Careers - Personal requirements

Skills

Actuaries are multi-skilled strategic thinkers, trained as mathematicians, statisticians, economists and financial experts who can assess risks to a business by modelling the future, using a blend of history, expectations and judgement.

Actuaries need to have:

the ability to present fundamental ideas and arguments to people outside the profession,
the ability to analyse complex situations and information, to first distil exactly what a problem is and to then determine a range of possible solutions,
the ability to interpret results and draw conclusions,
decision-making ability,
mathematical ability, and
planning skills.


Knowledge

 Actuaries need to know about:

mathematics and statistics,
economics, accounting, finance and investments,
risks involved in business,
business management and law,
economic and social trends, and
computer software, including databases and spreadsheets.

Some students with their eyes on the global market, are also studying languages in a bid to tap into the international demand for actuaries that is developing . Others are enhancing their actuarial studies with additional studies in science, business law, economics, industrial relations, marketing or international business.

Personal qualities

 In order to come up with the best solutions to problems, actuaries need to be:

accurate,
methodical, and
analytical.

Actuaries balance their role in business management with responsibility for safeguarding the financial interests of the public. Actuaries should have good common-sense. They need to apply professional rigour combined with a commercial approach to the decision-making process.

 The actuarial profession has a reputation for being

responsible,
thorough,
objective and
unbiased.

The professional bodies to which actuaries must belong set and enforce professional standards and a code of conduct which embodies integrity, expertise and relevance,