How to become an Actuary
Becoming an actuary is mostly an exam problem wearing a job title. You'll need a head for probability and a tolerance for studying at night, but the thing that actually gets you hired is passing exams before anyone asks you to. This page covers the routes in, the words recruiters scan for, and how to write about your work so it reads like an actuary wrote it.
What the job is once you're in it
You put a price on uncertainty. At a life insurer that might mean projecting how long a block of policyholders will live and what the company owes them. At a property and casualty carrier it's more likely loss reserving: looking at claims that happened but haven't finished paying out, and deciding how much money to hold back for them. Health actuaries set premiums for plans and spend a lot of time on claims data. Pension actuaries work out what an employer needs to put aside today to pay retirees later.
Most of the work happens in Excel, with SQL for pulling data and R or Python for anything heavier. Big insurers run projection software like AXIS or Prophet, and you'll learn whichever one your team uses on the job. The part people don't expect is the writing. You'll spend real time explaining a reserve change to a finance director who wants one sentence, not a triangle of loss development factors.
Here's the downside, said plainly: the exams follow you for years. You'll study on weeknights and weekends while working full time, and some sittings you'll fail. People who hate that grind leave the field, and it's the most common reason they do.
Four ways people get their first actuarial job
Pass exams in college, then land an internship
This is the standard path and the one hiring teams are built around. Major in actuarial science, math, statistics or economics, and pass Exam P and Exam FM before you graduate. Those two exams put you in the stack for summer internships, and a lot of entry-level offers go to returning interns. Pick up your VEE credits along the way through approved courses so they're done before they become a chore.
Graduate without an internship and apply as an actuarial analyst
Plenty of people miss the internship cycle and still get in. The trick is exam count. Walk in with P and FM passed and a third exam booked, and you look like someone who'll finish. Apply to actuarial analyst and actuarial assistant roles at insurers, consulting firms and benefits administrators, and don't skip smaller regional carriers, which often hire outside the big recruiting season.
Move over from underwriting, pricing or data work
If you already work at an insurer as an underwriter, a claims analyst or a pricing analyst, you're closer than you think. Tell your manager you're sitting exams, pass one, then ask to be considered for internal actuarial openings. Internal moves skip the résumé pile, and you already know the products. Data analysts and statisticians make the same switch, usually into pricing or predictive modeling teams first.
Come in through a consulting firm's benefits practice
Retirement and health consulting firms hire analysts to run pension valuations and plan pricing for clients. The pace is faster than at a carrier and billable hours are tracked, which some people love and some people can't stand. The exam support is usually good, and you'll see many clients' data instead of one company's.
The credentials and who hands them out
In the United States, the Society of Actuaries runs the exams for life, health, retirement and investment work, and the Casualty Actuarial Society runs them for property and casualty. Passing a set of exams and modules earns an associateship, ASA or ACAS, and more exams on top of that earn a fellowship, FSA or FCAS. Choose the society that matches the insurance you want to work on, because switching tracks later costs you exams.
Some actuarial work carries formal sign-off, like a statement of actuarial opinion on reserves filed with regulators. The qualification standards for who can sign depend on the type of opinion and the regulator involved, and rules vary by state. Your employer's credentialed actuaries will tell you what applies to your role. Most employers pay exam fees, give paid study hours and raise your pay as you pass, so ask about the study program in every interview.
Words that show up in actuarial postings
Recruiters and applicant tracking systems match on exact phrases, so if you've passed Exam FM, write "Exam FM" and not "financial math coursework".
Turning an internship bullet into an actuarial one
Helped the reserving team with Excel spreadsheets and data cleanup.
Rebuilt the quarterly auto liability loss triangles in Excel and VBA, cutting refresh time from 2 days to 3 hours and catching a $1.4M coding error in claims data before the reserve review.
What Actuary postings ask for
Hiring the most
- Mmc26
- Pacific Life19
- pacificlife.wd1/PacificLifeCareers19
- At-Bay14
- Aig12
Remote
16% of openings are fully remote.
Posted pay
$143,320 – $236,900
Typical range in the 37 of the newest 60 postings that list pay.
Questions people ask
Do I need an actuarial science degree to become an actuary?
No. Math, statistics, economics, finance and physics majors all get hired. What matters more is the exams you've passed and whether you've finished the VEE requirements. An actuarial science program just makes it easier to line those up while you're still in school.
How many exams should I pass before applying?
Aim for two, usually P and FM, before you apply for internships or entry-level roles. One exam can work for a smaller carrier or an internal move. Having a next exam already booked tells a hiring manager you'll keep going.
Is it better to choose life and health or property and casualty?
Pick based on the work you'd like to do every day, not on which one sounds more prestigious. Life and retirement work is long-horizon and heavy on projection models. Property and casualty moves faster and leans on claims data, reserving and rate filings. Both have steady demand and similar exam grinds.
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