Latest Podcasts
Recent Podcasts and Articles
Wanderer’s Way: Cost of Not Having Direction and Recreating the Wheel
Actuarial Success Journey: Zilong Zhao
Actuarial Success Journey: Stephen Hills
Why Doing It the Easy Way is Often the Best Way for your Actuarial Career
What if the reason that you’d not seeing the results you want is because you’re working too hard?. Better yet, what if you go do things the easy way and spend less time, effort, and money to get better results. [Read more…]
62: Bloom where you are planted (Nitya Shekar, Learning and Development Expert and Co-active Coach)
61: Making an Impact Internationally as an Actuary (Stephen Camilli, FSA, Actex)
58: Accountability Check-in (Taking Action on Actuarial Journey Learnings)
Finding Actuarial Opportunities in Microinsurance
-Written by Jeff Blacker, FSA, MAAA, author of Actuaries in Microinsurance. Microinsurance (MI) is low cost insurance protection tailored to low-income people. MI gives you the opportunity to make an impact in people’s lives with your actuarial work [Read More…]
Three Myths To Communicating Effectively
There are common misconceptions about communicating what you say in an effective manner. Everyone’s got their ideas about what makes an effective communicator, and everyone will give you their opinions, whether you want them to or not. In this post, we’ll explore three of the most common myths about communicating effectively, and explain why adhering to these myths can trip you up, plus we’ll explore advice on how to sidestep the pitfalls of these myths. [Read More…]
Three Principles of Effective Communication
Being an actuary requires you to be able to successfully and effectively communicate your results and findings to your client. Read more to find out how to build these essential skills. [Read More…]
57: Take on New Challenges to Acquire Skills (Wendy Liu, FSA)
56: Must-Read Book Recommendations for Aspiring Actuaries
How Well-Defined Goals Drive Success (Viktor Antonius, ASA)
How To Build And Demonstrate Business Skills
Building business skills is an important part of today’s fast-paced world. And these skills can not only be used in the business world, but in a school setting as well.
So how do you go about doing this, especially as you go into the actuarial field? Read more to find out how to build these essential skills. [Read More…]
Studying While Working
When you’re in school, be it college or grad school, or even studying for your actuarial exams, you’re likely also trying to work and earn a living as well. Work, along with other activities in your life, such as spending time with friends and family, or your hobbies, can take up a lot of your time. And granted, it’s natural to want to do well at our jobs. We want to excel and shine at what we do. But how to do this while studying? [Read More…]
Interview With Deb Model: Answers to Top Questions About Getting an Entry-Level Job
We’re changing things up with an interview with Deb Model, a former actuarial recruiter. She answers some of the most asked questions about becoming an actuary on the entry-level, and shares really valuable tips for you to keep in mind.. [Read More…]
Making Success Habits Stick (Alex Barker)
Getting what you want through Effective Communication (Sandy Donovan)
Behind the Scenes Look at Actuarial Exam Writing and Grading (John Popiolek – parts 1 & 2)
Five Methods of Dealing with Overwhelm
We all experience overwhelm in our lives. Whether it’s several things happening at once and we’re caught off guard, or we end up letting certain thoughts run rampant, that feeling of “Oh my gosh, there’s too much to deal with!” can be pretty powerful sometimes. But there are five specific things you can do to ease that feeling of overwhelm and get yourself back to being fully operational. [Read More…]
Achieving Your Perfect Work/Life Balance As An Actuary
For many, juggling the responsibilities of daily life can prove to be a real challenge. This is true for aspiring actuaries and those already in the field. Fortunately, you don’t have to be one of these people. With just a small mindset change and a little bit of preparation, we’re going to show you exactly how to supercharge your work/life balance. [Read More…]
Build Unshakable Confidence For Exam Day
We’re all familiar with the classic test day horror story. The story about the person that spends three hundred hours studying, enters the test room nervously to take the exam, encounters a question they can’t answer, and freezes up. They let one question sabotage the entire test. The only thing you need is hard work, discipline, and direction. [Read More…]
Consistently add value on the job as an actuary (John Popiolek – pt 1)
46 – 47: Benefits of Building Relationships in Action (Aman Jetha)
45 – Building Relationships as an Introvert
3 Crucial Studying Tips To Nail A Multiple Choice Exam
Along your actuarial journey, there’s no doubt that you’re going to come across many multiple choice exams. When studying for these exams, most people tend to use an ineffective and unstructured approach. You will learn about unconventional yet extremely effective studying strategies for multiple choice exams . [Read More…]
Creating Your Personalized Study Roadmap—A Plan You Can Actually Stick To!
Carving out time for both your studies and your personal time and not feel guilty about enjoying the latter, pretty challenging, but there exists a tool that can help you out. It’s called the Personalized Study Roadmap. [Read More…]
Three Key Assumptions That May Be Holding You Back From Passing Your Exams
The actuarial profession is rife with assumptions. When you’re an actuary, you’re going to be using assumptions to assess risk, value future outcomes and put a price tag on that risk. However, there are three key assumptions you might likely make when it comes to passing your actuarial exams. [Read More…]
44: 3 Principles of Effective Communication for Aspiring Actuaries
43: Three Myths about Communicating Effectively for Aspiring Actuaries
42: How To Build And Demonstrate Business Skills
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals For Your Effective Study Plan
If you say, “I’m going to do a lot of problems,” okay, fine. But how many is a lot? Are you aiming for 10? 30? 50? 100? You get the idea.You want the winning approach instead: SMART goals. But what are SMART Goals? Learning what they are and how to apply them is the destination for today. [Read More…]
Three Reasons Why You Should Take More Study Breaks
Have you ever had those times where you said, “I’m going to study for X amount of hours,” and you head to the library to try and make good on that self-promise? But then you find that after about an hour, your brain feels like mush, and a quick ten-minute trip over to Cheezburger.com for a few cat memes turns into two hours, or a five minute YouTube break turns into three hours of binge-watching videos from all the channels you subscribe to. Apart from all those guilty feelings, there are three specific reasons why more studying for extended lengths of time is not necessarily better, and this lesson outlines those reasons. [Read More…]
Start With You in Mind: Step 1 in Personalized Studying
Two of the main reasons why studying often goes by the wayside are time and motivation—especially with all the other stuff that goes on in our lives. These are the two roadblocks you have faced, or will face, as an aspiring actuary, but you are not alone in this. This lesson, however, will help you get a focus on why you might be having trouble studying when you say you’re going to.[Read More…]
41: Takeaways from Actuarial Talent Supply and Demand Study
40: Top Job Hunting Lessons Learned while Switching Careers
Actuarial Journey is Back – Keeping up Momentum
Three Time-Saving Smartcuts to Maximize Your Studying
Studying for exams is something that takes a lot of time to do. Here are some methods to maximize your time studying. [Read More…]
How to Prepare for Your Interview
Now you’re here: at the part of the journey where you’ve landed an interview. You’ve worked hard to get to this point, and you’re excited about the potential future in front of you, especially if the interview is with the exact company you wish to work at. You are going to have to prepare for your interview in a way you likely haven’t before [Read More…]
Building Relationships as an Introvert
Building relationships is truly the key and the core of everything in our lives. This proves true when it comes to making decisions, influencing others, and having the support of others and resources to do what you want to do. But what if you’re an introvert? What if you’re one of those people who gains energy by spending time with themselves rather than with groups? What if you prefer to sit back and think about things before you make decisions, and prefer not to speak unless you really have something dynamite to say? Read more for more information. [Read More…]
Passing Actuarial Exams While Working – Establish, Communicate, and Deliver your Study Brand
5 Methods of Dealing With Overwhelm
It happens to us all along our journey, whether you’re applying for an actuarial job, studying for an SOA/CAS exam, working for as an actuary in insurance/consulting, or pursing a career change to actuarial work. Today’s episode, I share an experience where I felt that way and the 5 steps I typically take when dealing with overwhelm.[Read more…]
Building Relationships and Networks through Actuarial Clubs (Mitch Baidinger – Actuarial Club of Indianapolis)
How to Follow Up After an Informational Conversation
When it comes to following up after an informational conversation. You need to be able to plant enough seeds of good relationship in order to reap what you’ve sown. [Read More…]
Resume Show and Tell: How To Present Yourself Through Your Resume
So you’ve gone through the on-campus recruiting events and you’re preparing to either write your resume if you haven’t yet, or to tweak what you’ve already written so that you present your best self, even if you haven’t had an actuarial internship yet. [Read More…]
Navigating On-Campus Recruiting
When you go to an actuarial career fair, people are already taking note of what you do and how you interact with others. Recruiters are sizing you up to see if you’d be a good team player, have good oral communication skills, etc. Yes, your goal is to eventually score an interview, but at this point, you really need to let your personal brand shine. [Read More…]
Nemo Ashong shares all – Lessons learned from building Actuarial Journey
[Read more…]
5 Reasons to Join an Actuarial Exam Study Group
[Read more…]
Adding a Personal Touch To Your Exam Prep (Howard Heller and Dr. Geoff Apel – Actuary Exam Tutor.com)
How to find and Schedule an Informational Conversation
When it comes to scheduling and conducting informational conversations, especially concerning building your brand, consider the following: by reaching out to different people and finding out what led them down their path, you can use all that different information in order to make your own decisions about the type of actuary you want to be. [Read More…]
Conducting an Informational Conversation
An informational conversation is a one-on-one opportunity for you to talk to someone already in the industry, potentially in the type of position you’re interested in, whether it’s consulting, insurance, or any other role. [Read More…]
Creating Your Personal Brand
Being an actuary is not just about going in and doing your job like everyone else. You want to rise head and shoulders above the competition, and building a personal brand helps you do just that.[Read More…]
Achieving your Ideal Work/Life Balance – Part 2
Achieving your Ideal Work/Life Balance – Part 1
Building Confidence for Your Exam Day – Part 2
Building Confidence for Your Exam Day – Part 1 [Approach]
Finding Time to Study (Steve Schwartz – LSAT Blog)
3 Crucial Tips for studying for multiple choice exams [Approach pt. 1]
[Interview] Answers to your top questions about getting an entry level job (Deb Model)
[Plan] 3 Key Assumptions that may be holding you back from passing your exam
[Plan] Creating your Personalized Study Roadmap: A Study plan you’ll actually stick to
[Plan] Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for your effective study plan
The importance of staying organized to be effective (Kate Weaver – IABA)
3 Reasons Why You Should Take More Study Breaks
How to leverage the skills you develop on your journey outside of the actuarial world! (Nick Blitterswyk)
Start With You in Mind: The 1st step in Personalized Studying

How to Choose the Right Study Materials for You (Nancy Stevenson – Actuarial Bookstore)

How Making the Lives of Others Around You Better Makes Your Journey Far Easier (Nick Thornley)

How To Keep Positive and Use Feedback to Help You Succeed (Gloria Amakobe)

How Living in the Present Can Shape Your Actuarial Journey (Lauren Aronson)

How Being a Business person with Technical Skills Leads to Success! (Tahir Qadir)

Leveraging your prior experiences to prepare for an actuarial career (Nick Fox)

Find People to Stand With You, Not Just For You (Saeed Hossain)
Find out why Saeed feels it’s better to find people to stand WITH you and not just for you – and the impact it’s had on his career. Saeed Hossain is an Actuarial Associate with a large mutual national life insurer. He currently specializes [Read more…]