Ideal Technical Skills for Future Actuaries
Date
2021-05
Authors
Ervin, Kailee
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Nguyen, Xuan
Committee Member
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Abstract
In Fall 2019, the new actuarial science undergraduate major was added to the Ivy College of Business. However, the requirements for the major lack technical skills at the level expected of future actuaries. This project looked to answer two questions: First, what are the specific technical skills recruiters look for in their ideal actuarial intern or entry-level hire? Second, what classes should an actuarial science student at Iowa State take in order to develop their technical skills to a level preferred by recruiting companies? A total of 10 companies were chosen because of their previous interest in recruitment at Iowa State for actuarial science, and they were surveyed about their technical skill preferences for their interns and entry-level hires. As a result of the survey, classes like DS 201 and STAT 486 were chosen to be the best fit in the level of technical experience in an actuarial internship. These classes were selected based on their ability to teach technical skills in one of the top programming languages determined from the survey, demonstrate one’s capability to work with little supervision, and provide an opportunity to practice clearly communicating technical results.
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