Top 50 Actuary Interview Questions
Question 1 of 60
Tell me about a time when you had to work hard to achieve your goals?
List of Actuary Interview Questions
- Tell me about a time when you had to work hard to achieve your goals?
- How do you deal with difficult people?
- What makes you like numbers? When did you realize you enjoyed math?
- Why do you want to be an Actuary?
- What classes did you like most in college?
- How did you hear about actuarial science?
- Describe in detail your recent actuarial/excel projects?
- Describe a situation in life that portrays your communication skills?
- What are your goals in life?
- What was your least favorite college course?
- How many gas stations are their in Florida?
- What is your favorite part about statistics?
- What was your biggest mistake in your past job?
- Did you have any jobs while in school?
- How much do you want to make?
- Tell me about a time when you had to work hard to achieve your goals?
- Where did you grow up? Why did you leave there?
- Tell me about your computer skills.
- Tell me about a time when you had to work in a group?
- Do you follow up on current events? What is your favorite news source?
- What was your greatest accomplishment in your past job?
- Have you take any exams?
- What area of the actuarial field are you looking at?
- Tell me about a situation in which you persuaded a large group of people to change their course of action?
- What is your ideal company to work for like?
- Describe a recent important decision you've made?
- What type of work do you like to do best?
- What do you know about our company?
- Do you plan on taking any more actuarial exams in the future?
- How do you keep on learning features on computer programs, such as excel?
- When can you start?
- What distinguishes you from twenty other people who can do the same tasks you can?
- What do you do in your free time?
- Tell me why I should hire you over all of these applicants?
- Where did you grow up? Why did you leave there?
- How much do you want to make?
- Tell me about a time when you had to work in a group?
- Do you follow up on current events? What is your favorite news source?
- What are your goals in life?
- What do you do in your free time?
- Tell me why I should hire you over all of these applicants?
- How familiar are you in Access?
- How familiar are you with Excel? If I asked you to take a competency exam in Excel, would you be okay with it?
- What languages can you program in?
- What classes did you like most in college?
- Tell me about your computer skills.
- How many gas stations are their in Florida?
- What was your biggest mistake in your past job?
- How familiar are you in Access?
- How familiar are you with Excel? If I asked you to take a competency exam in Excel, would you be okay with it?
- What languages can you program in?
- What makes you like numbers? When did you realize you enjoyed math?
- What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
- What classes did you like most in college?
- What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
- What is your favorite part about statistics?
- Why do you want to be an Actuary?
- Did you have any jobs while in school?
- What was your greatest accomplishment in your past job?
- What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
Actuary Information
August 28th, 2017
Actuaries are finance experts. They usually work in the insurance industry where they are responsible for analyzing the financial burden of risk and uncertainty. They use financial theory, statistics, and mathematics to evaluate the risk of an event occurring. They use their findings to help businesses develop smart policies that minimize the cost of that risk. Within the insurance industry, actuaries specialize in various specific fields including life insurance, health insurance, pension and retirement benefits, or property insurance.
Anyone wishing to pursue a career as an actuary must have a strong background in mathematics, business, and statistics. Coursework in accounting and management, applied statistics, economics, or corporate finance is necessary for certification. Doing an internship is essential in order to grasp the responsibilities of the job. There are several advancement opportunities depending on performance. Actuaries must have excellent analytical, problem-solving, math, communication, and computer skills.
One of the first things your interviewer is likely to ask you is why you chose this particular career path. They will also ask you various questions to test your knowledge of the job and whether you have what it takes to fulfill the many responsibilities of an actuary. Being prepared for your interview will help you answer all questions more confidently. One way to prepare for your upcoming interview is by rehearsing answers to the questions you will see listed at Mock Questions.
Actuaries are finance experts. They usually work in the insurance industry where they are responsible for analyzing the financial burden of risk and uncertainty. They use financial theory, statistics, and mathematics to evaluate the risk of an event occurring. They use their findings to help businesses develop smart policies that minimize the cost of that risk. Within the insurance industry, actuaries specialize in various specific fields including life insurance, health insurance, pension and retirement benefits, or property insurance.
Anyone wishing to pursue a career as an actuary must have a strong background in mathematics, business, and statistics. Coursework in accounting and management, applied statistics, economics, or corporate finance is necessary for certification. Doing an internship is essential in order to grasp the responsibilities of the job. There are several advancement opportunities depending on performance. Actuaries must have excellent analytical, problem-solving, math, communication, and computer skills.
One of the first things your interviewer is likely to ask you is why you chose this particular career path. They will also ask you various questions to test your knowledge of the job and whether you have what it takes to fulfill the many responsibilities of an actuary. Being prepared for your interview will help you answer all questions more confidently. One way to prepare for your upcoming interview is by rehearsing answers to the questions you will see listed at Mock Questions.
Actuary User Submitted Interview Answers
Question 1 of 60
Tell me about a time when you had to work hard to achieve your goals?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
My desire to become an Actuary has by no means been an easy one. It has required me to push myself beyond what I thot possible. It started with my initail pursuit of a degree in Mathematics and Statistics then eventually a diploma in Acturaial Science.
2.
When i was submitting project report for my profeesional exam.
Question 2 of 60
How do you deal with difficult people?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
It depends on the situation. The first question is do I really need to deal with him. If yes then how important is this interaction for me. If it is very important then I try to listen more and speak less. If he is my immediate boss then I would try to figure out what he wants done from me. I would work hard to deliver. If he is just an acquaintance, I wold prefer to go through the interaction without getting very deep into it.
2.
I would communicate with them first and try to explain my opinion and ask for their opinions so that we can try to understand each other better.
3.
I deal with difficult people by listening to their opinions and understanding what they believe, and if I sincerely disagree with them, I will let them know. I try to problem solve for myself in order that we may complete a task.
4.
I am very warm and I try to see where others are coming from. Putting myself in other peoples' shoes makes it much easier to relate and connect with people who may often be labeled as "difficult"
5.
I deal with difficult people by looking at things in their point of view to try to get the task done. Also I will offer suggestions but in the end its about getting the job done.
Question 3 of 60
What makes you like numbers? When did you realize you enjoyed math?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I think it just how I am. Some people like literature, some like biology some like music. I think numbers have a pattern thing to understand and I like figuring out patterns. I started enjoying maths from the time I was in high school. Also, I realized I like combinatorics and probability problems more.
2.
I got it from my mother, she is a maht teacher so I suppose I got my enthusiasm from her.
3.
I realized that I enjoy math since I was in elementary school. My grandparents were high school math teachers and they used an interesting way to teach me such as by telling a story or drawing pictures which may be attractive for me when I was young.
4.
From a young age, I loved math. I know it sounds weird, but I always loved math. Also as I have learned more and more, I have realized that math is black and white. There is a right answer and there is a wrong one; I like that about math. I also enjoy that math is global. Anyone who speaks any language can understand it, and it in fact, allows other cultures to communicate through numbers.
5.
I like numbers because they are concrete. Numbers serve as something that show exact values, which have one interpretation. Usually, there is only one correct answer to something quantitative, whereas in other subjects, there is no wrong answer or there are multiple interpretations to certain reading passages.
I first realized I enjoyed math when I was in eighth grade. After taking pre-algebra for a second time, something about the material "clicked" for me. Soon, after starting integrated algebra in 9th grade as a regular student, I began to take summer math classes in order to accelerate and by the time I was a senior in high school, I was 2 years accelerated and taking Statistics and Mutlivariable Calculus.
Question 4 of 60
Why do you want to be an Actuary?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I was deeply fascinated by actuary profession. From my perspective, it comes down to be the science of financial risk management and control, and how it is applied in the business world to provide financial security to both individuals and institutions, which apparently is much needed in today's ever-changing world. Actuaries participate in high-level business decision-making and solve real problems in every industry.
2.
I want to be an actuary consultant because I enjoy both sides of what an actuary does. I enjoy researching and using quantititative skills to solve problems. But I also like the client and coworker side of the business. Because of my extroverted personality, I always find myself wanting to be around others to work with them. And being an actuary allows me to do both.
3.
I want to be an actuary because I am an analytical thinker. I have a passion for numbers and consistently developing that passion. I believe that risk management will be more important in the future.
4.
I was not sure. While doing my M.S. In Statistics I took courses on Theory of interest and Modelling Life Contingencies. Probability is my favorite any ways. I loved all the curses and did well in them. My professor inspired me a lot and insisted that I choose this as my career path. All these things taken together helped me focus in this career.
5.
I feel being an actuary is the closest I can get to being a wizard in the professional world.
Question 5 of 60
What classes did you like most in college?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I enjoy life contingencies in university because I found that this course may be closer to our life compare to the other courses. For example, we learnt how to calculate premiums and reserves based on specific factors such as age, mortality rate, health status and so on. I worked as an actuarial intern at forsea life insurance in 2014, and I got a chance to assist with product pricing of an endowment insurance. I found that the most useful course would be life contingencies.
2.
I really enjoyed my sociology classes in college because I was able to reevaluate what I see in my everyday life and also see where I can make socioeconomic improvements with my business degree.
3.
In college, the classes I have liked most have been probability and Spanish class. I have a keen interest in language and communicating and learning about other individuals of different cultures. Living in New York, I have been exposed to diversity throughout my whole life, and its an environment that I feel enhances my understanding of my fellow peers around me, but its something that I can also contribute to with my own unique culture.
I have also liked probability class because it was my first exposure to a college math class. Besides the basics of conditional probability in statistics, I had no experience with the language of probability. I was excited to learn this new "language" and see how applicable it could be to life as an actuary.
Question 6 of 60
How did you hear about actuarial science?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
My brother told me.
2.
Actually, I heard about actuarial science from my parents. They read an article from the newspaper which said that actuary was one of the top jobs in United states, and they told me that and I try to do some research on the internet to see what is actuarial science since this was a new term to me.
3.
I heard about actuarial science through this internship. I have taken Statistics for Business 1 and 2 as requirements for my degree, but did not really consider a career until I saw this internship that Fidelity posted.
4.
I heard from my brother.
5.
I heard about actuarial science from my 11th grade math teacher in Calculus BC. She had decided, after finishing the 5 preliminary exams, to pursue teaching. I was able to garner insight from her on why she decided to transition to teaching, and also what she liked about the actuarial career.
Question 7 of 60
Describe in detail your recent actuarial/excel projects?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I really enjoy working with excel and access to solve quantitative problems. I took a class in college Information Technology Management and we learned how to solve financial and accounting problems through excel quickly and efficiently. I know this sounds weird, but I almost found it as a game and thought of it as fun as I worked to beat the clock to solve analytical problems. On excel, we made amortization tables, pivot tables, macros, and formulas to efficiently solve problems.
2.
I worked as an actuarial intern at foresea life insurance. I got a chance to assisted the team with building pricing model of a twenty year endowment insurance. At first we needed to identify the factors which we need to consider in the model such as gender, age, car accident rate, mortality rate and so on. And then we needed to write an actuarial report which demonstrated all the terms and conditions for this product. After that, we built an model in excel as well as with prophet.
3.
So far, I have had a basic excel project in my computer information systems class. We were required to use the AverageIF, SumIf, and GoalSeek functions in addition to pie graphs, pivot tables, and bar graphs in order to determine financial decisions for a specific company.
4.
I trade some of the stocks.
5.
Mortality investigation.
Question 8 of 60
Describe a situation in life that portrays your communication skills?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
One situation where I have showed communication skills is in my most recent job. I currently work for ndigi as the social media person. However, I worked and communicated my boss in order to ensure that he understood the student perspective with the new.
2.
In my last job, most of the time I needed to collaborated with my coworker from the same department as well as different department. For example, by the end of each months, we needed to get all the invoices from the sales department. Most of the time they will not give us the invoice until we call them for many times since they are always very busy.
3.
As a private tutor, I believe that communication is a key aspect which enhances my students' understanding of their material. Since 11th grade, I have been tutoring friends and fellow students on material ranging from simple algebra, to college level Calculus I,II, and III, in addition to statistics and SOA Probability questions. The 10-15 students that I have helped have been able to improve their understanding of class material, and I believe this can only be done with an instructor who is understandable, clear and concise in his responses, and able to communicate various mathematical ideas in multiple ways that could help a student better understand the material they are faced with.
Question 9 of 60
What are your goals in life?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
My goals in life are to be successful in whatever I try, to be a good person in what I say and do, and ultimately be happy.
2.
O My goals in life are to, first and foremost, achieve my personal best. I attended Jericho High school, which is ranked as one of the top 100 high schools in the country. Through their school motto, "Do your personal best," I have strived to do more than I knew I was capable of. I came into high school undirected, but soon began to structure myself in this competitive environment and completed 7 years of mathematics classes in just 4 years of high school. I have so far achieved a 4.0 GPA as a college student and am 3 credits away from junior status. And so much more. I am consistently hard on myself and I strive to accomplish and learn everything that will help me become a diversified business professional.
With this goal, I strive to surround myself in a competitive environment with like-minded individuals. I think at MassMutual, this type of environment would be perfect for me because of its consistent desire to strive for greatness, constant improvement, and coverage for all. I try to place myself in this type of environment since it motivates me to reach my full potential when I am surrounded with other goal-oriented individuals.
Question 10 of 60
What was your least favorite college course?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
My least favorite college course would have to be the general science course - microbes and man - that I had to take freshmen year to fulfill a science requirement.
2.
Mathematics.
Question 11 of 60
How many gas stations are their in Florida?
Question 12 of 60
What is your favorite part about statistics?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
My favorite part of statistics is that through math we can predict what is going to happen. Many people don't think predictions can come true; however, through statistics we can look at the data to come up with a logical and accurate prediction that others think is luck, but there is actually a science behind it.
Question 13 of 60
What was your biggest mistake in your past job?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
During one of my group projects that I worked on, I turned an assignment in late. I told my group that I would handle the final editing and submission; however, I screwed up. I submitted the assignment late. I went to the teacher and explained it was my fault and luckily he was understanding about it.
2.
I’ve made mistakes; though I can’t remember of any mistake at this moment that made any significant impact on me”.
Question 14 of 60
Did you have any jobs while in school?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Yes, I had two jobs during school. One that I am currently working while abroad.
2.
Yes as an attender.
Question 15 of 60
How much do you want to make?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
As a summer analyst, I am looking to cover my housing and have some spare pocket change.
Question 16 of 60
Tell me about a time when you had to work hard to achieve your goals?
Question 17 of 60
Where did you grow up? Why did you leave there?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I grew up in sungai buloh because it was my family house.
Question 18 of 60
Tell me about your computer skills.
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Your computer skills.
Question 19 of 60
Tell me about a time when you had to work in a group?
Question 20 of 60
Do you follow up on current events? What is your favorite news source?
Question 21 of 60
What was your greatest accomplishment in your past job?
Question 22 of 60
Have you take any exams?
Question 23 of 60
What area of the actuarial field are you looking at?
Question 24 of 60
Tell me about a situation in which you persuaded a large group of people to change their course of action?
Question 25 of 60
What is your ideal company to work for like?
Question 26 of 60
Describe a recent important decision you've made?
Question 27 of 60
What type of work do you like to do best?
Question 28 of 60
What do you know about our company?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
It is a compny of 2 year's existance.
Question 29 of 60
Do you plan on taking any more actuarial exams in the future?
Question 30 of 60
How do you keep on learning features on computer programs, such as excel?
Question 31 of 60
When can you start?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Now itself.
Question 32 of 60
What distinguishes you from twenty other people who can do the same tasks you can?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Nothing because I am a hard worker and I am very outgoing and loves to work in groups and get the job done.
2.
Nothing because I am a hard worker and I am very outgoing and loves to work in groups and get the job done.
Question 33 of 60
What do you do in your free time?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
I write for the university newspaper, I also have a part time job as a Student Ambassador and I train in the club Kung Fu black dragon at the university.
Question 34 of 60
Tell me why I should hire you over all of these applicants?
Question 35 of 60
Where did you grow up? Why did you leave there?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
in AP. For beeter life oppurtunities
Question 36 of 60
How much do you want to make?
Question 37 of 60
Tell me about a time when you had to work in a group?
Question 38 of 60
Do you follow up on current events? What is your favorite news source?
Question 39 of 60
What are your goals in life?
Question 40 of 60
What do you do in your free time?
Question 41 of 60
Tell me why I should hire you over all of these applicants?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Just hire me and you will see why.
Question 42 of 60
How familiar are you in Access?
Question 43 of 60
How familiar are you with Excel? If I asked you to take a competency exam in Excel, would you be okay with it?
Question 44 of 60
What languages can you program in?
Question 45 of 60
What classes did you like most in college?
Question 46 of 60
Tell me about your computer skills.
Question 47 of 60
How many gas stations are their in Florida?
Question 48 of 60
What was your biggest mistake in your past job?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Not being analytical.
Question 49 of 60
How familiar are you in Access?
Question 50 of 60
How familiar are you with Excel? If I asked you to take a competency exam in Excel, would you be okay with it?
Question 51 of 60
What languages can you program in?
Question 52 of 60
What makes you like numbers? When did you realize you enjoyed math?
Question 53 of 60
What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
Question 54 of 60
What classes did you like most in college?
Question 55 of 60
What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
Question 56 of 60
What is your favorite part about statistics?
User Submitted Interview Answers
1.
Random walk theory.
Question 57 of 60
Why do you want to be an Actuary?
Question 58 of 60
Did you have any jobs while in school?
Question 59 of 60
What was your greatest accomplishment in your past job?
Question 60 of 60
What organizations did you partake in as a college student?
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