a bold strategy

Source

I need to pivot in my job search strategy.

When I got the news that my contract wasn't getting renewed, it was early June. It took me a few days to process the news, and I decided that I would take my dad's long-standing advice and pivot into insurance and business math. I knew that this was going to involve some amount of studying and a fair amount of networking. But I felt confident that I could do that.

Fast-forward to today. I have signed up for one of the two exams I think I can take, and I'm fairly confident about it. But I have had exactly one conversation with someone in the insurance field — I feel like it'd be better to do this without my dad's help — and it honestly wasn't all that encouraging. Meanwhile I am a week into July, and it occurs to me that I have to make sure there isn't any lapse in health insurance for the kids starting on August first. So now I am in a situation where I need to plan for at least three different scenarios:

  1. There's now a pretty good chance that I won't have any job at all starting on August 1. That's not a super-bad emergency. But it does mean that I have to figure out how to keep the kids in health coverage.

  2. In order to get an actuary job without having a direct contact, the most likely option is to look at job ads and see who is hiring. Then I can talk to them.

  3. If, on the other hand, I'm going to look at data science jobs, the way to accomplish that is pretty similar.

  4. A third job option, which might be easier on short notice, would be some sort of "data analyst." But again, I am going to need to prepare some different sort of resume.

  5. There's always the grocery store or the FedEx.

In any case, I'm going to need to prepare at least one new, specialized CV, for readers whom I would like to impress who don't have the time nor the interest to read what I currently have. To be honest, I've never been terribly thrilled with what I have. But perhaps I can do better.

The best way for me to make progress job hunting is going to actually involve opening up job boards and looking for jobs, which I have thus far been resistant to doing.

  • Actuary summer program
  • data science boot camp
  • Recover an Avrio project and put it somewhere visible.
  • What are the different actuarial certifications, and their meanings?

Let's make some lists, and then let's liveblog here.

Things I'm going to do later, not now

  • Update the root directory at mahurin.us to point to the robtasm pages, since I'm actually doing things there.
  • Likewise, update my CV pages to point to something on robtasm pages.
  • Computer skills that I'm seeing
    • Julia
    • R
    • Tableau
    • Power Bi
  • What is an "experience study"?

But I did them anyway

Document links with custom text

The {{% doc %}} shortcode doesn't seem to have a straightforward way to let me change the text of the link away from the title of the post. If I were going to do that later, I would search the nikola source tree for doc.py.

Collapsible elements

If I'm going to webify my CV, I'd like to make it so that different pieces of it are collapsible. The HTML magic seems to be a <details> container with at least one <summary> container that acts as a trigger.

For example, let's try it here. This is some amount of hidden text. * Here's a list item But it looks like the Markdown paragraph formatting goes away. Okay, that's good to know. Can I even have multiple paragraphs? Apparently not.

However, I can write a shortcode that'll do that. See the long and the shortcodes of it.

Liveblogging

Before lunch

[2025-07-05 Sat 13:09]

I started a list of things that I wasn't going to do, and then promptly tried to do one of them, and invented a job that I didn't even know about.

Part of my particular ADHD is that I like things to go a particular way. When I find myself doing things that are repetitive, I frequently think of ways that I can streamline them. When I find a tool that I think ought to work a particular way, sometimes I'll get quite stuck trying to make it work.

This is one of the few cases where I think the AI chatbots are worth anything. If I'm programming and I have some thing that I know can be done, and it's just on the tip of my tongue, asking a chatbot is much more straightforward than finding the appropriate place deep in some documentation tree. Likewise if I need a simple piece of code in a programming language that I don't speak very well, the AI chatbots are much better at getting the task done that me blorping about to get the right mixture of parentheses versus braces and single versus double quotes.

[2025-07-05 Sat 13:18]

Off task. It's job board time. Actually, toilet time, but then to the job board.

[2025-07-05 Sat 13:24]

Actually whitespace time. Jeez, Rob.

[2025-07-05 Sat 13:31]

Indeed

[2025-07-05 Sat 13:58]

Lunch break.

After lunch

[2025-07-05 Sat 14:35]

Back at it.

[2025-07-05 Sat 15:41]

So, that was productive. I went through the seven jobs open at one big company, found two that I think would be a good fit for me, and I have a much better idea of what that company does now than I did. I also have some sense of how little I know about the field, which is also useful.

[2025-07-05 Sat 18:19]

I'm kind of running down for today. There were 19 jobs in Nashville matching "actuary" on Indeed

[2025-07-05 Sat 18:43]

And now, I've looked at them all!

Job board hunting

Promising candidate jobs

Indeed

  • [2025-07-05 Sat 13:38]
    I'm signing in and making an account that will supposedly match me with things. It's probably the case that I've started off too restrictive.

Fortitude Re

A company page, which currently has seven jobs. They have a Youtube channel, apparently.

  1. Senior Associate, Experience Studies Actuary This requires an ASA certification.

  2. Associate, Experience Studies Actuary A bachelor's degree job.

    Implement, process, maintain, and communicate "experience study systems" for life insurance, annuity, and A&H business lines. A key member of the Life Actuarial team, supporting the development of assumptions used in the actuarial projection models to do financial and management reporting.

    • Design, construction, maintenance, processing of actuarial experience studies.
    • Build and maintain data-supported dashboards
    • Write studies documenting methodology, data review, analysis, conclusions.
    • Process, maintain, and document actuarial data and reporting controls designed to validate the accuracy and completeness of the underlying experience study data.
    • Provide expertise in the analysis of experience used in the setting of liability assumptions.
    • Work with internal and external auditors in their periodic reviews of experience studies.
    • Visualize and report data findings to stakeholders. [a strength of mine!]
    • Foster and maintain open communication and effective relationships with colleagues.
    • Handle multiple assignments; proactively seek new assignments.

    Undergraduate degree; one or more years of experience; "advanced computer-related skills such as spreadsheets"; cross-functional collaborative teamwork; ability to manage multiple projects independently; written and oral communication skills.

  3. Assistant Vice President, Life Pricing. Requires FSA, ASA certifications.

  4. Actuarial Associate, Life. This is a general job position; they will review and contact if they think I might be a fit for any specific open positions.

    Products include

    • Variable annuities
    • Fixed deferred annuities
    • Supplemental annuity contracts
    • Life products
    • Accident and Health products
    • Probably other things

    Diverse roles:

    • Pricing analyses, sensitivities, and analytics
    • GAAP, statutory, hedging, embedded-value modelling
    • US cash flow testing
    • Bermuda economic balance sheet
    • Valuation and financial reporting
    • Support of inforce management initiatives
    • Review and analysis of reinsurance settlements.
    • Development and analysis of liability KPIs
    • QA for model testing and validation
    • Capital management

    Technical skills, not required but a plus:

    • Excel
    • SQL, and R or Python
    • Exposure to business intelligence tools like Tableau, Power Bi, etc.
    • Exposure to actuarial software with names I don't know

  5. Associate, Valuation Actuary. A member of the Valuation team, supporting valuation and financial reporting requirements for accounting for reinsurance and acquired businesses. Accident and health violation valuation and financial reporting (cancer, disability, and long-term care products), and quality assurance support or internal controls, policies, and governance, including new deals.

    • Support valuation (GAAP etc.) and financial reporting requirements for reinsurance transations, etc.
    • Workpapers, memoranda, technical reviews, analysis of data and models.
    • Analytics on reserves and financial results.
    • Enhance the risk and control framework.
    • Assist in process improvement efforts: automation and process enhancements for quarterly valuation, streamlining of control support valuation.
    • Respond to auditor requests.

    What you'll have: At least three years of progressively more responsible actuarial experience; ASA; other stuff that I don't have yet.

  6. Senior Associate, Life Pricing Actuary. This wants the ASA certification already.

  7. Actuarial Analyst, ADP. The Capital Management Actuarial team. Assist the Actuarial team in performing Capital Management activities such as initial placement, valuation, financial reporting, modeling, experience studies, assumptions, inforce management and/or pricing activites.

    This candidate will participate in the Actuarial Development Program, which provides support in passing actuarial exams.

    Assist the business unit with any of the following, depending on assignment.

    • Periodic US GAAP, Statutory, and Tax valuations
    • Analysis and preparation of financial results
    • Building, maintenance, execution of models
    • Coding and testing of programs, processes, and models
    • Ensuring that all work aligns with the Fortitude Re Control Framework
    • Technical reviews of other teams' work
    • Process improvement requests and automations
    • Respond to auditor requests
    • Ad hoc projects
    • Analysis of hedging strategy and ALM strategy development
    • Continue to pass exams and modules to earn an Associateship or Fellowship.

    Expectations:

    • Bachelors
    • At least two actuarial exams; four or more preferred
    • One or more years of experience
    • Capital management is a plus but not required
    • Good at Excel; exposure to data analytics and programming will be useful
    • Ability to learn: AXIS, PowerBI, R, Python, Alteryx, Julia, Tableau, others
    • Assist on multiple work assignments and meet time commitments
    • Work independently and with others
    • Motivated, inquisitive, results-oriented.
    • Desire and ability to deliver accurate and completed work products.
    • Communication skills.

Deloitte

The company page. Deloitte is a huge company, one of the Big Four global accounting firms. They're not primarily in insurance; the four positions they have open are for two experienced seasonal property and casualty consultants and two P&C actuary managers. Not my speed.

ArchWell Health

The company page. The only hit here seems to be for a "Medical Economics Advisor" for whom an actuarial science degree might be qualifying.

Amerilife Group

Company website

A leader the development, marketing, and distribution of annuity, life, and health insurance solutions for those planning for and living in retirement.

Commissions Analyst " The Commissions Analyst will calculate and ensure compliance for agent/agency commissions and reporting for a variety of carriers. Responsible for reviewing data entries and calculations to successfully identify and rectify discrepancies. Strong relationships with agents/carriers/agencies while addressing commission inquiries.

  • Calculate and forecast agent/agency commission expenses for monthly close processes.
  • Coordinate with AmeriLife to accurately process commissions to appropriate entities.
  • Review data entries, calculations, and outputs with a high degree of detail to identify discrepancies, and perform corrections and revisions.
  • Research and resolve agent commission related inquiries. Audit to ensure accuracy and compliance standards are being met.
  • Verify agent levels, carrier levels, agency levels are correct in the system.
  • Build and maintain reports in Excel as required.
  • Mange and monitor individual agent balance reports, ensuring obligations are appropriately cross-collateralized across carriers.
  • Download and maintain third-party data files.

No specialized skills required.

Ryan Specialty

Company website

  1. Actuarial Pricing Analyst Specialty property insurance in catastrophe-prone communities. An uncommon approach creates uncommon careers. At the intersection of traditional actuarial science and next-generation data science. Step outside your comfort zone!

    • Building and maintaining advanced pricing models using machine learning techniques
    • Building dashboards or tools for other teams in Tableau
    • Monitoring top-line and bottom-line performance for necessary adjustments
    • Developing and presenting segmented rate indications
    • Testing new or existing third-party data sources for predictive power and integrating new data sources into pricing models
    • No interaction with rate filing

    Requirements:

    • SQL and Python
    • Bachelor's
    • General linear models, unsupervised learning, other ML techniques

    Nice-to-haves:

    • Experience with catastrophe pricing or commercial lines property experience
    • Familiarity with Tableau or Power BI
    • Familiary with R
    • One to three preliminary actuarial exams

  2. Catastrophe Risk Analyst

  3. Senior Product Analyst
  4. Business Product Manager
  5. Lead Portfolio Management Specialist: Catastrophe Modeling

Price Waterhouse Coopers

Not currently entry-level.

Cigna group

Cigna first hit is an Actuarial Advisor, Actuarial Executive Development Program, which wants an FSA? Or maybe it's an FSA course? I don't think this is an entry-level job.

Oliver Wyman group

These guys are looking for senior people.

WTW

Website on Indeed All three of the positions they're advertising are for senior people.

CVS Health

Also for senior people.

Whitespace

I feel weird not being able to put the text entry point at the top of the screen, so here's this.