• Why did you choose actuarial?
• What have you accomplished in the profession?
• What challenges do you seek next?

 

Use these questions to think about you and to reflect on how you’ve gotten to where you are now.  Don’t limit yourself to the school or workplace experiences.  Personal and community experiences undoubtedly contributed to the events of your life as well.  Your successful Candidacy starts with these memories.  Whether of successes or failures, memories are the stuff of your Candidacy.  They are what makes you you.  They are also what animates your Candidacy and makes it real to others. 

 

As you progress through the Interview process, remember that success relies on specificity.  High-level, general, or theoretical answers are heavily discounted.  The stories, anecdotes, and illustrations that came to mind above are much more valuable in understanding what makes you tick.  Create professional intimacy by disclosing the events, circumstances, and people that make you you.

 

 

Qualities of Successful Candidates

 

You wouldn’t have accepted, or been offered, a telephone interview if you weren’t competent to perform the actuarial responsibilities of job.  Earning the Offer often involves more work than is commonly understood, sometimes much more.  Take your Candidacy to a new level by doing your homework.

 

 

Personality Assets

 

Learning how to communicate what makes you you does not come easily but it is an essential skill.  Approach the problem by starting with a Personality Assets Inventory.  The following list of Assets is grouped into five dimension:

 

Cognitive: Adaptable, Analytic, Creative, Open-Minded, Persistent, Pragmatic, Risk Taking, Self-Aware.

Individual: Accountable, Detail-Oriented, Independent, Resourceful, Time Management.

Social: Assertive, Collaborative, Communication, Customer Focus, Listening, Political Savvy.

Leadership: Inspiring, Negotiation, Persuasion, Team Building, Vision.

Management: Coaching, Conflict Management, Decision Making, Hiring, Organization and Planning.

 

 

Write down the five dimensions starting with Cognitive.  For each dimension, order the Assets from strongest to weakest based on what you know of you.  Next, choose the three top Assets that best describe the strengths of your Candidacy.  Address more than three if time allows.  Finally, identify real-life examples that illustrate these Assets.

 

It is only through these examples that the Interviewer will truly be convinced that you “own” the Asset.  Think of multiple examples per Asset.

 

Note that you will identify weaknesses in this manner as well.  It is recommended that you work up two weaknesses, giving you the ability to pivot to the one that seems less onerous given the demands of the job you are interviewing for.

 

 

Accomplishment-Orientation

Accomplishment-Orientation is a method of organizing real-life information that emphasizes why something was important through the inclusion of a summarizing benefit statement.  Use this method to illustrate your Assets to great effect: 

 

Fact:      Your Asset applied to a specific situation

Result:   The effect of what you did

Benefit:  How you or the company benefited

 

Example

Fact:     High Pragmatism led to efficiencies in data collection

Result: Decreased month-end close from eight days to three

Benefit: Company reallocated saved resources to ad-hoc projects, resulting in a $50,000 savings the first year alone

 

Remember:  Facts and results do not speak for themselves.  There can be no excuse for not understanding your accomplishment when a summarizing benefit statement is used.

 

 

Behavioral Questions

Behavioral Questions (see Interviewing Questions II) are designed to explore behaviors relevant to the job being interviewed for and help the Interviewer understand whether you a good fit.  Use your Personality Asset Inventory and Accomplishment-Orientation to answer Behavioral Questions.

 

Example:  Give an example of your collaboration skills?

Fact:     Collaboration led to better sharing of experience data amongst team

Result:   Increased reliability of rating factors

Benefit:  Product went from unprofitable to profitable