Beyond Math - Differentiating Yourself From Other Actuarial Candidates on Paper

Once you land an actuarial role, you're typically set for life, especially if you keep passing exams to become an ASA/ACAS/FSA/FCAS and continue learning and developing your actuarial skills. The actuarial designation, along with a few years of actuarial experience, makes a huge difference - every day, I see multiple roles pop up in my LinkedIn feed looking for actuaries with 5+ years of experience and at least ASA/ACAS.

All you have to do to one day land that coveted role is pass a few exams (I may have a pretty loose definition of 'few') and land an entry-level actuarial role to begin your journey. Easy right?! Not in an oversaturated entry-level actuarial job market! Many recruiters won't work with entry-level candidates for this reason, so it's even more important to make sure you are doing everything you can to stand out from other actuarial candidates. 

The first step toward standing out is having a great resume that is able to showcase your qualifications while also being easy to follow and aesthetically pleasing (if you haven't yet, check out my blog post with some great tips for actuarial resumes!).The second step toward standing out is using your resume to differentiate yourself from other candidates. This is really important since a lot of candidates have similar qualifications!

If you have at least one exam passed, a couple of solid technical skills (definitely excel and then some experience using SAS, SQL, R, or VBA), a decent GPA (3.0+), a well-formatted resume with some work experience (doesn't need to be actuarial) and differentiating experiences, you can get an entry-level actuarial interview. 

Your resume does not need to scream 'MATH' in order to get you an entry-level actuarial interview. In fact, I advise against everything on your resume being math/stats/actuarial related - it may be impressive, but it's boring! Make sure your qualifications are on your resume and then include some of your unique experiences to help showcase other important skills such as communication skills, critical thinking, passion, leadership and teamwork. I'll provide some example experiences that can showcase these skills, but of course, this is not an exhaustive list! 

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Where should these "differentiating" experiences go on your resume?

For education related experiences, it's probably best to keep those under 'Education'. Extracurriculars can probably go into a 'Leadership Experience' section or 'Volunteer Experience' section. If you did an independent project, you might want to add it under 'Education' or 'Skills & Interests'. For some differentiating experiences, try to come up with 2-3 bullets that show how the experience demonstrates that you possess some of the five skills below. There are some interests/hobbies that may be better being grouped with a couple of other interests on one line. For example, Mountain Climbing is an experience that could either be two bullets showing important qualities or part of a list. If you are in a mountain climbing club and travel regularly with others to certain areas for intense climbs, you could incorporate that into two bullets to show a variety of skills:

• Train with team members weekly for bi-monthly rock climbing trips of varying difficulty. (Passion)
• Strategically climb peaks while quickly evaluating the safest path to the top, assisting team members as necessary. (Critical Thinking, Teamwork)

If you enjoy mountain climbing but don't do it often, it should go on an interest line with 3-4 other interests (Interests: Mountain Climbing, Traveling, Photography, Blogging). For the record, I know nothing about mountain climbing. 

If you had two identical resumes, with the only difference being Mountain Climbing Club on one versus Math Club on the other, and could only interview one person, who would you choose? Interviewers are in this position all the time - make it an easy choice for them to choose your resume! 

Differentiate yourself while showing the following five skills:

1. Communication 

Having the right communication skills are SO important in an entry-level position, especially if you are applying for a role in a division that works closely with clients or employees in different divisions, such as underwriting or claims. It's important to make sure someone looking at your resume can clearly see you have the communication skills they are looking for. Here are some ways you can differentiate yourself while showing you have this important skill:

• Volunteer for community outreach at your favorite non-profit organization
• Become an events coordinator/secretary for a college organization you are passionate about
• Cold-call to raise money for your college/non-profit organization (this helped my verbal communication skills tremendously!)
• Participate in college case competitions (these will be helpful if you want to go into actuarial consulting) 
• Enroll in a writing/communication elective course or major in a communications-related field
• Start your own blog about something you are passionate about (keep it professional, though!)
• Start your own business (be careful with this, you want to make sure it's not seen as a conflict of interest!)

2. Critical Thinking

As an actuary, you will need to be a good problem solver and able to quickly think through solutions or other work-related tasks. It's important to show you are able to think quickly on your feet and pick things up on the fly - there is a lot of on the job learning as an actuary! There are a lot of ways you can show your critical thinking skills outside of the math bubble:

• Study abroad or volunteer abroad (bonus points if you learn a foreign language)
• Play a musical instrument
• Attend Improv/theatre classes
• Blog (specifically if your are blogging about different technical skills)
• Play sports or other physical activities that require you to think on your feet
• Develop your own model to predict game outcomes for fantasy sports (or regular sports)

3. Leadership

Leadership comes in all different forms - you can show leadership through a variety of different experiences. Sometimes, leadership can be shown just by pursuing a hobby or activity you are interested in. For example, if you are really passionate about animals and begin volunteering at an animal shelter and then pick up a role where you are posting on social media to help get animals adopted or community outreach, that definitely shows leadership. Here are some other examples:

• You can mentor underclassmen or high school students
• Join the board of a college organization or get involved in committees
• Take on and lead an independent project (kaggle competitions are pretty cool and a good way to gain a better understanding of data science)
• Become a captain of an intramural sports team 
• Lead a volunteer project 

4. Teamwork

Being able to work well with others on a team is an important skill to have as you enter the job force. Employers want a team player - someone who can work on projects with others and help  out when necessary without any issue. A lot of the activities listed above can also show you are able to work well with others on a team. Here are a few more:

• ​Join a team to compete in a college competition - many colleges have competitions throughout the year across a variety of interests
• If you loved playing a sport in high school, continue playing in college - you could play for the college, intramural or join a local recreational sports team
• If you are part of a board or committee, you can also show you work well on a team, especially if you are working with others to put processes together or create events

5. Passion/Enthusiasm 

A lot of students make the mistake of thinking that everything they do in college should reflect that they want to be an actuary - math related major, math related clubs, math related work experience, etc. That's not true at all! Remember, there's more to work than just work - there are going to be happy hours where you need to interact with other human beings, so if you have interests you pursue outside of the realm of math, it will make you much more interesting to your fellow coworkers and make for great relationships with those you work with. This list is truly endless, but here are some ideas to consider:

• Don't be afraid to pursue a major outside of math/actuarial science if you have another subject you are passionate about (passing the first couple of actuarial exams will prove you are good at math) or double major in a math related course and a non-math related course
• Volunteer/fundraise for a cause you are passionate about
• Become involved and active in an organization regularly

Anything you do outside of studying for exams and math-related classes/organizations/work can show you have passions and interests outside of your career which will help differentiate you from other candidates. This will also have a great impact during your interview since you will be able to spend a few minutes talking about something you do that you are really passionate about!

I differentiated myself through my passion for travel. When I was applying for entry-level positions, I had one actuarial exam passed, a few technical skills I picked up from the Infinite Actuary, an average GPA and no prior actuarial experience. I also had three international volunteer experiences with Habitat for Humanity and two semester abroad experiences.

When I was a junior, I had to make the toughest decision of my life (at the time) - I could either do a semester business exchange in Australia from July - November of senior fall or do a summer actuarial internship. It was a stressful decision, but I know 100% studying abroad was the right choice - it was 100% an experience I really wanted whereas an actuarial internship was just something that was "expected" of me because it was the summer before graduating. Luckily, I still had around 5 interviews and an offer before graduation - so it worked out!

​Since there was so much travel on my resume, it was bound to come up in interviews and, I can't speak for myself, but I know when others talk about their passions, they light up and it makes for great conversation. That's probably why, after I was hired, one of my interviewers said she remembered me as the girl who went to Africa (one of my favorite trips of all time, btw). You should always strive to be that person who's remembered for doing something unique. Don't be all business - let your passion shine through!

Stay tuned for next month's post on differentiating yourself in an interview!