Short version: A strong Actuary resume proves three things fast — your exam progress (how many actuarial exams you've passed and what you're sitting next), that you can build the model (pricing, reserving, valuation, GLMs in Excel/R/Python/SQL), and that your analysis changed a number with money behind it (a reserve adequacy call, a rate change, a profitability recommendation). Lead with exams up top, keep it to one page early-career, mirror the line of business and software from the posting, and quantify in dollars or basis points. Below is a complete example you can model line for line, then build yours free.
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What an actuary actually does
An actuary puts a price on uncertainty. Using probability, statistics, and financial theory, you measure the cost of risk — the chance a policyholder files a claim, a portfolio of annuities lives longer than expected, or a line of business runs short of reserves — and translate it into the premiums an insurer charges, the reserves it holds, and the capital it sets aside. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies actuaries as a distinct occupation, and the role spans property and casualty (P&C), life, health, pensions, and reinsurance — but the underlying question is constant: how much will this risk cost, how confident are we, and what should the company hold or charge?
The profession is also defined by its credentialing path. Actuaries advance by passing a long series of rigorous exams administered by the Society of Actuaries (SOA, for life/health/pension) or the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS, for P&C), earning Associate (ASA/ACAS) and then Fellow (FSA/FCAS) status over several years. Exam progress is so central that it sits at the top of nearly every actuarial resume. On a typical cycle, an actuary will:
- Build pricing and ratemaking models — setting premiums by analyzing loss experience, exposure, and trend; running rate-level indications; and supporting rate filings that go to regulators.
- Estimate reserves — projecting unpaid claim liabilities with loss-development triangles, chain-ladder and Bornhuetter-Ferguson methods, and testing reserve adequacy each quarter.
- Perform valuation and financial reporting — calculating statutory and GAAP reserves, supporting IFRS 17, cash-flow testing, and asset-liability management for life and annuity blocks.
- Build predictive and statistical models — fitting generalized linear models (GLMs), and increasingly more advanced statistical models, in R, Python, or SAS to refine pricing segmentation and predict claims.
- Set assumptions — mortality, morbidity, lapse, and loss-trend assumptions grounded in experience studies, and documenting them to Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs).
- Communicate the risk — turning a model into a recommendation a chief actuary, underwriter, product owner, or regulator can act on, and defending the assumptions when challenged.
The work that gets actuaries promoted is rarely the spreadsheet mechanics; it is the judgment about which assumption drives the result and the credibility to make a chief actuary or a regulator trust a reserve estimate. That is exactly what your resume must demonstrate — not that you "know GLMs," but that a model you built changed a rate, a reserve, or a capital decision.
What hiring managers & ATS look for
Two readers screen your resume, and they want different things. The applicant tracking system (ATS) and the actuarial recruiter running keyword searches want literal terms — Exam P, FSA, pricing, reserving, GLM, predictive modeling, the named software — matched to the posting and to a minimum exam count. The hiring manager, usually a manager, AVP of actuarial, or chief actuary, wants evidence you can do the job: steady exam progress, the size of the block or book you worked on, the accuracy of your estimates, and proof your analysis influenced a real decision.
Across hundreds of actuarial postings, the signals that move a resume to the "yes" pile are consistent:
- Exam progress, up top and unambiguous. The first thing nearly every actuarial reviewer checks is how many exams you've passed and what you're sitting next. A dedicated exams section near the top is non-negotiable.
- The right exam track and credential. SOA vs. CAS, and ASA/ACAS/FSA/FCAS status, signal whether you fit a life/health/pension or P&C role. Name the track that matches the posting.
- Core actuarial functions, named and proven. Pricing, reserving, valuation, and experience studies — shown in a bullet, not just a skills line ("re-estimated reserves on a $400M loss portfolio").
- Modeling and programming depth. GLMs and predictive modeling plus R, Python, SQL, SAS, and Excel/VBA — increasingly a differentiator, especially in pricing.
- Quantified impact. Dollars of reserve, premium, or capital influenced; rate changes; loss-ratio or accuracy improvements — numbers in roughly half your bullets.
- Communication and judgment. "Presented to," "supported the rate filing," "documented to ASOP" — the soft signals that separate a number-cruncher from an actuary leadership trusts.
Full actuary resume example
Here is a complete, realistic one-page example for a mid-level pricing/reserving actuary on the P&C track. Notice the exams sit directly under the summary, before experience. Every bullet follows the same shape — action verb, what you built, the method or tool, and the quantified result. Treat it as a model, not a fill-in-the-blank; your exams and numbers must be your own.
Professional Summary
Actuarial Analyst (ACAS) with 5 years in property & casualty pricing and reserving, owning rate indications and quarterly reserve reviews on books up to $400M in earned premium. Strong in loss-development methods, GLMs, and predictive modeling, fluent in Excel/VBA, SQL, R, and SAS, and trusted to support rate filings and present reserve conclusions to the chief actuary. CAS Fellowship track — 1 exam remaining. Known for reserve estimates leadership plans against and pricing models that hold up in filing.
Actuarial Exams & Credentials
ACAS (Associate, Casualty Actuarial Society) — 2024 · Pursuing FCAS (1 exam remaining, sitting Exam 9 — Fall 2026)
Passed: Exam P, Exam FM, MAS-I, MAS-II, Exam 5, Exam 6, Exam 7, Exam 8 · VEE: Economics, Accounting & Finance, Mathematical Statistics
Core Skills
Modeling & programming: Generalized linear models (GLMs), predictive modeling, R, Python, SQL, SAS, Excel (advanced + VBA)
Lines of business: Personal auto, homeowners, commercial property, workers' compensation
Reporting & standards: Statutory & GAAP reserving, ASOPs, NAIC/state filings, reserve adequacy testing
Other: Stakeholder communication, regulatory documentation, data storytelling
Professional Experience
- Own quarterly reserve reviews on a $400M earned-premium loss portfolio using chain-ladder and Bornhuetter-Ferguson, identifying a $6M reserve redundancy that was released to earnings without weakening adequacy.
- Built a GLM-based personal-auto pricing model in R and SQL that improved loss-ratio segmentation and supported a rate change projected to lift the line's combined ratio by ~3 points.
- Prepared and defended two state rate filings, responding to regulator objections and securing approval of an 8.5% rate increase across 9 states.
- Rebuilt the reserving data pull and triangle build with SQL and VBA, cutting quarterly close prep from 5 days to 1.5 and removing manual reconciliation errors.
- Conducted loss-trend and experience studies on a $150M workers' compensation book, isolating a severity trend that informed a targeted 6% rate adjustment.
- Developed exposure and loss-cost models in Excel/VBA and SAS that standardized the quarterly indication process across 3 commercial lines.
- Built reserve-adequacy diagnostics that flagged a developing deficiency on a long-tail line two quarters early, prompting a $2.4M strengthening.
Education
B.S., Actuarial Science (Minor, Statistics) — University of Connecticut · 2021 · Passed Exam P and Exam FM before graduation
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Build yours free →Browse templatesKey skills & ATS keywords for actuaries
Pull the eight to twelve terms the posting names, confirm you genuinely have them, and place each into a real bullet, your skills line, or your exams section. These are the keywords that show up most across actuarial job descriptions — match the ones that are true for you, in the posting's exact phrasing. Where a term has both a spelled-out and an abbreviated form (Associate of the Society of Actuaries / ASA), include both once so the ATS matches either.
| Hard skills (must show) | Soft skills (must signal) |
|---|---|
| Exam progress — passed exams + next sitting, SOA or CAS track | Communicating risk to non-actuaries |
| Pricing & ratemaking — rate indications, filings, trend | Judgment in setting assumptions |
| Reserving — chain-ladder, Bornhuetter-Ferguson, triangles | Defending a number under challenge |
| Modeling — GLMs, predictive modeling, experience studies | Attention to detail & model integrity |
| Programming — R, Python, SQL, SAS, Excel/VBA | Skepticism — pressure-testing assumptions |
| Valuation & reporting — statutory, GAAP, IFRS 17, ASOPs | Working with underwriting, finance & regulators |
For a deeper method on weaving these in without keyword-stuffing, see how to choose resume keywords and how to quantify resume bullets.
A realistic salary range
Compensation for actuaries is unusually structured around exams, but the bands are well established. In the United States, most actuaries earn roughly $90,000 to $180,000 in base salary, with a national median near $120,000 (consistent with BLS figures for actuaries). Entry-level actuarial analysts with one or two exams commonly start around $65,000 to $85,000, and pay rises sharply — often by a defined step — with each exam passed. Credentialed associates (ASA/ACAS) typically land in the $120,000 to $160,000 range, and fellows (FSA/FCAS) frequently reach $160,000 to $220,000+, with chief actuaries, consulting principals, and pricing leads higher still, often with meaningful bonuses.
- What pushes you up the band: each exam passed (the dominant driver), ASA/FSA or ACAS/FCAS credentialing, predictive-modeling and programming depth (R, Python, SQL), a specialty in demand (P&C pricing, IFRS 17, health), and a record of analysis that changed a rate, reserve, or capital decision.
- What anchors the number: exam count and credential, line of business (consulting and reinsurance often pay above), location, and whether you own pricing or reserving end to end or mainly support it.
Common actuary resume mistakes
Frequently asked questions
Lead with your exam progress — the exams you've passed (for example Exam P/Probability and Exam FM/Financial Mathematics) and the dates you're sitting the next ones, because employers screen on exams before anything else. Add a math, statistics, or actuarial-science degree, your VEE credits, and the tools you can use: Excel, R, Python, SQL, and SAS. Then show applied work — an internship, a modeling or data project, or a case competition — and quantify it, for example "built a GLM in R that improved loss-ratio prediction by 9%." Two passed exams plus an internship makes a credible entry-level actuarial analyst resume.
List every preliminary exam you've passed, by its standard name and number — Exam P, Exam FM, and the current SOA or CAS sequence — plus the date and status of the next exam you're sitting. Put this near the top in its own clearly labeled section, because recruiters and hiring managers filter on exam count first. Include your designation progress (ASA, ACAS, FSA, FCAS) and VEE credits. Exam progress is the single strongest signal on an actuarial resume, so never bury it at the bottom.
Advanced Excel is universal, including VBA for pricing and reserving models. Beyond that, employers increasingly want a programming or statistical language — R, Python, SQL, and SAS lead — plus predictive modeling and generalized linear models (GLMs). Domain modeling tools matter by line of business: Prophet, AXIS, or MoSes in life and health; reserving and pricing platforms and triangle methods in P&C. Knowledge of statutory/GAAP and IFRS 17 reporting, ASOPs, and the relevant regulatory framework rounds out a strong technical profile.
Use a single-column, reverse-chronological layout with standard headings, and mirror the exact terms from the posting — write pricing, reserving, GLM, predictive modeling, and the named software the way the job description does. Keep a dedicated exams section with the standard exam names so a keyword search for "Exam P" or "FSA" matches. Spell out and abbreviate credentials once, for example "Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA)," so both forms are caught. Save as a text-based PDF unless the posting asks for .docx, and avoid tables, columns, and text boxes that parsers scramble.
In the United States most actuaries earn roughly $90,000 to $180,000, with a national median near $120,000 based on BLS data. Entry-level analysts with one or two exams commonly start around $65,000 to $85,000, and pay rises sharply with each exam passed. Credentialed associates (ASA/ACAS) typically earn $120,000 to $160,000, and fellows (FSA/FCAS) often reach $160,000 to $220,000 or more, with chief actuaries and consultants higher still. Exam-based raises and bonuses are a defining feature of actuarial compensation.
Show sitting dates for exams you're currently registered for, because employers want to see active, steady progress and offer exam support and paid study time. List the exam name and the upcoming sitting, for example "Exam FAM — sitting October 2026." You don't need to list study hours. If you have a gap in exam progress, be ready to explain it, but consistent forward momentum — roughly one or two passes per year — is exactly the trajectory hiring managers look for.
They share a foundation but signal different stacks. A property-casualty (P&C) actuary's resume centers on the CAS exam track, loss reserving and triangle methods, ratemaking and pricing, GLMs, and lines like auto, homeowners, and workers' compensation. A life and health actuary's resume centers on the SOA track, valuation and reserving, mortality and morbidity assumptions, modeling platforms such as Prophet or AXIS, product pricing, and frameworks like IFRS 17 and statutory reserving. Lead with the exam track, software, and lines of business that match the role you're targeting.
Don't want to do this alone?
A great resume gets you parsed and gets your exam count noticed. It doesn't get you in front of the chief actuary or pricing manager who owns the role — and actuarial hiring is a small, relationship-driven world where the strongest hires often come through a referral or a recruiter who already knows the team. That's where Marqee comes in. We're a Career Concierge: a real person runs your job search, tailors your resume to each actuarial posting and line of business, reaches the hiring manager directly, and finds a referral inside the company so you skip the pile. You stop spending nights filling out forms and start showing up to interviews.
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