​People love helpful interns and will take pride in discovering you. To have an exceptional internship, take an active role in promoting your discovery this summer.

Define your goals for the summer. It probably look like this, in order of priorities:

1. Get a full-time offer or an invitation back next summer.
2. Learn a lot. 
3. Make connections and friends.

What else am I missing?

I think your priorities should look like this instead: 

1. Make connections with key influencers.
2. Learn everything you can in all different areas of the organization. 

The full-time offer is just a byproduct of positive feedback from key influencers. If you connect with and impress key influencers in the organization, you will get an offer. You need to spend most of your time finding and impressing these influencers. Your manager is of course a major influencer and yes, you must do good work on your assigned tasks to meet the bare minimum requirements of your internship. 

But consider that the majority of other people you meet will actually have no idea what your work product looks like. They will judge you based on your behavior and other things they hear about you. Then you can actually create a very powerful positive feedback loop outside of the actual work function of your internship. 

Build your network by hitting the ground running. Set a goal of one new coffee or lunch date per day. The cycle will look something like this:

1. Ask people to coffee (your treat)
2. Ask those people for advice
3. Listen
4. Ask those people for other connections
5. Repeat
6. Track
7. Follow up

Tracking and following up is the step even seasoned networkers forget or feel uncomfortable doing. Just make a simple Google Sheet with the contact and everything you know about them. As the summer goes on, reference your sheet often and follow-up by providing useful information to people based on what you know about them. When you come across an article that impacts the department of someone on your list, send it over with a quick note catching up.

Even better, find an opportunity to connect two people that can help each other. There are always information gaps between departments and teams in large organizations and a mobile, curious intern can step up. Say you meet a reserving actuary trying to build a claims model and you know something similar exists because you spoke with someone in predictive modeling a few weeks back. Reference your notes, send an email copying them both, and step aside.

As you build your network you'll start to catch on to who is a key influencer, either as someone who has your supervisor's ear or someone involved in the hiring decision-making process. This is a person you should spend a little more attention on. Ask her if she has any extra work you could help with in your down time, "if my manager approves". She may just keep that in her back pocket, but she will note that you made the offer. If you do get some work, run it by your manager as an opportunity to diversify your understanding of the business. As you can see, this plays nicely with your #2 priority, learning everything you can.

Increase your upward visibility while you diversify your knowledge base by approaching more senior employees in different departments, introducing yourself, and offering to assist with anything they need, even mundane tasks. Tread somewhat carefully, because you don't want to undermine your manager by neglecting any assigned work or overcommitting yourself, but if you have the spare time, don't sit idly. By simply not being afraid to approach more senior employees, you will stand out even amongst some full-time employees. If you end up crossing some unspoken line by approaching someone too senior, you can always play the intern card. You didn't know better. You're just trying to help.

If you apply this system over the summer, you will create fans around the organization that will be happy to send up positive feedback to the decision makers, and you will arm yourself tons of transferrable knowledge for your first full-time job. 

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​One of the most glaring and surprising consistencies I've seen among entry level actuarial candidates, even some with actuarial degrees, is that they generally have no clue what actuaries do and have an even worse understanding of the business of insurance. If you're able to speak confidently and intelligently about actuarial and insurance topics, you can hack the system by redirecting the attention from your lack of experience on paper and making a stronger impression than more experienced candidates.

Candidates that have impressed me are those that demonstrate a higher level of understanding of the business and how actuaries impact the bottom line. Hiring managers' expectations for the level of depth of this understanding will vary based on the experience of the candidate. Someone with no internship experience will perhaps be given more slack than someone who has some experience. But there is a basic level of knowledge that is expected for all candidates.

Let's first look at some specific examples of interview flubs I've seen that could have been easily avoided:

• Not knowing what industry the company primarily operates in. A common issue in P&C interviews, since much of the actuarial education centers on the SOA side, is that candidates do not acknowledge or understand the difference between the two industries.
• Having a tenuous grasp of the insurance business as a whole. Especially for candidates with actuarial degrees, hiring managers expect a basic to intermediate understanding of how insurance operates.
• Misunderstanding different actuarial roles on a basic level. You should at very least know the general difference between a reserving actuary and pricing actuary, and how each impacts the bottom line. Bonus points if you have some exposure to nontraditional roles (i.e. know that they exist).

These basic mistakes can be avoided with minimal research before the interview. And that's where most candidates will stop.

This deficiency presents an opportunity to separate yourself from the common candidate. Think of it as a small investment with a high ROI, which is exactly the type of investment of your time that you should be seeking during your job search. 

To grow in this department quickly and effectively, start by investing an hour a week in the following four steps. Start small so you don't make excuses. Even ten minutes per week will be better than zero and will help to build the routine. Then increase the time spent on this activity as time permits. 

1. Use free actuarial literature online to learn more about the technical side of the profession. 
2. Keep up to date on issues impacting the industry.
   
3. Take notes by writing a list of questions you have for each piece you read.
4. Discuss the topics with and ask questions to the actuaries in your network.

For step one, actuarial papers are a great place to start. Check out the SOA and CAS exam resources. At least on the CAS side, many resources are free. Two that I always recommend are the CAS Exam 5 papers on Ratemaking and Reserving, which I'll also add to the resources on the sidebar.

To keep up to date on industry news, follow insurance specific online journals, such as the Insurance Journal or PropertyCasualty360 for the P&C industry, or the SOA's The Actuary Magazine for the Health and Life industry. Follow discussions on the Actuarial Outpost and consider participating in conversations to reinforce your understanding. 

Reading about topics that you only understand at a surface level will not be productive in itself. To internalize the material and learn effectively, write a list of questions from each article or publication you read, and then spend time finding the answers either by searching around or discussing with actuaries in the network you've built through targeted emailing. As you begin to repeat this cycle of reading, reinforcing, asking questions, and getting answers, you will find yourself growing very rapidly. For instance, you might be on a phone call with an actuary who brings up a topic you've read up on and created a list of questions about, and you'll be able to respond intelligently by asking a thoughtful question and taking the conversation a bit deeper each time. 

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EDIT: Please feel free to use the example template in this email as a guide and source of inspiration, but I highly suggest creating a unique personalized email that reflects your own voice. You will be much less likely to get a positive response if the actuary has reason to believe you copied a template from a website, and they will be tipped off to this if they start receiving multiple emails from the same template. Be smart and courteous when using public distribution lists. 

When you're writing targeted e-mails, you'll want a strong template to maximize your response rate  To build a template that should return about a 20% response rate, you should include the following features:

1.  Keep it short and easy to read in one glance. It's easy to get carried away explaining why you're writing, what your qualifications are, or why you would be a good fit. But the most important part is just getting read. You want them to be able to read your entire request in just a few seconds and have a good understanding of who you are and how you can help. 
2. Lead with a strong, attention-grabbing opening line. You want to be noticed, and a poor opening line might get the email trashed.
3. Personalize the message in subtle ways. For example, mention that the actuary's city is your target city.
4. Include a clear call-to-action with an easy out. You want the reader to understand exactly what you're looking for and how he or she can help. You want to downplay the effort this will require on his or her part and also give an easy out so there is no pressure.
5. Have appreciation for his or her time, erring on the side of too gracious, but not over the top. Everyone appreciates being thanked and recognized for their effort or potential effort being asked of them.

With the above in mind, let's put it all together:

Dear Mr./Mrs ___,

I am an aspiring actuary from [city] with [# of exams passed] and [unique skill or accomplishment]. Through the SOA's directory, I noticed that you are an accomplished actuary in my target city of [city]. Would you mind offering just one piece of advice on how I could improve my chances of breaking into the market here? I realize that your time is very valuable, and I really appreciate you taking the time to consider this.

If you do have a moment to take a look, I've attached my resume for your reference. 

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Contact Info]

Notice how long it took you to read the above message. Maybe 15 seconds? That's perfect. If you have any exams passed, it would be good to identify them in the opening line as well, since this is one of the first things a hiring manager will look for. For your unique skill or accomplishment, put some thought into it. Do you have any interesting programming skills or experience? Do you have an extremely high GPA? Any particular project at an internship you are proud of? 

Be specific and detailed. Instead of saying "I am an aspiring actuary from New York with two exams passed and a recent internship, " you might say,

"I am an aspiring actuary from New York with two exams passed and experience building stochastic models in VBA during a recent internship with [company]."

If you haven't had an internship, get creative. If the link between the skill or accomplishment and its application to the position is not clear, make it explicit. For example, if your skill is teaching yourself Spanish, pitch it as an example of being a quick self-study:

"I am an aspiring actuary from New York with two exams passed. I am a quick learner and am constantly seeking out new opportunities to learn. For example, I am a self-taught intermediate Spanish speaker."

As demonstrated above, I want my opening line to accomplish three things at once: the introduction (who are you?), a hint at why you are writing ("aspiring actuary" = looking for a job), and an interesting fact (what you bring to the table). Work at this. You want it to be brief and sound natural, but pack a lot of substance.

The call-to-action is also very important. If you just drop your resume with no well-defined next step, the actuary may not be willing to put in the effort to figure out what it is you want and how he or she can help. You can play around with different approaches to this. The one in my example above is not very aggressive, but it lays out exactly what you are looking for as a next step ("just one piece of advice"), and it is a quick request. The easy out is the line "If you do have a moment to take a look," which implies that if the person doesn't have a moment, then it's no big deal. You've taken off the pressure. 

This is the template that continues to see about a 20% response rate, as reported by readers that I've worked with. 

I encourage you to play with different levels of aggression in the call to action. For example, some readers have seen success with a more aggressive approach that asks for a quick phone call or even grabbing a cup of coffee (on you). You might especially consider this approach if you've already received a response. Once you've received a response, the actuary is already somewhat invested in the outcome of your situation. That would be the time to capitalize by setting up a phone call or quick meeting in person to strengthen that connection. Though I don't have statistics to back this up, my prediction is that a more aggressive targeted e-mail (asking for more in the first e-mail) would see a lower response rate with more valuable responses. If you try it, shoot me an e-mail to let me know your results.

Don't be afraid to break away from my suggested template. In fact, I encourage you to personalize your message in some way to reflect your own style. Of course there are many variations that might fit your case better. Focus on what you believe is your most desirable quality (e.g. quick learner), and then come up with one interesting example that demonstrates your skill. If you are struggling to come up with even one skill you are proud of and one example to demonstrate that skill, you will probably not survive the interview process. 

If you aren't sure about your template or you just want a second opinion, send it to me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com. 

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This week, a reader shared a success story with me. How she went from a hopeless feeling and near abandonment of the actuarial career path to two actuarial job offers in just over one month is a story of taking action. It's too easy to hear anecdotal evidence and create excuses for why that story could apply to another person but certainly not to you. However, the exact path she took is one you can and should take, and the beauty is that the actionable steps of this process can be done in ONE DAY. So read this post and then get to work. I challenge you to find something about this process that couldn't apply to you.

To get a complete picture of the process she went through, let's take a look at our e-mail exchanges (with any identifying information removed), followed by my advice at each step.

May 15
I've been applying to stuff for the past month or so now, but haven't had much luck with hearing back on anything.  Do you have any recommendations as far as job hunting goes?  I finished my [previous job] at the end of March, so I'm just kind of in limbo now.  It was enjoyable while studying for the exam, and even a week or two after, but now I'm getting pretty bored, and trying to figure out how long I should hold out on an actuary job, as opposed to just finding a job.  

    > Here is where I pointed her to the cold e-mail strategy, suggesting that she send at least 200 e-mails out over the next week. Use the Gmail mail merge I link to in my post to send 100 e-mails at one time. The most tedious part of this process will be collecting the names of actuaries, but this can be done in just a few hours. Keep a detailed spreadsheet which has columns for name, email address, city, company, title, etc.      Then record the date that you sent an e-mail to this person, and any dates that they responded. It will get      confusing fast if you don't keep this spreadsheet. Read on to see how she handled it. 

May 19
Thanks so much for responding with all this great info.  I'm not going to lie, I was feeling a little discouraged by what you had to say (at first), but with the advice you gave me, I'm just getting started now on putting together a list of actuaries, and am feeling optimistic.  It's definitely hard to compete with college grads who figured out earlier than me that they wanted to pursue actuary, are coming out fresh, and already had internships or relevant experience.  I was trying to figure out how to distinguish myself from the hundreds of other candidates out there applying for the same jobs as me.  I like the idea of cold emailing.  I'm intimidated by it, but I think it's a good idea, so thank you.  I've only been looking for jobs through LinkedIn, or CareerBuilder, CareerShift, stuff like that, and I'd only been able to find about a dozen jobs that I was qualified for, in my preferred locations and applied for.  As you might've guessed, I haven't heard anything back.

I'm planning to get my list/emails done in the next couple of days (like you said, putting the list together is time consuming) and we'll see what happens next.  But I am getting anxious since I haven't been working for about a month and a half now.  If you were me, how long would you hold out for an actuary position?  I'm just trying to figure out if I should give it a few months, and hope for the best, or if the gap in my employment is worse, and I should just try to find a job in a related field sooner rather than later.  Another actuary told me that because the actuary field is a marriage between finance and economics, if I can find a job in either of those fields, it would be relative experience, and would only help me in the future.  I'm thinking I'll give it a little longer, especially with your cold emailing approach, before I widen my scope.

    > Her response here is completely natural. The thought that there is so much competition can be overwhelming to the point of giving up. But if you realize that most others are thinking that same way, you can easily separate yourself from the crowd. Before cold e-mailing, she had only sent out a dozen applications. That is a huge waste of time when you consider the low probability of payoff. She was hesitant that my strategy would pay off, but I encouraged her to stick with it and see what type of results she gets. 

May 28
Just wanted to let you know that I got my first batch of cold emails out yesterday.  I was going to send them Friday, but figured people might have already mentally checked out for the holiday weekend, so I waited.  And I wanted to say thanks for the tip!  I've only sent out 97 so far, just in the [target city] area.  I've already received 18 responses.  Maybe half of them have passed my resume on to their HR dept, and others gave me some good advice, or links to openings.  Unfortunately, the two openings I was told about I'd already applied for, but it was good news, nonetheless.  

I still have about 30 more to send out today, the mail merge tool in gmail would only allow me to send 100/day.  The next 30 are up in [smaller region] which is closer to home.  You can tell by that number that there really aren't as many actuaries in those areas, but I figure it's worth exploring.

So just a question about the emails.  In general, I only sent my message to a max of 3 people from the same company.  Does that number seem reasonable?  I just didn't want to send it to too many people in the same company and have them end up talking to each other, and realizing that their message wasn't personal...so my plan is to check off the people who I did receive responses from, and note which company they're with, and then if it's one where there were tons of contacts, I'll send it to a couple more.  Do you think 3 is a good number, or should I up to 5, or something else?  I hope my question makes sense...

I'm feeling more optimistic given the return I've had on my emails, but I am still going stir crazy and broke, not working!

Just wanted to give you an update, and thanks again for the advice on cold emailing, hopefully I'll get back to you soon with more good news!

    >Nine days and 100 e-mails later, she was getting about a 20% response rate, so in one batch of e-mails she surpassed her total amount of applications sent previously. Consider that an e-mail to an actuary can be as useful, if not more so, than an online application, because it could get passed through as a recommendation from the inside. Note her optimism from receiving responses. Most people feel that they won't get any responses, so when they do, it is very encouraging and exciting. Of course, your response rate will be a function of your e-mail template, so if your rate is low, consider revising your approach. 

Her question about the number of people to approach within each company is a good one, and not an easy one to answer. I think I agree with her approach of picking a handful from each company at one time and then increasing this number after a few days at a time. There is a fine line between growing your exposure and spamming, so this is subject to interpretation. The important thing will be to increase the number of contacts within each company if you aren't getting responses. This is why it is very important to keep a detailed spreadsheet recording your e-mail correspondence.

June 10
Just wanted to let you know that I'm going up to interview with [company A] on Thursday.  Then on Monday I have an interview with [company B].  I have a phone interview with [company C] on Friday morning (I don't even remember applying--but I think someone may have just passed my resume along).  And then the [company D] phone interview that I thought I bombed...I just got a call from their recruiter and she said someone will be contacting me to set up a phone interview there.

So good things all around.  I'm pumping the breaks on doing more networking/sending more emails.  I'm starting to get confused!  But again, thank you so much for the advice to do it this way.  As you can see, I've had some pretty good luck with it.  If I don't get an offer out of one of these four, I'm going to have to seriously re-evaluate the way I interview!

    >Less than one month from her first batch of 100 e-mails, she is in discussions with 4 companies! One of the companies she didn't even remember applying to. Some actuaries may just receive your cold e-mail and forward it on to HR without bothering to reply to you. It's hard to say how many do this, but I can confidently say that your Response Rate will understate the true "Effective Rate" of your e-mails. Because you won't know how many people take action on your e-mail without a response. 

I challenged her here on her "pumping the breaks" comment. It can be tempting to slow down the networking once a few opportunities present themselves, but this can be a real mistake. Interview processes can be excruciatingly slow at times, and there's a real chance you could come out of the other end with no offers and no leads in your pipeline. Keep sending those e-mails while you interview!

June 19
I just wanted to let you know that in the last week, I've had two in-person interviews.  One with [company A], and the other with [company B].  I'm incredibly pleased to tell you that I've received offers from both of them.  So I have decided to accept the [company B] offer.  The [company A] one, I got the interview through a family connection, but [company B] was a lead I got after taking your advice and sending out the cold emails.  So again, I cannot thank you enough for all of your help and guidance.

    >Success! Note the timing, just over one month from her original e-mail. Look how far she has come from wanting to give up (before really starting) a month ago. The initial work of sending e-mails might have taken just a few days. Now she has two hard offers and is actually CHOOSING which better fits her personal goals.

I'm incredibly impressed by the persistence she had in sending e-mails and following up. This exchange shows how self-doubt creeps in so early and creates mental roadblocks that stop most people before they start. It's also significant to note that in the beginning, she thought she had done everything in her power to get a job, and the next step must be to move in a different direction. I think a lot of candidates take the traditional routes to applications and assume that once that fails, they have no hope. Those of you that learn to ignore these feelings and take the steps to put yourself out there will be the winners in this highly competitive entry-level market.

Feeling motivated? Get to work now! 

Why are you still sitting there? E-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. 

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If you’ve found your way to this blog, you know that the market conditions for entry-level actuarial positions are highly competitive and growing more so. Even still, it can be hard to fully grasp the enormity of the supply of entry-level job seekers, which continues to explode in size at a rate much too fast for the demand to keep up. Here are some hard takeaways to keep in mind:

1.       You graduated from a decent to great college with a decent to great GPA, majored in something math-related, and you took a few computer science classes or you used SAS once in an econometrics class.  So did everyone else. To companies right now, you are a commodity, and an easily replaceable one at that. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have unique skills to offer. Quite the opposite. It just means that companies don’t have to care about your unique skills, or reward your unique skills with a higher salary because they can turn to the next stack of resumes and pick another high achiever that will bring other unique skills to the table. So what is the major takeaway? Get out there and start hustling.

2.        Companies don’t need to use recruiters for entry-level positions. Understand that recruiters are paid a significant chunk of the starting salary of anyone they present that gets hired. So why would a company waste $10,000 bringing you in when they can find hundreds of other qualified applicants for free? So then you can understand that the handful of entry-level positions that recruiters do get asked to help with are very special situations. For example, maybe they are looking for someone with very specific experience who has roots in the area and is more likely to be committed for the long run. The recruiter can help find and vet these candidates that the company is looking for, which might be worth the finder’s fee. What does that mean for you? Don’t be like the hundreds of others helplessly running to recruiters begging for job opportunities. Do your work first, and sell yourself to the recruiter. Make a strong impression on the recruiters as if they make the final decision on you, because they essentially do. Recruiters have developed long-term relationships with their clients, and passing along a weak candidate makes them look bad. So get your business in order before approaching the recruiters, and understand that as much as they want to help you, the chances they can are slim.

3.       Unless you are some type of prodigy, you won’t be able to negotiate salary. Most people just think they are prodigies. Very few are. So you’ll take the salary you’re offered, or you’ll walk. And no, they won’t miss you when you’re gone.

4.       Of those that are aware of the market conditions, most will do exactly nothing about it. Through the traditional routes, they will continue to apply to, interview for, and get hired for new roles. This is good news for you. It means, now as much as ever, there are so many opportunities for you to elevate yourself to the top of the pack. See some of my other posts for suggestions on how to get started with cold e-mails, how to connect and develop rapport with an actuary, and how to improve your resume.

So if you were planning on sitting back and waiting for the job to come to you, prepare to wait for a very long time.

Have questions? E-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. 

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I once attended a career fair for an actuarial program where the department apparently mandated identical resumes formulated from some standardized template. Every student we met with had the exact same resume format, the exact same sections, and the same type of information. I was shocked that this lack of individuality would be encouraged by a reputable institution. The students were trained how to fit in with the crowd, while burying the individuality that might separate them. 

Sure, at some level, you need to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. But the problem is that we aren't taught how to find those accomplishments. So we are left with boring resumes that look helplessly identical to the next guy for fear of standing out too far from the norm.

Resume advice comes cheaply, so how are you to know which advice to follow? The answer is to try it yourself. I will explain a cheap and easy way to test your resume tweaks.

First, a disclaimer: I am not promoting any type of resume gimmicks, such as special formatting or off-white paper. Avoid gimmicks, because these really will get your resume tossed out. But when it comes to what information to include or exclude from your resume, this is where you need to question what you've been taught.

Let's start with an example. Imagine you are a hiring manager and you have two resumes in front of you. Resume A has the following section:

  Related Coursework: Probability I & II, Advanced Statistics, Econometrics I, Intro to Programming, Real Analysis

Resume B has this section:

  Actuarial Courses: Regression Analysis, Micro/Macro Economics, Finite Math, Computer Science 101

Which resume do you prefer? Remember you are the hiring manager. You get many resumes per week, and you only have a few minutes to look at them.

The answer: trick question. Who cares? Your eyes glazed over the section as soon as you saw "Courses" or "Coursework" and you skipped to work experience.

We are taught that listing courses on our resume looks good. It's the right thing to do. But has anyone tested this? 

Instead, let's take a look at Resume C. Resume C lists his degree and GPA, but doesn't include other courses. Instead, Resume C has an additional subsection under his Education:

  Actively learning VBA and Java programming languages

Wait a minute! Resume C just listed a programming language that he doesn't know yet. That can't be right. My guidance counselor told me only to put a skill on my resume if I already have the skill!

Take a deep breath and remember the hiring manager's perspective. He skipped over the coursework section of resumes A & B, so he probably doesn't even know that those guys took programming courses. If he knows, he probably doesn't care. Many people take intro to computer science. Not many actually learned something.

But Resume C caught his eye. This person is teaching himself a programming language on his own time. That's something a hiring manager needs to know.

I hear a lot from my readers or posters on Actuarial Outpost, "I don't have any skills worth mentioning," or, "I don't have any accomplishments." But this just means you aren't thinking hard enough. How do you expect to convince a company you are worthy of being hired if you can't even convince yourself?

Here is exactly what you need to do:

1. Write down everything you can think of that could be considered an accomplishment, even if only your mom would think so.
2. Write down every project you can think of that you've ever done. If you haven't had a job out of college yet, get a copy of your transcript and go class by class, writing down every project you did, recurring homework assignments, anything you can think of. If you had a previous job, write down every project you were a part of, even if you think your part was only minor.
3. Write down all of your hobbies, interests, personal goals, anything you have been working on in your spare time.
4. Think carefully about which ones you have shared or would want to share with others. Which ones have you mentioned to your friends or family? Which ones are you proud of?
5. Rank your top 10. You must come up with at least 10, even if your last 3 are essays you wrote in high school.
6. Go through your top 10 and practice writing them in a way that makes them attractive on your resume. Try to make even the lesser accomplishments sound interesting.
   
   

For example, the author of Resume A wrote that he took an Econometrics course. But the hiring manager doesn't care. After going through the steps above, Resume A might come up with something like this: "Built and evaluated econometric regression models using SAS." Resume A might also realize that he has been dabbling in learning some VBA on his own. Right now, he can only write a simple "For" loop that goes through row by row and writes to each cell in column A of Excel. But he decides to include it in his resume by saying "Actively using VBA to automate Excel processes." Now, the hiring manager reading Resume A sees that this candidate is familiar with econometric models and is also teaching himself VBA in his spare time. Seems like the type of candidate that could pick up any programming language on the job. Seems like the type of candidate who takes initiative. Now the hiring manager wants to know more.

So now that you've come up with a few accomplishments you want to include in your resume, how do you know what will work best? Think like an actuary: test it! You took statistics. You know that you need a statistically significant sample size. So I recommend you set a goal of sending 100 emails. Create 2 versions of your resume. Version 1 is the "basic" resume that follows the standard rules. Version 2 is identical except for the one change that you want to isolate. Perhaps you removed coursework and added more unique accomplishments. Now, if you've read my blog in the past, you should know how to find actuaries through the SOA's online directory. In Excel, make a list of 100 actuaries you have found on the site. Include a column for their email address, name, company, city, and status (Fellow, Associate). Randomize the list and separate into two batches of equal size. Now create an e-mail template. Use the same email template for both batches. Once you have the template set up, it really shouldn't take too long to send out 100 emails. In each email, you will need to change the name of the person and the email address. Make sure that you have named the resume files slightly differently so you can keep track of which batch is which. Now track which version gets you more responses.

This sounds complicated, but actually tackles two goals in one. If you do this, you are getting your name out to 100 different people. In the process, you are experimenting to determine which version of your resume is more attractive to employers. If you are nervous about the test, or want to try something even more unusual on your resume and you aren't sure how it will work out, try targeting actuaries that are far from your desired city. If you know you want to work on the east coast, run your experiment from actuaries on the West Coast.

Finally, it will be worth teaching yourself how to use a gmail mail merge in just 5 minutes. Follow this link to learn how to send hundreds of personalized emails out in one click. 

Have questions? E-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. 

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Let’s simplify things. There’s two ways your job search can fail:

1. You aren’t talking to enough companies
2. Once you are talking to companies, you aren’t moving forward

From my evaluation of the readers of this site, Actuarialoutpost, and LinkedIn, I am seeing that most aspiring actuaries are suffering at step #1. If you are one of them, you’re in luck, because this is the easier problem to solve.

The first step in the hiring process is the initial communication with a company. It might involve an e-mail back and forth, a phone call, or a face to face encounter. Sending your resume into the black hole of HR systems does not count as “talking” to a company. You need real human interaction.

If you aren’t talking to a few companies a week, you aren’t trying hard enough. Make this your only goal until you succeed at step #1. There isn’t a good reason why you shouldn’t be able to have at least one real conversation with an actuary at every target company on your list. Between Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the SOA directory, you should be able to find an “in” to any company’s actuarial department.

You know those annoying marketers that identify you as a target customer, give you a sales pitch, and then follow up with you persistently? They might be annoying, but believe it or not they exist because this approach actually sells products. If you can channel your inner salesperson, you will greatly increase your chances of getting noticed.

Let’s start small. Here’s a challenge you can start today:

1. Make a list of 3 companies that you would like to work for, but haven’t communicated with
2. Set a deadline for when you will have to reach your goal. No more than 2 weeks. If you are starting before the holidays, give yourself a buffer, since a lot of people are out of the office
3. Your goal is to initiate a conversation with at least one actuary at each of these companies. Identify yourself as a job seeker, ask them if they know of any openings, and always ask if you can follow up with them later. If this is over the phone, ask for an e-mail address too
4. Take notes on each of the three companies. What did you do well? What could you improve?
5. E-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com and let me know how it went

If you fail at this goal, you need to understand why. Were you too scared or shy to reach out to people? Do you lack confidence in your skills? Or is something wrong with your approach?

Getting to the bottom of this issue is the first step to success in your job search. 

If you succeed, there is no reason why you can't continue this process, each week adding a few more companies to your list.

 I am here to help. If you completed the challenge, just started it, or are thinking about starting but need some encouragement, e-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. 

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For those of you pursuing an actuarial career, how much do you actually know about the line of work you are hoping to join? Sure, you know the basics, but if you were pressed for specifics how would you respond?

Before I was hired for my first actuary job, I knew little about the day-to-day work of an actuary. I had read many articles and forum posts about the career, but my knowledge was still limited. In hindsight, had I been more informed prior to my interviews, I would have performed much better.

The solution to this issue is quick, free, and so obvious that you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it before: talk to a real actuary.

OK, so maybe you have a few actuary contacts. You’ve already talked to them about what they do, but chances are it was surface level conversation about the profession. The trick is that you need to talk to someone in the same role as the one for which you are interviewing, and you need to get very, very specific.

If you have an interview lined up or are otherwise being considered for a specific role, then act now.

Step one is to look for the right actuary. You want an actuary in the same industry as the position you are interviewing for. So if you are interviewing for a P&C job, you’d better talk to a P&C actuary. Next, try to find someone in a role as close as possible to the one you are considering. If it is a non-traditional role such as an ERM position, take care to align the objectives, because roles can sometimes vary widely outside of the typical actuarial positions.

Step two is to contact the actuary. If you have contacts in the industry already, great! Politely ask if you could be put in touch with their colleague in the role that you identified in step one. Say that you would just like ten minutes of their time to better understand what they do. This might be intimidating to ask for, but remember that most people are willing to help and actually will enjoy being sought out for their “expertise.” If you have no contacts in the industry, see my post on how to cold-email actuaries.

Step three is to follow up. Once you get a response from an actuary that you cold-emailed, you can follow-up. Mention that you have an interview with another firm coming up and you were hoping to speak to an actuary doing similar work to better understand the concepts. If that doesn’t work, you probably haven’t tried hard enough; send out more cold e-mails. Another alternative is to ask a recruiter to put you in touch with the appropriate actuary. Recruiters are usually happy to help, since any contact with future actuaries is essentially free advertising for their firm.

Step four is to do your research. You don’t want to waste this person’s time, so start thinking of all of the detailed questions you have about the position and write them down. Use this simply as a guideline since, during the conversation, you will want to go with the flow of the speaker and try to dig deeper into areas you are unfamiliar with.

Step five is to make the call. When you have the actuary on the phone, introduce yourself very briefly and thank them for their time. Assure them you will keep this short, and then dive in with your first question. Try to listen for challenges or parts of the job you don’t understand well, and dig deeper. Don’t be afraid to get technical because it will help you identify your weaknesses. For example, if the actuary says, “I built a model that does X,” don’t just say “I see,” and move on. Instead, ask them how they went about building the model. What programs did they use? How did they learn to do that? What are the mathematical assumptions of the model? The questions are really endless, but you can’t be afraid to ask them. If 15 or 20 minutes go by and you are still talking, politely cut the conversation off. Thank them again and then ask if you can contact them later if you have any follow-up questions. Now you have established a helpful relationship with a real actuary.

In just 20 minutes, you will learn more about the profession than you could from reading 20 articles or threads on Actuarial Outpost. You are armed with information for your future interview and you will be better equipped to ask insightful questions when discussing the work with your interviewer.

Did you find this post useful? Would you like to discuss any of these ideas in more detail? Don’t hesitate to reach out at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. I encourage you to share your opinion so we can continue to cater the content of the posts to our readers.

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Understanding the time commitment of the early exams is one of the most pressing problems for aspiring actuaries, yet the hardest problems to find answers for. Actuarialoutpost.com has tons of threads to this note, but for every asker, you will find ten different answers. The background or intelligence of the responder is difficult if not impossible to glean, so in many cases you will end up more befuddled than you were when you began your quest.

The prevailing message is that the exams are more difficult than you think and that you are embarking on a huge commitment that will take up many years of your life...blah blah blah. I am here to tell you that this is far from the truth and the message is actually more harmful in that it probably causes a number of potentially great actuaries to prematurely disqualify themselves from the field.

If you are considering taking the first SOA/CAS exam P/1 (Probability), you should absolutely do it and don’t think twice. What I am proposing is somewhat radical, but I believe it is the most efficient way to test your capability for the field while minimizing your opportunity cost (namely, lost time).


Current Students - Leverage your Coursework for more Efficient Studying

If you are considering actuarial work, you are likely enrolled in math courses. If you are not enrolled in math courses, see an academic advisor immediately and tell them of your career interests. You do not need an actuarial science degree by any means, but you do need some type of focus on math (or a very math-intensive field such as physics or economics with a concentration in math). Make sure that you are planning to enroll in a probability course. Many universities split probability into two semesters, typically Probability Theory I and Probability Theory II, or something like that. The golden period for taking Exam P/1 is in between these two courses. Since P/1 is offered 5 times per year, this should not be difficult to arrange. Go to www.actuarialbookstore.com and order the ACTEX manual for Exam P/1. ACTEX provides a strong and concise study guide for the first exam, but be warned that many exam-takers, including me, do not recommend ACTEX beyond the first exam.

Become familiar with the ACTEX manual as you take your first probability course. If there are overlapping topics, read the lessons in the manual and try to incorporate the concepts as much as possible into your daily life. By doing this, you are saving yourself countless future hours of study time. Your core study time will be the three months prior to your selected exam date. Spend the first two months reading the chapters of the ACTEX manual one by one and complete the exercises for each section as you go. Do not simply read the entire manual without doing problems. This is highly inefficient, yet I still see this strategy employed by many actuaries. Again, try to overlap as much as possible with your coursework. If you find anything similar or different between your manual and your school textbook, visit your professor often during office hours and ask questions.

Finally, the last month will be almost solely dedicated to practice problems. When you finish your manual, order the one-month ADAPT package from coachingactuaries.com. ADAPT is by far the fastest and most efficient way to prepare for the exam. ADAPT lets you take practice exams with increasing difficulty as you get better, and a running score that reflects your current level. I believe they recommend an ADAPT score of 7 to indicate a high probability of passing. I recommend aiming for a score of 8. When you have achieved an 8, you are almost guaranteed to pass the exam, and you can dedicate your resources to focusing on more difficult, perhaps more obscure, exam topics that you don’t understand well. With this strategy, you can drastically reduce the suggested whopping 300 study hours to maybe 40 hours outside of your coursework (assuming you are the average-effort math student who does homework).

 
Non-Students - Minimize your Opportunity Cost to Studying:

Don’t worry if you are no longer a student, you can still maximize efficiency with some simple strategies. If you are not a student, you probably don’t have much time to study. Instead of the usual “try your hardest the first time” approach, I suggest the complete opposite accelerated approach for a few reasons. One reason is that if you are cut out for the actuarial field, I believe you should be able to learn at a fast pace. The Probability exam is one of the most basic and straightforward actuary exams you will ever take. So if you struggle mightily with this one, you may want to rethink the career path. However, if you take the accelerated approach and then just barely miss (fail with a score of 5, say), but you enjoy the material and you know you can succeed on your second try, then you also saved a lot of time. Yes, you will have to pay* to take the exam another time, but because it is offered so frequently, you won’t have much additional study time.

*Remember that your time is the most expensive part of exam taking, much more expensive than the cost of the exam itself. (Note: these strategies don’t apply if you are unemployed or otherwise have no time constraints , in which case you are better off dedicating as much time to studying as possible and passing on your first try).

The accelerated approach involves rapidly getting through the material and practice problems and then allocating the same amount or even more time to the ADAPT sessions. The exact strategy will differ based on preference, but I suggest a compact 2 months totaling around 60-80 hours depending on your availability.

60 hours in 2 months would translate to about 7-8 study hours per week. For someone with a full time job, I suggest a daily routine of studying through your lunch break (eating at your desk) and then one hour either in the morning before work or evening after work. Make sure that the extra hour is spent when you are at your best. (i.e. If you are a morning person and usually hit a slump before dinner, then study before work.) That routine alone could give you ten hours per week without too much of a noticeable difference in your routine.

On top of that, add as many weekend hours as you can. Sometimes, you may not have time to study during the weekends, but others you might be able to get 6-10 hours per weekend.

 Create your schedule around the perceived importance of the lessons. For example, if a lesson is on a rare exam topic, then give it less attention than the more important lessons, even if you don’t fully understand the concepts.

In month 2, or exactly 30 days before your exam date, order the 30-day ADAPT subscription. Spend the rest of the month trying to reach a level 8 on ADAPT. This is the most effective learning tool and will give you the most accurate assessment of your probability to pass before you take the exam. ADAPT can be quite addicting and you may actually find that a very small part of you enjoys taking the practice exams.

I endorse this strategy because I believe it is a shame to disqualify yourself from a potentially great career choice based on perceived (but unknown) difficulty. If you try my accelerated strategy and fail or decide the field is not for you after all, you won’t have wasted too much of your valuable time. If you do pass, however, you will find a renewed confidence and excitement about your potential career.

Don't hesitate to e-mail me at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com if this situation applies to you and you have more detailed questions about your specific case. 

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If you are starting from scratch, Excel is the first program that you should learn.

As an actuary, you will probably be using Excel every day, but listing Excel as a skill on resume is abused so widely that it has become worthless. You tell your potential employer exactly nothing by saying you are "Proficient in Excel." Of course, the variation in Excel skills among those who claim proficiency in Excel is far too wide to be useful. So how can you prove that you are actually skilled?

Build something and then put it on your resume. It’s that simple.

The first time I began to learn Excel was when a family friend offered me $100 to build a Return on Investment calculator for her business. I took on the project knowing absolutely nothing. By actually having a task in front of me, I found a way to build what I wanted. In the process, I learned a ton of new formulas and Excel tricks. This is far more valuable than watching a Youtube video on how to do a VLOOKUP. 

So maybe you are currently unemployed or still in school. What can you build in Excel today? Try to make it something meaningful and actually practical for you. For example, if you are deciding between leasing or buying a car, you can build a model to calculate the costs of each, based on a few different inputs. Maybe you have been thinking about starting your own business for some income on the side. You can build a sales forecast by including inputs such as "Number of Leads per Week," "Conversion Rate," "Close Rate," and so on.

Another classic example is building a mortgage calculator that takes "Amount of Loan,” "Down Payment," "Term of Loan" (in months), and "Annual Interest Rate" as inputs. The output will be a year-by-year amortization schedule that calculates the amount of interest paid and the amount of principal paid in each period. 

There are plenty of resources online to help you build your model, but I strongly suggest that you first attempt to build it without any help, as the questions you have will help you learn faster.

Once you have completed your model, you can list it on your resume. Replace the standard "Proficient in Excel" line with something like "Built a dynamic mortgage calculator in Excel."

Do you see how much stronger that second phrase is? In a few short words, you have proven your proficiency in Excel, caught the interest of the hiring manager, and created a potential talking point in an interview. In the process, you probably learned more about Excel than you could have from any online course.

Do you have an idea for a model and want to run it by someone? Have you already built a model and want to share it? Send me your comments and questions at actuarialplaybook@gmail.com and I'll help you get started.

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