Pension Examiner

Skills required to become actuarial is

☛ Good understanding of statistics and math’s

☛ General knowledge of business and finance

☛ Basic knowledge of programming languages, statistical analysis programs, spreadsheets and databases

☛ Good communication skills which include preparing reports and giving presentation

☛ Good analytical and problem-solving skills

“I will always ask someone why they’re leaving their current firm and why they left their role before that,” says Gareth Hughes, head of HR at Royal Bank of Canada in London.

Purpose: To establish whether you’re the sort of flaky person who jumps from role to role and former employers are glad to see the back of.

Once I was discussing a potential pension plan with a client. She had done her research and had acquired information from a different company. I tried explaining all the benefits she would get from us, but she countered that the other company offered the exact same benefits at a lower rate. I looked into the situation and found that the client was right, so I explained that going with another company was the right move, but if it ended up not working out, we would be there to assist her. A few months later, the client came back saying she was unsatisfied with the services she was getting from the competition, and wanted to work with us.

Once a coworker was trying to sign a prospective client. Our boss constantly had to check in with him to see what progress was being made, and the work simply was not getting done at the pace the boss wanted. There was a significant risk that we would lose this big client. I did not want to overstep any boundaries, but I offered to help my coworker with the research. I think my coworker was a little too prideful to outright ask for help, but I could tell he was grateful for the help, and we ended up splitting the commission when we landed the client.

My greatest strengths are threefold: -

☛ To be able to recognise my weaknesses

☛ I have the ability to pick up procedures quickly

☛ An excellent temperament which means I don't get rattled easily

Casualty Actuarial Society is a professional association of non-life actuaries, of risk management professionals who work in industries other than life insurance. The motive of this society is to give knowledge to members and the general public about actuarial analysis of property and liability risk

Lognormal distribution is a probability distribution that is used as a model to claim size distribution; it is positively skewed and has a range from zero to infinity.

You felt your career prospects and progression could go no further and you need a challenge where your potential can be exploited.

Chief actuaries act as an actuary head or supervisor for the government organization as well as corporate. They keep an eye on other actuaries and distribute and direct assignments. Also, they prepare reports and reviews of business functions like budgets and mergers. Further, they implement policies and guidelines relating to actuary risk analysis.

Actuarial analyst’s works in the insurance industry and use statistical model to analyze the data and calculate the costs associated with certain events such as

☛ Product failure

☛ Accidents

☛ Property damage

☛ Injury and death

☛ Destruction due to natural calamities ( hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemic and terrorist attacks)

Some of the common actuarial software used in industry are

☛ Milliman Acturial software solutions

☛ Moses

☛ GGY-AXIS

☛ Poly Systems

☛ Prophet

☛ PTS

☛ RMISWeb

☛ SAS

☛ TAS

☛ Towers Watson

I have never had any problems with the management expertise of my boss and as already mentioned he/she is not the reason I'm looking for another job.

Financial services firms want to know that you’ve done your research, and that you know how the company is developing and evolving.

“It sounds obvious, but few people really look into the role or the company and struggle to come up with something meaningful,” says Andrew Pullman, a former head of HR at Dresdner Bank and managing director of careers consultants People Risk Solutions. “The key is to come up with something current and interesting and then be able to turn the question around to the interviewer. I noticed you did this, can you tell me more about it?”

Before I started working at my last job, there was no referral program in place. They mostly relied on cold-calling to get new clients, so I recommended to my boss that we should offer incentives to current clients if they refer someone over to us. It took some convincing, but he agreed to try it out. We ended up getting a lot more business out of the system.

To become a successful actuary, you must have a good hold on

☛ Calculus

☛ Linear Algebra

☛ Differential Equations

☛ Probability & Statistics

☛ Regression Analysis

☛ Time series Analysis

☛ Accounting

☛ Finance & Management

☛ Economics

☛ Computer science & communication

As a property or casualty actuary, responsibilities includes

☛ Conducting studies and analyzing of rates according to geographical area and type of insurance, such as homeowner rates or automobile rates

☛ Preparing materials or evidence that tells the changes in the rate for insurance is legitimate

☛ Developing plans for the company to enter a new line of insurance

☛ Conducting research on new statistical models and methods for estimating claims

☛ What behavioural skills and attributes do these achievements suggest to you?

☛ How do the requirements of this role match with your current job and past experience?

☛ Are there any gaps in your experience?

☛ How can you address these gaps in preparation for the interview, eg special project work you have undertaken?

☛ Are there any activities which you undertake outside of work that could be relevant?

☛ What questions can I ask myself?

☛ What did you do?

☛ What did you say?

☛ What were you thinking?

☛ How did you overcome any problems?

☛ What did you learn from the experience?

Some people have said my natural enthusiasm is a weakness, but I found my administration skills were weak. However I have recognised this and come to terms with it. Consequently, it is no longer a major problem.