Normally I would just search Actuarial Outpost, but given that 2020 has claimed it as another victim…
Do you have any advice for submitting an EA application? This will be my first application, but I’m hoping to minimize necessary follow ups and of course hoping to have my application accepted. I’m especially wondering about describing “IN DETAIL” my actual duties and responsibilities, in addition to providing the proportion of the “total period” (of employment in the actuarial industry? Or of “responsible actuarial experience”?) attributable to each duty.
I’m just hoping to find out if there are any known no-no’s, I guess.
does your employer have a template or a folder of old essays? If so, that would likely be helpful.
I applied, but haven’t been approved yet. Make sure you are specific as to how many times you did each type of project you list (i.e. performed pension valuations 50 times in your career, etc), what percentage of time was devoted to it, and the exact steps you took. Also, indicate if you were the doer of work or the checker/reviewer of work.
I think focusing on setting assumptions and your role in helping the signing actuary to set assumptions is important. I mostly focused on the valuation process, but also listed “special projects”. I gave more details on the valuation process than other projects I did, otherwise, this essay would be never ending. For the valuation process, I described in detail what I do, even the mundane stuff that they should automatically know about (i.e. processing data, asking data questions, running the liabilities, checking testlives, etc). My primary role is valuations though. If yours isn’t, you probably shouldn’t focus on that.
I don’t think my employer has anything like that, but I’ll ask around (and suggest they start something like that if they don’t have it). Your advice is really helpful, as I’m not sure I would have included those kinds of details. It makes sense given they put “IN DETAIL” in caps. I primarily work on valuations, so I anticipate I will do something similar to what you did. Thanks, ao_fan!