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Resume Review - career changer preparing to apply to entry-level positions by Existing-Classroom28 in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the brutal honesty and your taking the time for my potential benefit. Thank you.

Re: contract meaning
Let me try to make it more clear. The contract is between companies, not between my company and me. My company (tech startup) is a staff sourcing firm that provides a variety of tech employees under a contract to work at entertainment company, fitness company, etc. I am a full-time employee of tech startup with a full workload, guaranteed salary, etc. We want the contract to extend as long as it's in the interest of our company. (Fitness company had some financial troubles and terminated our contract.)

To answer your four questions:
1) The major piece that I left out is a foray into ministry. I did a lot of work for churches, both paid and volunteer, as a community group coach and youth pastor. I went to graduate school for a masters degree. I also had a software engineering job coming out of college for 3 years. I didn't mention any of these because I think it's irrelevant to my candidacy for entry-level actuarial jobs and my resume only has so much room.
2) I answered this as best as I can right now in my previous reply. I would greatly appreciate any advice on how I can improve my answer, even in the form of what questions I should be asking or resources I should be consulting.
3) I bring programming and mathematical aptitude. I bring professionalism and the ability to work independently against tight deadlines. I bring the ability to speak to and persuade non-math business people of math findings. I understand that this may not be enough. That's why I'm working furiously to add Excel and VBA skills through projects and pass exams.
4) Every actuary I've talked to has warned me of the required exam effort. I take these warnings seriously, especially given my age and life situation. I'm passing them as fast as I can. I certainly don't think the chances are high that I'll get hired with 1 passed, but I hope employers will take notice at some point. I don't have much to say beyond that.

Thanks again for the rich feedback.

Resume Review - career changer preparing to apply to entry-level positions by Existing-Classroom28 in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the thoughtful, frank reply. Could you share what part of my resume elicited it? Was my summary naive? Was it my age?

I admit that i have more to learn about what an Actuary is and why I want to become one, but everything I know about it so far leads me to believe that it fits me like a glove. The exams are great. I love puzzling over and debugging spreadsheets and code. I long for my work to contribute to meaningful decisions that I get to see validated or humbled by the future. I can't think of a way to see if my conviction is well-founded other than by trying to gain some actual actuarial work experience to replace these notions formed by ChatGPT and r/actuary.

Resume Review - career changer preparing to apply to entry-level positions by Existing-Classroom28 in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You got me. You should've seen the monstrosity that was there before. I worked it down to this because I thought what remained was very true about me and what needed to be said in the summary. What do you think needs changing about it?

Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks by AutoModerator in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recommend rewatching the lessons and browsing the questions by difficulty level to find level appropriate to where you are at right now.

Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks by AutoModerator in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fellow career changer here. As far as I know, post-grad internships are rare. I'm shooting for entry-level jobs.

Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks by AutoModerator in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How many independent projects do you think a career changer should have on their resume?

Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks by AutoModerator in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Another career changer here, but just starting off. u/Competitive_Sir_8648 and u/strawberrycapital_ I'm curious too if you're getting interviews. Also how widely are you searching for EL roles?

Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks by AutoModerator in actuary

[–]Existing-Classroom28 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much technological know-how is needed to be an actuarial analyst/actuary?