Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved whether an actuary who had recently started consulting should consider a job offer to return to a corporate role.

Description: A real life situation is posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision, and readers are invited to submit their responses to "What Would You Do?" This issue’s case study involved an internal promotion - or is it?

Description: An announcement of the new editorial board members of the newsletter, TAXING TIMES, and the role they play in the development of articles for the newsletter.

Description: The article discusses how to have important conversations with the people who make up your circle of influence, including those who work for you, peers and colleagues, clients, superiors, governing boards, and vendors and contractors. The author states that “your ability to use language well, to enter into conversations boldly and confidently, and to create strong relationships and demonstrate understanding across multiple groups and situations will absolutely determine your ability to create, sustain and maintain a profitable culture.”

Description: Expanding Horizons recently had the opportunity to interview Wenjun Zhu, the winner of the Society of Actuaries’ (SOA’s) third Actuarial Science Early Career Award.

Description: In this real life case study, an actuarial candidate tried to get the hiring manager to increase the level of the position for which she was interviewing. Did that raise red flags about her candidacy? A compilation of reader responses is presented, along with what actually happened.

Description: This article is the result of the Leadership & Development book club on Dare Lead. The article talks about major themes in the book and relates them to other podcasts and authors thought on those themes.

Description: The article highlights the importance of learning and development (L&D) for personal and professional growth. While many have access to resources like seminars and online courses, few fully utilize them. Genuine curiosity, behavior shifts, priority management, and discipline are key to effective L&D. Learning is an active, deliberate process, requiring consistent effort and time management. It’s important to set clear goals, create a timeline, and schedule regular progress checks. Rather than relying on motivation alone, building disciplined habits is crucial for sustained improvement. Ultimately, personal growth is a self-driven journey, not dependent on external validation.

Description: This article gives examples of good and bad prompts for actuaries to use when using large language models.