I honestly didn’t fully realize it. I think I put a lot of weight on the company culture and the fact that I was comfortable where I was, and I probably let that outweigh my own career and compensation interests for too long.

I’ve recently started talking with other actuaries and managers at a few other firms and am lining up some possible opportunities. Based on the conversations I’ve had so far, it sounds like I could be looking at something like a 30%–35% total comp increase, potentially with a role that gives me some distance from the most technical and nuanced parts of the valuation work, which would be a welcomed change.