Category: Uncategorized

Where do you work and what is your position?
I am President and Consulting Actuary at Liscord, Ward & Roy, Inc., a property/casualty actuarial consulting firm located in Manchester, NH.

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
A week before I finished college, a recruiter from Aetna Insurance was on campus talking to students about the actuarial career. I was intrigued by what I heard and thought it would be a good fit for me. Prior to that, I knew very little about the actuarial career. This is what has driven my passion to help students learn more about the career at an earlier stage than I did. That is why I have volunteered with the University Liaison program, the University Engagement Committee, and mentoring students at CAS meetings.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I have spent most of my career in consulting. I love the diversity of assignments and clients that I have had the opportunity to be involved with. I get to work on several different projects, for various types of clients, covering many casualty lines of coverage. It keeps it interesting and makes me want to go to work every day.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
My first job was with a consulting firm, and it was stressed that accuracy and attention to detail is paramount. Making sure that things get done right is important to maintaining the respect of the clients. But when mistakes are made, and everyone makes them occasionally, it is also important to own them and make corrections as soon as the mistakes are found.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Network! The actuarial profession is relatively small, and it is surprising how often your path crosses with those of other actuaries throughout your career. An actuary’s network is useful in many ways – from lifelong friendships, to future job opportunities, to sources for advice on projects, to recommendations for committee assignments, to dinner companions at CAS meetings, and many others.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
Insurance provides a safety net that allows businesses and individuals to participate in activities that they might otherwise refrain from.  As such, insurance touches many aspects of our lives and is an important part of society.  The insurance industry is dynamic, ever changing, and an exciting place to work.  The Property / Casualty insurance industry in particular provides a wide range of positions and careers for someone to find their niche, aligning their interests, skills, and qualifications, because of the ever expanding need for coverages to adapt to a rapidly changing world.  I may be biased, but I think a career as a casualty actuary provides the greatest opportunities to be involved – interacting with people from many disciplines, solving challenging problems, and being a part of an industry that is integral to the economy as a whole.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
Improve your communication skills.  Great oral and written communication is essential to making your thoughts, solutions, and ideas understandable to others who are in positions of acting on them.  Be well rounded.   Having knowledge in multiple areas makes you more valuable and more adaptable to change.  Be comfortable with math and statistics.  In a world immersed in data, people who can analyze that data, and people who can understand what that analysis means, are the people who will guide the decisions that change the future.

Where do you work and what is your position?
I’m a pricing actuary with Ryan Specialty.

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
I went to a math and science high school (for NUS High we fight!), but I was definitely better at/more interested in math than sciences. I was looking for a math-related major and actuarial science popped up serendipitously.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I love that there are many flavors in the actuarial profession. Even though I have only been in the industry for less than 5 years, I am lucky enough to have worked at an insurance company, in consulting and now in the MGU space. Each role taught me so much about the different aspects of the actuarial profession, and helped me identify my strengths and areas for growth.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Be your authentic self. I have always been described as a very bubbly and sweet person, and occasionally it can feel like I’m the odd duck in the corporate world. We all have unique backgrounds and voices, and there is nothing wrong with adding your own shine and sparkle into the profession. Even in the face of unpleasantries, it’s important that we stay true to our values, be humble and respectful expressing our views, while being our stupendous selves!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
It’s great to ask a lot of questions and it’s okay to make mistakes. Questions help you understand both the technical and the business aspect of your work, and mistakes help you identify your blind spots. What’s truly important is that you learn from your mistakes, focus on your own growth, and grow into the professional that you aspire to be.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
The concept of insurance has always been fascinating to me, since we rarely think about risks or fortuitous events when the days are good. It’s about thinking ahead, which can be a new and interesting concept. A career in insurance gives you more insight into such events and the strategies used to handle risks, allowing creative thinking and development of problem-solving skills. It could be both challenging and rewarding at the same time!

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
Speaking through the lens of an actuary, internships can offer significant insight and provide more specific context on the day-to-day work of an actuary. Connecting with fellow students in your major, sitting for exams, and going to networking events can also all be great opportunities!

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
One of my neighbors is an actuary and introduced me to the field in high school. I was always good at math but wanted a career in business – and his job as an actuary sounded like a perfect fit! As I learned more about the profession and built my actuarial network, I felt more and more at home.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I really enjoy the level of expertise that every actuary has in our industry and their willingness to share it with the broader actuarial community. No matter which actuary I’ve talked to, I have loved the ability to learn from their unique expertise and perspectives that they bring from their career. To be a recent addition to that community as a new associate of the class that hit 10,000 CAS members is rewarding, and I look forward to continuing to grow our actuarial community in the future.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Early on in my career I had a mentor share that it is important to be purposeful about making an impact in the activities and projects you commit to. I’ve taken that mindset on various projects, committees, and other initiatives both at work and as a volunteer with the CAS. I feel this mindset has helped me focus my efforts and really drive towards making an impact on everything that I do.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice to candidates and new members would be to build your network not only within the actuarial community, but also build your network with other professionals (non-actuaries) in the insurance space. My colleagues who are not actuaries bring a totally different perspective to problems we work together to solve – and this network has helped me understand where they are coming from and how we can amplify our impact on our organization.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
The insurance industry has such a wide breadth of potential careers for you to pursue – and you are able to explore new things constantly! With my background as an actuary, I’ve built new cyber insurance products, evaluated unpaid claim reserves, advised underwriters on how to better assess risk, and a whole lot more! As you enter your career, be prepared to adapt and learn new things every day.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
As you prepare to enter the industry – focus on learning about how macroeconomic / broader societal trends can affect the insurance industry. You could learn more about potential bias in pricing and rating plans, evaluate how climate change may impact the affordability and accessibility of insurance, or explore how Generative AI and other advanced analytical methodologies can transform the end-to-end insurance ecosystem. Learning about how these broader macroeconomic trends impact insurance will give you a broader understanding of the insurance sector and enable you to have conversations with insurance professionals of all backgrounds.

My name is Sebastian Czerwinski and I am a senior at Illinois State University. Currently I am an actuarial intern at COUNTRY Financial on their pricing team for commercial lines of business and I have accepted a full time position with them in the same position. An interesting fact about me is that I can speak in three different languages: Polish (native), English, and German.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
Insurance industry seeks people with various backgrounds. It is an ever-evolving industry especially on the property and casualty. There is high demand for the skills and knowledge that actuaries have. The technological innovation is another reason to work in the insurance industry since there is a need to overcome this stigma that insurance is behind the technological advances and methodologies to collect and analyze data.

Why did you become an actuary?
I wanted to become an actuary because this profession connects my passion for math with a very practical application which is the property and casualty insurance. At first, I was not sure which path to choose SOA vs CAS, but the choice became obvious once I started learning more about the insurance industry. The P&C is more intuitive for me and I can easier see how the actuarial principles apply to the property and casualty insurance products. On top of that, the variety of fields of study that I get learn about such as business, law, insurance, and programming make this profession very interesting and broad enough for me to find something that I like the most and specialize in it.

What drew you to a career in property and casualty insurance?
The property and casualty insurance products are more intuitive for me, and it is easier to see how the actuarial principles apply in practice. P&C is a fast-changing industry and with the technological innovations there is always something new or a need for an insurance. I can see the impact of my work very fast, and I feel that I can make a direct impact in businesses and people’s lives.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
I would say that students should along with their actuarial exam preparation, they should attend as many different conferences as they can to network with industry professionals and learn more about the insurance industry to see what they are interested more. The reason for developing interest in insurance itself is that with the understanding of how the insurance works and how it is regulated, it will be much easier to see how the actuarial principles apply on a daily basis. Also, once you understand how insurance works, it will be easier to adjust the pricing and reserving methodologies or even create models. On top of that, learning at least one programming language will be a huge advantage as almost all companies require candidates to know programming. Even if it is not one that a given company uses, it will be much easier to learn a new one fast since the idea of programming does not change no matter what language you use.