Actuarial Job Blog

An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet, and require asset management, liability management, and valuation skills. Actuaries provide assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their Actuaries of the 21st century require analytical skills, business knowledge, and an understanding of human behavior and information systems to design and manage programs that control risk. The actual steps needed to become an actuary are usually country-specific; however, almost all processes share a rigorous schooling or [...]

Naomi Cooney, FIA, is a Financial Sector Specialist, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program at the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. Q: When did you first decide to become an actuary? During my final year of school my business teacher mentioned actuary as a career for those interested in mathematics and business. My best subjects in school were mathematics and accountancy and I was torn between applying for actuarial or accountancy courses in college. To be honest, I didn't know a whole lot about actuaries, other than you needed to be good with numbers and that it offered good [...]

International Recruitment Ireland’s re-energised booming economy has led to significant talent shortages that cannot be met from the domestic market alone. Actuaries are in big demand - ‘international recruitment’ has again become key. This article examines the role of international recruitment and its particular relevance to the Dublin actuarial market. Go west young man ! The world is truly getting smaller. The all-consuming trend of globalisation is dramatically changing peoples' attitudes to where they will work and live. Whereas 20 years ago a job in a ‘market like Dublin might have seemed like only a stepping stone in a long [...]

What motivates you? If you are looking for a career and employer that will challenge you, encourage you to take responsibility and show initiative, and demand innovative thinking, then an actuarial career in general insurance consulting at our client is for you. As a General Insurance Consultant you will work beside some of the industry’s top thought leaders designing and implementing cutting-edge solutions to challenges faced by the world’s leading insurers. Your main responsibilities will be as follows: • Actively seek to be involved in a variety of work to ensure a broad skill set (technical, management and client) is [...]

Traditional employment On both the life and casualty sides, the classical function of actuaries is to calculate premiums and reserves for insurance policies covering various risks. On the casualty side, this analysis often involves quantifying the probability of a loss event, called the frequency, and the size of that loss event, called the severity. The amount of time that occurs before the loss event is important, as the insurer will not have to pay anything until after the event has occurred. On the life side, the analysis often involves quantifying how much a potential sum of money or a financial [...]

Are you getting paid what you are worth? If not, why not? “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” - Franklin D. Roosevelt There is no getting around the fact that salary negotiation is a difficult process to go through. Many a confident employee has been reduced to a shivering wreck when faced with the task of confronting the ‘boss’ and justifying why they should be getting greater rewards for the work they are performing. Thankfully there are, however, some very constructive ways in which the process can be approached, helping to alleviate the stress and frustration [...]