Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • May 2016
05

Soft skills scuppered

Open-access content Tuesday 3rd May 2016 — updated 5.50pm, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Derek Cribb makes some very interesting observations in his article: Through The Actuarial Looking Glass


Derek Cribb makes some very interesting observations in his article: Through The Actuarial Looking Glass, The Actuary, March (bit.ly/21x1UoI). I share his concerns about promoting the actuarial skillset and getting actuaries into more diverse fields. I can't help thinking, though, that rather than trying to convince others of our 'extra-actuarial' worth, we should start by convincing ourselves of it.

Let's be honest - actuaries are lousy recruiters. A valuation actuary is great at assessing another valuation actuary's skillsets and experience, as is a pensions actuary able to assess another pensions actuary. But actuaries that are able to assess others that don't look and smell exactly like themselves are hard to find. Similarly, there's no point telling us we need to sell our softer skills to the wider world if we're no good at spotting them among ourselves. I, for one, am not surprised that the supremacy of 'traditional' skillsets perpetuates.

Not so long ago, I was interviewed for a job that said it required international experience (which I have in abundance). I thought that cultural skills, empathy, appreciation of the difficulties of non-native-English speakers deciphering the gobbledegook most of us speak, and so on, would be vital for the role. I asked the interviewer (who had no international experience) which aspects of international experience he considered the most important. 

He replied: "It's not important at all... they have to do things our way". His reply astonished me and, needless to say, I didn't get the job. It's people like him we should work on first, not HR executives.

In another recent interview with an insurer, I was told that my wider business experience made me valuable and that my being an actuary was "an added bonus" - the fact that the interviewer even felt he had to separate the two is very telling.


Lee Faulkner FIA

29 March 2016

This article appeared in our May 2016 issue of The Actuary.
Click here to view this issue
Filed in
05

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Environmental, Social and Governance- GI Actuary

England, London
£70000 - £170000 per annum
Reference
145888

Calling All Australian Actuaries

England, London
£50000 - £120000 per annum
Reference
145887

Calling all GI Actuaries looking to move into contracting

England, London
£700 - £1000 per day
Reference
145886
See all jobs »
 
 

Today's top reads

 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ