It has been 38 years since I attained Associateship of the Society of Actuaries (ASA) at the age of 22.
After my ASA, I went on to receive my Fellowships from both the UK and the US actuarial societies and qualified as a chartered financial analyst working in seven countries and nine cities.
So, for whatever it may be worth, here is some advice I’ve learned from my 38 years as an actuary that I wish someone had given me when I was 22.
The Indispensable Quality: A Growth Mindset
If there is one quality that will determine your success as an actuary, it is this: a growth mindset. In a profession defined by constant change, the ability to learn, adapt and persevere is not just valuable—it is essential.
In her groundbreaking book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck illustrates what this looks like in practice. An elite ballet company selects its dancers not by who performs best during their try-out solos, but by who shows the most improvement after feedback. NASA recruits astronauts by asking candidates to share their biggest failures and how they bounced back. Both organizations understand that raw talent is not enough. What matters is the capacity to grow.[1]
Dweck defines the two mindsets simply. In a fixed mindset, people believe their abilities are static traits; their goal is to look smart and never appear dumb. In a growth mindset, people understand that abilities can be developed through effort, learning and persistence.
My favorite growth mindset heroes are Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs. Jordan's genius wasn’t that he changed the game—he changed with the game. Jobs never rested on his laurels. Talent can get you to the top, but an evolving growth mindset keeps you there.
Why This Matters for Actuaries
The actuarial profession has always attracted growth-oriented individuals. But the mindset required to navigate a career is tested long after the exams are done. When I failed my first exam, I was devastated. But you learn to pick yourself up and start over. In the UK, Fellowship exams were offered once a year, giving you 12 months to ponder failure. Worse, syllabi changed constantly; you could not simply take a “refresher”—the material was often completely new. Fixed mindsets groaned; growth mindsets embraced the challenge.
That same dynamic plays out throughout your career. The only constant for actuaries is change. Compare today’s challenges—low interest rates, longevity risk, big data, climate modeling, AI integration—to those of 20 years ago. The landscape is unrecognizable. Fixed mindset actuaries become yesterday’s news. Those who grow remain relevant.
Strengthening Your Growth Mindset
The great news from Dweck’s research: you can change. The first step is recognizing the difference in mindsets. How you interpret challenges, setbacks and criticism is your choice. Unhappiness often stems from believing your circumstances are permanent. Those with a growth mindset believe tomorrow could be the best day of their lives. Shifting perspective is possible—and perseverance is the key.
You Are Always Being Interviewed
Most people think the interview process stops once they receive a job offer. Wrong! Yes, enjoy the moment and celebrate—but be aware this is only the beginning.
You will be evaluated continuously—by your boss, your boss’s boss, Human Resources, Marketing, IT, Compliance—in the workplace, at office parties and through your online activities. Career competition is both tough and subjective.
In order to stand out positively, you need to demonstrate that you have qualities that make you unique from the rest of your colleagues (both actuarial and nonactuarial). In his excellent article “What I Wish I Knew Then,” former Society of Actuaries (SOA) president Tim Rozar identifies the qualities that make candidates stand out.[2] When interviewing, he looks for the following:
- Communication skills: people who can speak with confidence before any audience and make complex concepts accessible to nontechnical listeners
- Leadership: people who can lead themselves and show the potential to lead others
- Diversity of thought: people who bring unique life experiences, backgrounds and perspectives
- Sense of urgency: people personally driven to get things done; an innate trait that cannot be taught
To these, I add one simple but powerful practice: punctuality. Always arrive five minutes early for internal and external meetings. It signals respect, preparation and reliability. Do this consistently, and you will already stand out from the crowd.
My advice for developing soft skills echoes Rozar’s closing thoughts: hang out with people who inspire you, pick up books outside your comfort zone. Basically, open yourself to new experiences.
Seek Out Mentors
Mentors teach us stuff and help us avoid making the same mistakes they made. And it is amazing how willing most people are to be mentors. It is an honor when someone asks me for advice because it makes me feel like I must have something worth sharing. I have been very fortunate to have a lot of great mentors and bosses over the years who have, perhaps unconsciously, steered my career to where it is today by telling me anecdotes of their personal career journeys, which have invariably impacted the decisions I’ve made.
What do I look for in a mentor? I want someone who has achieved at least a modicum of success in their career but who has also overcome their share of adversity. I want people who are different from me, who challenge the way I think. I want people who are accessible, willing and available, because it doesn’t do any good to have a mentor you can’t actually approach or talk to. And I want someone who is a good storyteller, because in the end it is the stories we remember.
Make Sure You’re Always Running Toward Something
In other words, be so excited about the opportunity in front of you that you can't wait to arrive at the office each morning. That is the feeling you should chase.
Don’t leave a job merely because things feel crappy: salary below market, an annoying boss, difficult colleagues or unpleasant responsibilities. Every workplace has crappy moments. Every organization has people who earn more than you. Frustration is universal; genuine opportunity is not.
The key is having defined goals. This doesn’t mean you can’t change them; evolving is part of the journey. But the ability to project yourself forward, to see clearly where you’re headed and to stay the course when things get uncomfortable—that is what separates those who build meaningful careers from those who simply bounce from one disappointment to another.
Run toward something, not away from everything.
It’s Better to Be Fast and Wrong Than Slow and Wrong
Almost everything we deliver is wrong—at least the first time. By “wrong,” I mean that your initial version will always need revision before it’s considered final. The actuary who delivers the perfect product to Marketing, the perfect year-end reserve to the chief actuary or the perfect underwriting forecast to the chief financial officer has not yet been born. When you deliver a project for the first time, expect calibrations. The sooner you release your “wrong” work, the sooner you receive feedback to produce version 2.0. Bottom line: never miss a deadline. Cultivate a reputation for timeliness. In a profession prone to analysis paralysis, being known as the person who always delivers will make you stand out.
This lesson was reinforced for me at the start of the New York City Marathon, while I was waiting with thousands of other runners. I struck up a conversation with a stranger from Fidelity. When he learned I was an actuary, he vented about how long we take to deliver anything. Then he asked, “How long did it take to build the Empire State Building in 1930?” The answer: one year and 45 days. His point was unmistakable. Actuaries can take ages to deliver seemingly routine projects, lacking any sense of urgency, but a skyscraper can be constructed in 14 months.
Use the Empire State Building test: When you see that your estimated timeline to deliver a new product, revised pricing basis or proposal to adapt to new accounting standards is going to take longer than the time it took to build the Empire State Building, give yourself a reality check. Is your project really that complicated?
As Jeff Bezos observed, “Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.”[3]
Be an Active Volunteer
I actively volunteer for the SOA and encourage others to do the same. Volunteering builds self-esteem, expands your network, builds diverse teamwork skills and lets you step outside your daily role.
It also puts money in perspective. As Jerry Seinfeld observed, “Dogs have no money. Isn’t that amazing? They’re broke their entire lives. But they get through. You know why dogs have no money? No pockets.”[4]
Salary and bonuses are wonderful; they provide a comfortable life. But volunteering reminds us that fulfillment doesn’t depend solely on a paycheck. We were happy solving math problems in high school—for free.
Volunteering has no downside, only upsides.
Closing Comments: The Future of Actuarial Science
All the advice I’ve shared has served me well across four decades. But here is the truth I cannot ignore: the actuarial career I entered at 22 no longer exists. The career you are building today will look completely different tomorrow. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not coming; it’s here, and it will fundamentally reshape everything we do.
The SOA’s recent report “Actuarial Mindsets for Leading in the AI Era: An Expert Panel Discussion” offers a deep exploration of this very topic—examining the mindsets and qualities actuaries will need as AI becomes embedded in our workflows. Its conclusions align closely with everything I’ve discussed: judgment, ethics, intellectual humility and critical thinking are not optional extras but core professional requirements in an AI-augmented world.[5]
Routine quantitative work—experience studies, pricing models, reserving calculations, capital simulations—will be dominated by AI. These are pattern-recognition problems, which is exactly where AI excels. When every actuary has access to the same AI-powered models, competitive advantage can no longer come from running calculations faster. It must come from something AI cannot replicate: judgment.
The future actuary will evolve from a technical calculator into a strategic risk advisor. Our distinctive value will shift toward interpreting ambiguity: assessing emerging risks, evaluating model limitations, understanding regulatory implications and translating technical analysis into business decisions that executives and boards actually use.
The profession will polarize. On one end, actuaries who mainly perform routine calculations will face mounting pressure as AI handles these tasks faster and cheaper. On the other end, actuaries who combine technical depth with strategic insight, strong communication and business acumen will become more valuable than ever—challenging AI outputs, detecting hidden biases and guiding organizations through uncertainty. The vast middle ground of competent but purely technical actuaries will shrink. The choice is stark: compete with machines on efficiency or partner with them to deliver higher-order judgment. Only the latter path is sustainable.
Increasingly, actuaries will supervise AI rather than compete with it. We will become the professionals responsible for validating and governing AI-driven risk analysis—the humans who ensure machines do not run astray.
The core competitive advantage will no longer be the ability to run models but the ability to understand when models are wrong, incomplete or misleading. The actuarial profession is moving from model builders and calculators toward risk interpreters, AI validators and strategic advisors. The technical foundation remains essential—you cannot validate what you do not understand—but it will no longer be the primary differentiator.
That is a future worth preparing for.
This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Neither the Society of Actuaries nor the respective authors’ employers make any endorsement, representation or guarantee with regard to any content, and disclaim any liability in connection with the use or misuse of any information provided herein. This article should not be construed as professional or financial advice. Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries or the respective authors’ employers.
Ronald Poon-Affat, FSA, FIA, MAAA, CFA, HIBA, is an independent board director, cross-continental actuary and senior consultant. Ronald can be reached at rpoonaffat@gmail.com.
Endnotes
[1] Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Random House, 2006).
[2] Tim Rozar, “What I Wish I Knew Then,” Actuary of the Future, July 2020, https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/library/newsletters/actuary-of-the-future/2020/july/aof-2020-07-rozar.pdf.
[3] Amazon Staff, “2016 Letter to Shareholders,” Amazon News, April 17, 2017, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2016-letter-to-shareholders.
[4] Jerry Seinfeld, LifeHack, n.d., https://quotes.lifehack.org/quotes/jerry_seinfeld_47844.
[5] Ronald L. Poon Affat, “Actuarial Mindsets for Leading in the AI Era: An Expert Panel Discussion,” Society of Actuaries, January 2026, https://www.soa.org/resources/research-reports/2026/actuarial-ai-mindsets-leadership/.