According to the research conducted this year by the specialized site Careercast. com, an authoritative point of reference for the international job market, the best profession in the United States for 2015 is that of the actuary, an increasingly sought-after figure with great prospects in Italy as well.
Actuaries are experts in statistics, applied mathematics, probability, finance and actuarial techniques. Their job, within insurance companies as well as pension institutions, concerns many aspects from the calculation of tariffs to technical provisions, and in any case the assessment of risks.
The American ranking Best Jobs 2015 takes into account all the elements that contribute to generating satisfaction with one's job: the environment, the level of stress, salary, market demand, the potential for improvement in one's position.
“I have never met actuaries who didn't love what they do,” said Tonya B. Manning, chief actuary at Buck Consultant of Xerox in Winston Salem, North Carolina, responding to a request for comment on the number one position the actuarial profession holds in the Careercast 2015 ranking. “I always work with interesting people, what I do every day is different from what I did the day before. And because I love solving problems that benefit society, this is truly a wonderful career."
“Our professional activity – affirms Giampaolo Crenca, President of the National Council of Actuaries – also has a social value. We do things that are not ends in themselves, but that serve the community. A concrete example? We calculate pensions, as well as life insurance premiums.”
Actuaries in Italy
Worldwide there are 80 actuaries, 22 in Europe. In Italy there are over 900, a number which will inevitably grow in the coming years on the wave of the development of the profession linked in particular to risk management in all types of companies, health funds, the evolution of the insurance, social security and financial markets.
Actuaries work both as freelancers and as employees in insurance companies, social security institutions, universities, supervisory institutes such as IVASS (insurance companies) and Covip (pension funds). “In insurance – Giampaolo Crenca is keen to underline – the presence of actuaries is growing more and more compared to the traditional areas of activity. Today we also find actuaries in management, information technology, planning and control. Risk is uncertainty, and actuaries have the tools to evaluate it. For the actuary, risk is a sort of natural habitat”.
The Association of Actuaries has organized an event specifically on the activity of the actuary in the Insurance Companies, aimed at deepening the various professional roles. The appointment is for Tuesday 16 June 2015 in Rome (Swiss Re headquarters in via dei Giuochi Istmici 40, starting at 14,30 pm) with a repeat in Milan on Friday 26 June 2015 (Allianz headquarters in Corso Italia 23, starting at 9,30 am, XNUMX).
For actuaries, the unemployment rate is close to zero: or rather, as the President of the National Council of Actuaries Giampaolo Crenca explains, "the time to find work is very short, and this has been the case for years now". It is frequent the case of graduating students contacted for job offers even before the discussion of the thesis.
What do you study to become actuaries
To become an actuary you need a master's degree in Finance, or in Statistical Sciences, or again in Statistical, Actuarial and Financial Sciences. On the site www.ordineactuari.it you can find the list of all the degree courses active in Italian universities, as well as all the indications on the State Exam for enrollment in the Register.
