What's your job about?

I’m working as an Actuarial Analyst in the Individual Life division of TAL. In a nutshell, my job involves helping to set prices for ‘retail’ insurance policies—insurance sold through financial advisers. While it sounds simple on the surface, these policies are highly customizable, meaning there can be tens of thousands of unique policies that must be priced both competitively and sustainably. This pricing is a balancing act and involves careful analysis and research.

To achieve this, we use a variety of tools such as Excel, R, and Power BI. However, it’s not all technical—a large part of the job involves discussing findings and potential changes with others on the team and gathering as many opinions as possible. Communication skills are just as important as technical skills, as many decisions are not solely based on objective analysis.

What's your background?

I moved around several different cities (and countries!) while growing up, although most of my time was spent in Newcastle, NSW. During high school, I discovered I had quite an affinity for maths, especially when the problems had real-life relevance and applications. However, I found most high school-level maths very abstract, which dulled my enthusiasm for it. This drove me toward pursuing a degree that combined mathematical concepts with real-world applications.

After much research, a degree called Actuarial Studies sounded like the perfect fit. The only challenge was that it wasn’t offered at my local university, so I had to move to a different city to study it. I decided to take the leap and enrolled in a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies at ANU.

Living independently at university taught me many valuable life skills. During this time, I took on a variety of jobs—some related to my degree, and some completely unrelated. These included working as a university tutor, an intern for the ANU investment office, a data centre security guard, and an after-school care worker. This diverse experience was invaluable for building the soft skills, such as communication, that are essential in my current role.

During my final year of university, I applied online and was accepted into my current graduate role at TAL, which I’ve now been in for around nine months.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I think it’s possible, although some level of mathematical or technical ability would be necessary. The most important skill for my role is logic—not necessarily mathematical logic, but the ability to look at a figure and understand whether it ‘makes sense’ or seems reasonable. This skill is crucial for identifying and resolving the inevitable errors that arise during analysis, and it’s not something unique to an Actuarial Studies degree.

Most industry-relevant knowledge can be learned on the job, although having a baseline understanding of how insurance companies operate is important.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love the open-ended nature of the problems I solve at work. In school and university, technical questions are often limited in scope (to fit into exams). However, in my role, my tasks are often open-ended, requiring multiple days or weeks of problem-solving and analysis.

This could include creating a new dashboard to visualize pricing or conducting a ‘deep dive’ into pricing structures for certain policies to identify potential improvements. I really enjoy the freedom these tasks offer and the chance to use my creative side.

What are the limitations of your job?

The limitations of my role go hand-in-hand with my favorite aspect of it—the large, open-ended problems. While these tasks are enjoyable, they can also be frustrating when you encounter roadblocks.

Open-ended problems can inspire creative solutions, but their lack of clarity can feel overwhelming at times, especially when starting in the role. However, my coworkers and manager are always happy to help when I feel stuck or frustrated with a piece of work.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Apply for jobs sooner rather than later. It’s easy to put off job applications, but starting the process early makes it much easier.
2. Meet people and network. This could include people in your degree, at your university, or in the corporate world through networking events. This is especially valuable if, like me, you don’t have prior exposure to the corporate world through family or friends.
3. Enjoy your time at university! It’s easy to get caught up in academics, but the university experience is about so much more than just studying.