Skills and Talents Needed for an Actuarial Career

What skills are needed to be an actuary?

Specialized math knowledge
- Calculus, statistics, probability
Keen analytical, project management, and problem solving skills
Good business sense
- Finance, accounting, economics
Solid communication skills (oral and written)
Strong computer skills
- word processing programs, spreadsheets, statistical analysis programs, database manipulation, programming languages

What talents are needed to be an actuary?

Self-motivation
Creativity
Independence
Ability to work with others
Ambition

In a nutshell, the abilities developed and honed by successful actuaries include an excellent business sense with a knowledge of finance, accounting, and economics, keen analytical, project management, and problem solving skills, specialized math knowledge, strong computer skills, and solid written and oral communication skills.

In addition, actuaries enjoy learning, like to solve complicated problems, enjoy writing and talking to people, can work effectively alone or as part of a team, are interested in a variety of historical, social, legislative, and political issues, and are self-motivated achievers.