Actuary resume example

Choose the right format for an Actuary resume

Use a reverse-chronological format. Actuarial hiring managers move fast and want to see your exam progress and employer history at a glance. A functional or hybrid format buries the credential timeline that matters most in this field.

Keep the resume to one page if you have fewer than ten years of experience; two pages are acceptable for credentialed Fellows (FSA, FCAS) with broad project histories. Use clean section headers, consistent font sizing (10–12pt body, 14pt name), and generous white space. Avoid tables and text boxes — many applicant tracking systems used by large insurers and consulting firms parse these incorrectly.

• Recommended fonts: Calibri, Georgia, or Garamond — nothing decorative
• Margins: 0.75–1 inch on all sides
• File format: PDF unless the job posting explicitly requests .docx
• Section order: Contact → Summary → Exams/Credentials → Experience → Skills → Education

Write a professional summary that signals your actuarial level

Your summary should do three things in two to three sentences: state your credential level (exam count or designation), your practice area (life, P&C, health, pension, ERM), and your highest-impact contribution. Recruiters at consulting firms and insurers screen dozens of resumes; they need your actuarial level in the first line.

Example: "ASA-credentialed actuary with seven years in group health reserving and pricing, including three years leading a team responsible for $2.4B in annual premium. Currently pursuing the FSA; proficient in R, SAS, and Prophet. Experienced in ACA risk adjustment modeling and IBNR reserve analysis under GAAP and statutory frameworks."

Write work-experience bullets that quantify actuarial output

Every bullet should answer: what did you do, with what tool or method, and what was the measurable result? Generic phrases like 'assisted with pricing' tell a hiring manager nothing. Name the software, the line of business, the dollar or percentage figure, and the business outcome. If your work is confidential, use ranges or describe scope instead of exact figures.

• Rebuilt the long-term disability reserve model in Prophet, reducing quarterly close cycle from 12 days to 7 and improving reserve accuracy by 4.2% against actual-to-expected benchmarks.
• Developed a generalized linear model in R to re-price a $180M personal auto book, resulting in a 1.8-point improvement in the combined ratio within two policy years.

Skills and certifications recruiters and ATS systems look for

List your SOA or CAS exam status explicitly — number passed, exams in progress, and your current designation (Exam P through FSA, or Exam 1 through FCAS). Recruiters filter on these terms directly. Beyond exams, include technical tools and methodologies by name; do not lump them into vague categories.

For health and life roles, Prophet, AXIS, and MoSes appear frequently in job descriptions. P&C roles emphasize Radar, Emblem, and ResQ. Enterprise risk roles value familiarity with COSO frameworks and Solvency II concepts. Data-heavy shops increasingly require R, Python, or SQL alongside traditional actuarial software.

• Designations: ASA, FSA, ACAS, FCAS, EA (Enrolled Actuary for pension work)
• Actuarial software: Prophet, AXIS, MoSes, Emblem, Radar, ResQ, ARIUS
• Programming and data: R, Python, SAS, SQL, VBA, Excel (with advanced modeling)
• Methodologies: GLM, credibility theory, stochastic reserving, DFA, IBNR, ULAE
• Regulatory knowledge: GAAP, Statutory, IFRS 17, ACA risk adjustment, PBR

Education, licenses, and extras that complete the picture

List your degree, institution, graduation year, and GPA if it was 3.5 or above. Actuarial science, mathematics, statistics, and economics are the most common majors, but any quantitative degree is acceptable. If you graduated more than ten years ago, drop the GPA.

Below education, add a short section for professional development and affiliations: SOA or CAS membership, attendance at annual meetings, leadership in an Actuarial Club, or completion of the SOA's Associateship Professionalism Course (APC). These signal engagement with the profession beyond exam-passing and matter to credentialing committees at employers who sponsor exam fees.

• Include your VEE (Validation by Educational Experience) credits: Economics, Accounting and Finance, Mathematical Statistics
• Note if you are an SOA Candidate or CAS Candidate — it shows you are actively working toward a credential
• Note your MAAA and that you meet the American Academy of Actuaries' qualification standards if you sign actuarial opinions (e.g., appointed actuary roles)

Mistakes to avoid

• ×Listing exams passed without specifying which exams — write 'Passed Exam P, FM, FAM, SRM, PA' not 'Passed 5 actuarial exams,' because recruiters and ATS systems search for specific exam codes.
• ×Using vague software references like 'actuarial modeling software' instead of naming Prophet, AXIS, or Emblem, which causes your resume to fail keyword filters on major job boards.
• ×Omitting the dollar or premium volume your work touched, which makes it impossible for a hiring manager to gauge whether your experience matches the scale of their book of business.
• ×Burying your credential status halfway down the page — actuarial designation or exam count should appear in the summary or in a clearly labeled section near the top, since it is the primary screening criterion.

Frequently asked questions

Should I include failed actuarial exams on my resume?

No. Only list exams you have passed and note any you are currently sitting. If a recruiter asks about your exam history in an interview, you can address it directly, but a resume is not the place to document attempts.

How do I write an actuarial resume if I have no work experience yet?

Lead with your exam progress and GPA, then highlight any internships, actuarial club leadership, or capstone projects that involved real data analysis. Quantify whatever you can — for example, the size of the dataset you modeled or the percentage improvement in a class project's predictive accuracy.

Do actuarial employers care about the order I list my exams?

List them in the order you passed them or in the standard SOA/CAS sequence, not by perceived difficulty. Hiring managers and credentialing staff are familiar with both tracks and will immediately notice if the sequence looks out of order, which can raise questions about your timeline.