The Vault Offers New Guide on Beginning a Career as an Actuary

We interviewed a member of the Vault staff to find out more about the new guide they offer. You may be able to access a copy for free, so be sure to read on for more information.

How would a college student benefit from the guide?

The guide shows college students how to begin their careers as actuaries and how to advance their careers once they start. The guide includes detailed information on actuarial careers including: industry trends, job opportunities, education requirements, interviews, career paths and quality of life. The guide also features detailed firm profiles of over 40 top employers of actuaries. These profiles include information on recruiting and interview processes, training, career advancement, culture, compensation and benefits.

College students will be able to discover the actuarial profession and compare the benefits of multiple employers with just one resource.

How would a working professional benefit from using the guide if he or she is still working toward a designation?

Working professionals can use the guide to compare the benefits offer by various employers which include interviewing and hiring details, compensation and sponsorships of exams, exam/designation pay raises and diversity.

The guide also provides lifestyle/quality of life information of the various industries that hire actuaries and highlights top actuaries in businesses give hints and tips about potential career paths. This information is valuable for professionals at any stage of their careers.

What lead to the development of the guide?

Vault, the Most Trusted Name in Career Information, has been covering both the insurance and consulting industries for many years. Through our discussions with top employers we discovered that they faced challenges in the recruitment of actuaries and wanted to provide more information to bright mathmatics students to encourage them to enter the profession

Vault decided to create a comprehensive publication that provided details about the actuarial profession paired with detailed employer profiles of top employers in the industry and use its wide network of partner schools and universities and broad online audience to distrubute the information.

The publication is sponsored by Cigna, SC International, Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

What is the cost?

Students at over 500 colleges and universities will have access to the guide for free through their career centers.

The guide will also be distributed for free. to the Deans of Mathematics and/or Actuarial Sciences at the 150+ north Americas schools that have actuarial programs and provide courses that prepare students for actuarial exams.

For working professionals and other students the guide will retail for $29.95 and will be available in both .PDF and hardcopy format. It will be available for purchase at Vault.com and through other major retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

What is the format of the guide?

The guide has 4 sections:

Section 1: The Scoop
• Background information on: What is an actuary?, The role of actuaries, Insurance and Consulting Industry Trends and Career Trends.

 

Section 2: Getting Hired
• Information on: What kind of person makes for a successful actuary? College Education Actuarial Exams, Hiring process, Cover Letters and Resumes and Interview Process.

 

Section 3: Getting Hired
• The roles of an Actuary, Career Paths, Lifestyle, Profiles of Actuaries in various industries (including a Day in the Life), Actuaries in the top ranks of business, Web resources

 

Section 4: Firm Profiles
• Detailed profiles of over 40 top employers including information on their recruiting and interview processes, training, career advancement, culture, compensation and benefits.

Currently similar information is available through the Society of Actuaries and at BeAnActuary.org.

What are some highlights?

Highlights include detailed "Days in the Life" of actuaries in a number of industries, such as Pension, Government, Consulting, Insurance and Financial Services.

The main highlight is the details employer profiles. These profiles give candidates detailed information about the benefits many companies offer and how to get hired by them. The information found in these profiles in depth and candidates can easily compare multiple employers.