Acumen Blog

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 [...]

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 ! [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The development in the financial services industry has been pretty interesting, to put it mildly, so how do you find a new job in todays market? The key, as ever, is to make sure you do the preparation and groundwork first. With the prospect that the supply of actuaries will outstrip demand due to budget constraints, redundancies [...]

Which agency to choose? There is generally little benefit in going to more than one agency. In fact it can be detrimental as your CV may go to a particular employer from several sources which could give the impression that you are “desperate” for a role. Also it makes it a lot more difficult to [...]

5. Interview practice Tips on interview technique and even the opportunity to do practice interviews with the consultant can then follow. These can be invaluable, particularly if you have not had an interview for several years or have previously been turned down after interview and are not sure of the reasons why. As a trained [...]

When looking for a new position, it can be tricky to know where to begin and a couple of questions immediately spring to mind; whether to use a recruitment agency and if so, which one to pick? So, exactly what are the benefits of using a recruitment agency? Overall, a good recruitment consultant can often [...]

By Kischel Nair, Actuarial Analyst at FNB South Africa. Conclusion In summary anyone can be an actuary. While a great deal of intelligence is required, a lot of hard work is equally necessary. The actuarial profession involves tough challenges which require a vast skill set as well as a strong mind and self belief. The [...]