When working in an actuarial role, there's a lot to do. You need to get your day job done, learn on-the-job skills, get plenty of study time in, pass exams, and ideally retain some semblance of a social life. Thinking about the long term is not always top of mind, but planning early gives you the best chance of future success.
Here's 4 tricks to help you achieve long-term career success:
Set goals that reflect where you want to be. Then once a quarter, review progress against them. These goals should be SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound). Spend time reviewing how the last three months have gone and assess whether you've made progress against your goals. It's okay for goals to change over time and it's okay if you don't have it all figured out right now. Having a direction of travel will help enormously. Set a diary reminder and block out time for this activity.
The actuarial exams take up so much time that it's easy to neglect other forms of education. Don't do this as your value as an actuary extends far beyond what's in a textbook.
Having mentors is paramount for career development. These do not have to be formal mentor-mentee relationships but can be built organically over time as you build your network in an organization.
There are a couple of different philosophies when it comes to building an actuarial career. One is to pick one actuarial discipline and stick to it, and try to build yourself up through an organization. For example, joining a team as a junior reserving analyst and building your way up until you’re the Head of Reserving. This works well in companies that have large teams and when there is lots of staff turnover and positions come up frequently.
Another strategy is to spiderweb in your career, moving between different disciplines over time. This works well in actuarial as many of the disciplines are closely related, e.g., reserving and pricing use similar techniques. It can also work well in smaller companies where there are less specialized roles and when openings may come up infrequently.
Regardless, it can be a good idea to spend the first few years of an actuarial career trying to get as much variety as possible. This can be done by formally changing roles a couple of times in the first few years, or it can be done informally by volunteering for projects that are non-standard and slightly out of the specialism of the team. You can also find actuarial development programs (also known as graduate schemes) that give formal opportunities to move between different teams over a set period of years, e.g., spending time in capital, reserving, and pricing in three years. Being seen as flexible makes you more valuable to a company.
By focusing on these four areas, you can position yourself for long-term success in your actuarial career. Planning ahead and being proactive in your development will pay off in the long run.
