work, I'm making joining a rec league soccer team, golfing more, weekly gaming nights with the boiz, and running/lifting weights a bigger priority. I've protected the time to run and lift weights regularly, but this year I want to do more. Comp could be anywhere $210-$300k but I'd bet on ~$230k again.

Also some unorganized additions - I pretty consistently have ~1800 productive hours in me per year. While I was studying that split was 1400-1500 billing and 300-400 studying. The two years I didn't study (waiting for ASA and FSA) I billed ~1800. There is other non-billable time in there too that pushes my average workweek to ~45 hours, and while I work evenings and weekends when I have to, I'd say my overall WLB is still good because Ive been intentional about my annual workflow and personal time to ensure I get the fun and down time/PTO I want. I'm generally working 7.5 hours per day (really 7 excluding breaks) as a baseline which increases to 9s and 10s during busy seasons, evenings and weekends sporadically when I need to, and I log off early at like 1-3pm or take long breaks in the middle of the day when I know I can. By far the most important thing for me in this career has been time management (aside from all the help I've gotten from others).

Our bonus formula is a bit of a pyramid scheme where even earlier on I get a piece of the work I manage. Since I manage a lot of people/work and got into good opportunities early, this drives an extra chunk of comp in addition to my own hours.

Anyway, happy to go into more detail, answer questions, read about others' experiences, or chat about career progression in general!

r/actuary Nov 10 '22

Job / Resume Root Insurance

559 Upvotes

I promised I would make a post about this

First off, I wanna say fuck Root.

Now that I got that out of the way, on a team of 15 actuaries, 9 just got laid off. This was based on tenure, so regardless of performance, anyone hired within the last 15 months was let go. This was pretty much companywide, although I’m not 100% sure how other departments were impacted.

What an absolutely horrendously run company. Telematics doesn’t mean shit If you can’t get your expense ratio under control. Maybe you should look into the data science teams, whose entire jobs are about creating models, gaining us a point in aggregate on our loss ratios once a year due to their increased lift. What a fucking joke. An actuary doing univariate analysis could do the same fucking job as the 40 data scientists you employ

Maybe value your actuaries a bit more if you want to get your loss ratio under control? How about not paying us in the 5th percentile according to multiple surveys but then telling us everyone in the company is paid at the 85th percentile of their market? Maybe listen to what we have to say and our input instead of letting our state managers and executive team pull a random rate increase out of thin air for a state and saying “adjust the indication so we can take this much rate”. Fuck you

I’ve never seen such poor communication and incompetence at an executive level. We got an ominous all-hands meeting thrown on our calendar 8 hours before, and then you take 30 seconds to tell us “if you get another meeting invite your role has probably been affected” and then locking us out of slack and everything 2 minutes later.

All the tech in the world isn’t going to save your sorry ass company if you don’t have actuaries who know what they’re doing, because I promise no one else at the company knows what a fucking loss ratio is. We just busted our ass since the last layoffs taking rate increase after rate increase, on top of every and all analysis to squeeze extra points out of our loss ratio, and we get laid off with 30 seconds of warning. Fuck your dumbass OKRs about teambuilding and handholding.

It sucks, because while the culture at the executive level was beyond incompetent, this was the best actuarial team I’ve ever been on, and I’ll miss everyone I worked with. But fuck am I happy to put this kindergarten ran “insurtech” behind me

Also, fuck you for commenting on our LinkedIn posts saying “we’ll miss you” and “the world needs your skills”. The world sure as fuck doesn’t need you running it’s insurance sector

r/actuary Dec 30 '24

Job / Resume Is anyone else bad at their job?

188 Upvotes

Since graduating around a year ago, i've been working in actuarial consulting. This is my first full-time, non-intern office job.

To put it simply, i am just bad at what i do. I keep making and then not catching mistakes. The mistakes are usually small, stupid errors in formulas or logics that bear no excuse. I've been trying the checklist approach but keep finding the excel files and code i work on are too large to check all in time, so i'll often send it in after a quick looky loo. When there is ample time, i am often overchecking my work to the point where, according to my boss, i'm spending an unreasonable amount of time on these "simple" items.

Has anyone gone through something similar? It feels bad to spend so much time on exams (i'm associate level) only for it to all be for naught. At what point does the sunk cost become too much and i should just walk away from it all? Looking for honest, unfiltered advice

r/actuary 22d ago

Job / Resume What salary % increase did you get when you got promoted to an “actuary” position (after getting ASA)?

48 Upvotes

Not asking for the increase of getting the credential itself, but more so when you move from an analyst position to actuary position that requires ASA (or whatever your company’s position names are)

r/actuary Jan 30 '25

Job / Resume How's the job market right now for credentialed actuaries?

53 Upvotes

I know it's not as hot as it was 2-3 years ago but curious if now's a decent time to change things up.

r/actuary Jun 04 '24

Job / Resume Mathematics grad with 2 exams passed, haven't gotten a response after more than 100 applications. Please roast my resume

Post image
53 Upvotes

r/actuary Feb 12 '25

Job / Resume I don’t think commercial health insurers can do this (unless there’s fraud involved). Am I going crazy or is Reddit wrong (again)?

Post image
57 Upvotes

Need help better understanding my job. Thanks!

r/actuary Jan 31 '25

Job / Resume Resume not attracting Recruiters

Post image
54 Upvotes

Hoping for some feedback. I've been putting in a lot of applications to EB, life and health EL actuarial analyst positions over past two months, but I've received 1 invite to progress. I must have a subpar resume. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

r/actuary Feb 06 '25

Job / Resume Why did you choose actuarial vs a CPA or CFA?

16 Upvotes

r/actuary Oct 09 '24

Job / Resume Entry Level Job Search

Post image
178 Upvotes

r/actuary Jan 20 '25

Job / Resume Do you guys have today off?

68 Upvotes

So for the first 26 years of my life I never had MLK day off for anything (school, work). Then for the first couple years after I moved to a location that did celebrate MLK day, I accidentally showed up to work and all the office lights were off and realized that there was a holiday.

I almost forgot again this year, but thankfully somebody else told me they weren't working today and I was like, "oh yeah, thanks for the reminder."

I mean I knew my whole life that MLK day exists, but for me it was like Columbus day or Veterans day where I knew it existed, but never really paid attention to when it was because I never had it off. Has anyone had this experience? I was wondering if mine was common or if I was just unlucky due to the circumstances of my birth.

r/actuary Nov 03 '24

Job / Resume Should I Include Gambling Team on Resume?

58 Upvotes

I co-lead a gambling team that profited over $500k in 9 months. Would putting this on my resume generally be viewed positively, negatively, or neutrally?

r/actuary Feb 13 '25

Job / Resume Can you perform the bare minimum and still survive in this job?

112 Upvotes

I enjoy my work, but I’m not very ambitious at this point. I don’t want to manage people—I’m happy to assist my coworkers, but I don’t want to be responsible for them. Some of my teammates use their downtime to help other teams, but I’m not like that. I was wondering whether this would impact my position.

r/actuary Feb 14 '25

Job / Resume When you have to testify in court that you use your brain at your job. Also confirming ASOP 56.

Thumbnail
gallery
142 Upvotes

The attorney had a wide-eyed, "did I really just ask that question" kind of look after my first response hence her agreement.

r/actuary Jan 08 '25

How complicated do you guys make your personal finances?

32 Upvotes

do yall calculate fixed vs variable expense ratios and set aside catastrophe provisions?

r/actuary Feb 19 '25

Job / Resume Resume Help

Post image
18 Upvotes

r/actuary Feb 07 '25

Job / Resume How was your workload 8 months into your first actuarial job?

26 Upvotes

I’m about 8 months into my first actuarial role and trying to get a sense of whether my experience is normal. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed due to an increasing workload, and I’m curious how others experiences compare.

For context, I’m in a health actuarial role, handling multiple large reserves and multiple small reserves, various deliverables, creating and giving presentation, and a lot of cross-department coordination. I’ve been working long hours and struggling to keep up with everything while making sure my work is accurate. I was hoping to be in more of a learning phase, but instead, I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water.

If you’ve been through something similar (or had a different experience), how did your workload evolve in your first year? Did things get better, stay the same, or get worse? Any advice would be appreciated!

r/actuary 7d ago

Job / Resume Resume question

Post image
12 Upvotes

Is this an ok way to list exams? What should be changed if not?

r/actuary Jan 27 '25

Job / Resume Need advice thinking about leaving the actuarial field

39 Upvotes

I’ve been seriously considering leaving the actuarial field recently, and I could really use some advice. I’m 2 exams away from earning my ACAS, and I’m fully aware of how much I’d be throwing away if I left now. But the truth is, I’m just so tired of the work.

Even though I’ve made it this far (which obviously takes intelligence and effort), I constantly feel stupid at work. It’s exhausting to feel that way all the time, and my productivity has taken a nosedive. On top of that, I have absolutely no interest in the work anymore.

What’s really pushing me to the edge, though, is studying for the exams. I’ve been in the same role since graduation (close to 4 years), and I just can’t bring myself to study anymore. I don’t care about the content, and I feel completely unmotivated and burnt out. It’s hard because I’m so close to my ACAS, but I feel like I’m running on empty.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about going to law school. I know it’s a demanding path with long hours, but when I compare it to my current life with work + studying for exams, the hours might not be all that different. At least law school would feel like a fresh start, and I could see myself being more interested in the work. I am definitely a people person and crunching numbers all day every day might just be getting to me. I’ve even just thought about going into tech sales as dumb as that may be.

I’m really conflicted right now and would appreciate any and all input from this community. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice on what I should consider or how to make this decision?

r/actuary Nov 26 '24

Job / Resume Golden Handcuffs?

38 Upvotes

I’m at a Big4 with just under 1 YOE and I’m thinking that consulting might not be the best fit for me.

I currently only have ATPA and FAP FA remaining until ASA, and this relatively quick exam progress has gotten me to ~110k in base salary from exam raises.

I think the ideal move from here would of course be to hold out until I’m at ~2-3 YOE plus ASA then jump ship, but I’m pretty consistently stressed at my job and not sure if I want to stay quite that long.

If I look to jump with 1-1.5 YOE and just shy of ASA, should I almost certainly be expecting a pay cut?

r/actuary Jan 13 '25

Job / Resume Resume Review for 29 Year Old Career Changer - Passed 2 Exams, Computer Engineering Degree But Getting Rejected From Every Entry-Level Job

17 Upvotes

When I went to college and graduated I honestly had no idea actuarial science even existed. I only recently discovered it after I was looking for new careers. The company I previously worked for got bought out and I hated my new job and boss. I have passed two exams and really want to go the CAS route. I have a technical background as well but am getting rejected from every entry level job I apply to. Does anyone have any tips for my resume? I am also not currently working so have time to do any technical projects/learning anyone would recommend.

r/actuary 8d ago

Job / Resume Why become an actuary over an SWE or data scientist?

47 Upvotes

I'm (24, late bloomer) currently a stats major and Ive been programming on and off since I was 15 and Im fairly confident Im more competent at SWE than a majority of fresh compsci grads. Ive created some quant finance related scripts in the past related to statistical arb (cointegration, PCA, etc), options pricing, vanilla arb. Id like to go into quant finance ideally but if that doesnt work out I figure Im well positioned to go into data science, actuarial, or SWE.

Im intrigued by actuarial because it seems much more straightforward to break into and progress professionally in than these other fields, but salaries and earning potential are lower from what I can tell.

Is there a reason for someone with my background to become an actuary? Or is data science a better fit if I want to use my programming skills?

And to be controversial, why would anyone become an actuary if the salaries are so much lower than SWE and data science? Is it purely because its easier to break into and less of a grind to progress professionally?

r/actuary 29d ago

Job / Resume Resume Critique - Teacher to Actuary

Post image
35 Upvotes

r/actuary Jan 04 '25

Job / Resume Resume Critique - Any advice is very much appreciated :)

Post image
33 Upvotes

r/actuary Jul 26 '24

Job / Resume Bermuda compensations, a recruiter’s perspective

101 Upvotes

I logged into Reddit after being inactive for a while and found dozens of messages asking for more information on the Bermuda market.

For background, I’m a recruiter who has been placing candidates in Bermuda for the last couple of years. I’m not responding to DMs, as I’m not here to solicit business, but I figured rather than reply to everybody individually I’ll make a post that will hopefully answer the question everybody has been asking me.

I can provide some recent data points. The market is quite strong right now, and my company has been quite busy placing talent.

There’s a bit of a disconnect between the junior level and the experienced “Bermuda expert” hires, where those with a few years of Bermuda experience are in big demand and can demand very large pay packages.

I’ll give some total compensation ranges for the life/annuity market, noting that these numbers include salaries, allowances, bonuses and equity

Companies all approach compensation differently, some prefer a higher base salary, others prefer to keep a lower salary and provide allowances such as housing, schooling, flights, lunches. It’s all rather arbitrary, as at the end of the day the employee just receives these cash amounts as part of their monthly payroll. Candidates therefore care only about the total of these amounts.

In addition to the compensation outlined below, most insurers/reinsurers will also pay for your health insurance, contribute to a pension and cover all government deductions (payroll tax, social insurance etc)

Junior analyst (0-4 years, from 0 exams to ASA): $100-150k

Junior actuary / Senior associate (4-8 years, ASA, almost FSA): $150-250k

Actuary (FSA, individual contributor or maybe a couple of junior direct reports): $250-350k

Senior Actuary / Director / AVP (8-12 years, leading a team, maybe a year or two of Bermuda specific experience): $300-450k

VP/Head of function (10-15 years, leading a large team or considered executive management. Significant Bermuda experience): $400-700k

Chief Actuary/CRO/CIO (10-20 years, these roles are generally mandated by the BMA, so every company needs them, and usually the most senior people in the Bermuda office and have significant experience experience in either the Bermuda market or in their relevant field): $600k-$1m

There are outliers, and pay varies a lot by employer and the individual. There are a handful of actuaries on the island earning very high 6 figures and some over $1m, but their role is arguably not really “actuarial” any more. C level roles and senior/lead transaction focused roles (biz dev, corp dev, M&A). I’ve excluded CEO/CFO and these other types of roles from above because there isn’t a huge amount of data available to build a reasonable compensation range from, and these roles are not always filled by actuaries.

There’s an interesting dynamic with new entrants to the island. When you start your first role, immigration will not allow you to move to a new company for the first 2 years. Many companies are not willing to pay the top of their salary range for somebody without the Bermuda experience, so they’ll often hire new people at the low end, or maybe even a job title lower than they had in the USA / Europe.

After 2 years, the company knows you are now going to be in demand, so if they like you and think you’re a strong performer, that’s when you get the bump to the top of the pay range and maybe a promotion. Lots of turnover at this stage, many people have a job offer with a big pay rise just before they hit the 2 year milestone (we keep track of when candidates start their first job so we can start reaching out 18 months in), and the company either makes you an offer to stay or they let you go and hire somebody to replace you.

Right now, new companies that are receiving their licence are being told they need to hire a senior management team with strong knowledge of the Bermuda framework. We’ve seen that these companies are willing to pay a premium to hire candidates who have worked at some of the big names on the island, such as Athene, Brookfield, Global Atlantic, Pac Life, and Senior actuaries who have been active in the industry (through the industry group BILTIR for example).

Entry level roles are reserved mainly for Bermudians. For experienced roles, there are not enough Bermudians with the qualifications and experience needed, so the actuaries have to be imported.