The Much Needed Spotlight on Actuarial Sciences

The global financial crisis is making the young generation face the dim employment prospects well before their time. One wonders of the various possibilities which would help ensure a comparatively better employment prospect after graduation. Among the many certifications that are commonly known to guarantee successful career prospects such as accounting, there are some that receive little or no spotlight but are equally promising. Among those less known certifications are actuarial sciences. Actuaries have it all, good salary, promising employment growth, and job security.

Job Prospect for an Actuary

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment opportunity for actuaries is expected to grow at a higher pace than average. Starting from 2008 till 2018, there is an expected increase of 21% in the employment of actuaries. The starting salary of actuaries is higher than most jobs and there is a fast growth potential which can double the amount of salary in a matter of 5 years. Actuaries with experience of around 5 years and more earn from $70 thousand to $200 thousand per year. Experienced actuaries with more than 10 years experience in the field can even earn more than $300 thousand. The high pay scale is among the main reasons why actuarial jobs are considered as one of the best jobs in America according to various sources such as CNN Money, Job Rated Almanac, and US News.

Skills and Knowledge Required in Becoming an Actuary

It is essential to mention not all can become actuaries as this field of profession requires innate ability along with acquired knowledge. In order to proceed with actuarial sciences, one must have exceptional mathematical and problem solving skills. The basic component of actuarial sciences is mathematics with specialized focus on statistics, probability, and calculus. Additionally, the subject requires high computing and managerial skill along with financial, accounting, and economics acumen.

Job of an Actuary

The job of an actuary is an amalgamation of risk management and creative problem solving. Risk in the actuarial world could be the possibility of occurrence of some uncertain negative event or it could simply mean some unexpected opportunity. What an actuary does is merge their mathematics, statistics, and financial proficiency to construct a model which effectively helps resolve problems. Problems in this regard means uncertainty of occurrence of future financial events. Basically, an actuary is responsible for evaluating the likelihood of future events based on past and present figures, reducing likelihood of unwanted events through creative problem solving methods, and limiting the impact of the unwanted events that occur. Along with the basics, an actuary also has to factor in various other aspects such as individual demographics and/or business policies and operations to effectively get the job done.

Actuaries are the analytical backbone of every company. Majority of the actuaries work in the industrial fields of pensions, insurance, investments, and consultancies. When dealing with pensions, an actuary devises company pension schemes by placing value on the schemes’ accumulated pension commitments. When dealing with insurances, an actuary creates and prices insurance policies by analyzing vast numerical data. Additionally, an actuary makes certain the company has enough money to cover claims in the future based on their business model. When working in the field of investments or consultancies, the main job of an actuary is to manage risks of a certain investment or business venture. Some companies even consider actuaries as an integral part of the management team in order to deal with emerging risks or take advantage of future opportunities in the least risky way.

Irrefutably, it can be said that actuaries deal with odds or likelihood of unexpected events. They combine finance, mathematics, and statistics to evaluate, analyze, and solve real life problems which occur due to uncertainty.

Read more about financial professions and business related news on Mint Bites.