While she was still in sixth form, Rebecca Weare attended a careers fair presentation about becoming an actuary. The speaker led by saying that becoming an actuary would need at least a 2:1 in a numerate degree.
Most of the audience promptly switched off. Rebecca, on the other hand, was immediately interested.
“Maths was my favourite subject at school,” she says. “So I thought an actuarial career sounded really interesting.
“I went to Oxford, studied mathematics and got my master's degree. In my penultimate year I got an internship at Zurich Insurance. The work was interesting, the team was great and they were lovely enough to offer me a graduate role, which I took in September 2020.”
The structured nature of the actuarial career was, Rebecca adds, a huge help during a time when the world was turned upside down.
“It was a weird start to my career, working remotely during lockdown, but I was grateful for the security,” she says. “I was also really attracted to the structure. It’s very clear what you need to do to progress in an actuarial career.
“It was great to have that while the world was in chaos.”
Rebecca now works as a marine pricing actuary at MS Amlin, meaning her day-to-day role is very mathematical, which suits her despite its challenges.
“One of the biggest challenges is that you never have all the data,” she says. “I think that has always and will always be the case. Things are improving as technology improves, but I don't think we'll ever reach a point where there's perfect data all the time.
“So as actuaries, we use our professional judgement to decide the value we can get from the data we have, and how to bridge the gap of what's missing. We think about the assumptions we can make, and how to reach a conclusion when we don't have all the answers.”
Fortunately Rebecca, in common with most actuaries, loves solving problems. “I like to get stuck in with the raw numbers,” she says. “My favourite parts of the day are when I can just get my head down and focus on solving something.”
“If people are interested in mathematics and they’re interested in a professional career, being an actuary is a fantastic option. And hopefully the term Chartered Actuary says a bit more about it.” – Rebecca Weare, Chartered Actuary (Fellow)
One of the biggest problems Rebecca has solved to date involved pricing a large renewable energy construction account. “It was mostly about insurance for constructing wind farms around coastal Europe,” she says.
“Hundreds of objects, hundreds of variables. Plus the renewable energy sector is still developing. We don't have the claims experience data that we have for other sectors. But we still had to find a way to come up with a sensible price that would allow us to write the business.
“I opted for exposure analysis rather than experience analysis. I built some visualisations to plot where all the sites were going to be and look at their exposure to windstorms, natural disasters and so on. The underwriters were really on board, so we were able to write the business.”
As someone who often works in the wider European sphere, Rebecca feels there’s value in chartered status. “European underwriters can be less familiar with actuaries as a concept,” she says. “I'm hoping that they'll be more familiar with the concept of ‘chartered’. I'm hoping it will give a little bit of extra oomph to my title.”
Rebecca also feels chartered designation could help improve understanding and expectations from people considering their career options. Going back to that career day from her sixth form, she recalls the impact of the presenter’s opening statement.
“I just saw 95% of the room switch off, because they suddenly realised this wasn't for them,” she says. “Had the title of the talk included ‘chartered actuary’, it might have drawn a more appropriate audience.
“If people are interested in mathematics and they're interested in a professional career, being an actuary is a fantastic option. And hopefully Chartered Actuary says a bit more about it.”
We’ll be sharing member stories from around the world on a regular basis, so keep an eye out for updates. If you’ve chosen to adopt Chartered Actuary status, or if you’ve employed an actuary who is helping to transform your organisation, we’d love to hear from you.
