Actuary CV examples for this year

Managing risk is a tricky role, so becoming an actuary requires a CV that shows you’ve got the skills to manage the position. To create the best actuary CV, you should highlight: 

• Actuary skills 
• Work experience and achievements
• Project management skills 
• Certifications 

This article will teach you about the sections you need to include to showcase skills and experience to impress a hiring manager or recruiter.

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The structure of your actuary CV will depend on the CV format you choose. There are three CV formats: 

• Chronological: The chronological CV format focuses on employment history and works best for those with several years of work experience. 
• Functional: The functional CV format focuses on skills. If you have little to no work experience, this is the best format to use.
• Combination: The combination CV format showcases both skills and experience. This format is best for job seekers who have employment gaps or are changing careers.

Header

The CV header section contains your contact information. This helps hiring managers and recruiters contact you with updates about your application. In this section, you should include: 

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number 
• Location (City and postal code)

You can also include your professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile. This is a great way to give the hiring manager more information about your risk management key accomplishments. 

Professional summary or objective

A professional summary is a short paragraph with two-to-three-sentences that summarise your skills and experience. This is an opportunity to hook the hiring manager with striking information that increases your chances of securing an interview. You can also include key skills that you think the employer will value. These can be skills you gained in a previous actuarial position, such as underwriting. 

If you don’t have previous actuary experience and are applying for an entry-level role, you can use a career objective. A career objective is similar in length to a professional summary, but it instead focuses on your career intentions. You should explain why an actuary job aligns with your career goals and highlight any knowledge of actuarial valuation and related skills. 

Skills

Depending on your CV format, your skills section may be the most dominant part of your CV. Even if you choose a chronological or combination format, you should include a mixture of hard skills and soft skills. 

Hard skills, or technical skills, are specific to an actuary job and gained through training, such as statistical analysis. In contrast, soft skills are transferable, like interpersonal skills. 

Here is a list of bullet points with skills you can consider adding to your CV: 

• Business administration skills 
• Financial analysis 
• Data analysis 
• Financial modelling
• Expressing actuarial opinion
• Pricing models 
• Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Working with insurance companies to form an actuarial opinion (life insurance) 
• Financial forecasting 
• Communication skills 
• Collaborating with other actuarial analysts 
• Financial reporting
• SQL
• Extensive knowledge of insurance products 
• Profitability estimation 
• Spreadsheets

Work history

Depending on the type of role and your CV format, your work experience section may be key. List your previous job titles in reverse-chronological order, starting from the most recent job. This provides the hiring manager or recruiter with the most up-to-date information. 

You should then provide brief bullet points that summarise your previous duties. You should also include metrics from your professional experience that demonstrate your skills have tangible results. 

Education

Actuaries will need qualifications that support strong maths skills, actuarial science and statistics. Gaining a bachelor’s degree in maths and statistics, actuarial science or economics can increase the chance of securing a senior management role.

Additionally, you’ll usually also need 2 or 3 A levels, or equivalent, including maths.

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Here are some do’s and don’ts for an actuary professional CV:

Do:

• Use an actuary CV sample to inspire your content. Seeing how other actuaries have written successful CVs will help you stand out from the crowd.
• Use a CV builder or an actuary CV template. This can provide structure to your CV. 
• Read the job description for keywords that pertain to important skills and other qualifications, match them to your skills and experiences, and feature them in your CV. This can help you navigate applicant tracking systems (ATS) that employers use to scan CVs, and which favour keyword-dense CVs. 

Don’t:

• Include your high school grades. Recruiters aren’t interested. However, if you have cum laude honours or were on the Dean’s List, be sure to list them.
• Use long sentences that clutter your CV. Recruiters are busy and appreciate CVs that are easy to read, so use short phrases and bullet points.
• Forget to customise your CV for each application. Select key terms and phrases from the job description, match them with your skillset and experiences, and feature them in your CV.

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