Five things I learnt in the last two years of being an actuarial consultant

Today, I complete the two most exciting years of my life as an actuarial consultant. Apart from many things, I have lived more, earned a lot more and learnt even more. As I look back and retrospect, the following five learnings stand out!

1. When nothing is certain, anything is possible

If I were to summarize my journey of the last 2 years, the above quote by Mandy Hale would possibly be the best way of describing it.

When I started, I had plans to focus on a certain type of traditional role and live a happy comfortable life. However, my first assignment of helping an InsurTech has completely changed the focus area of what I do as an actuarial consultant. And in two years time, I can boast of helping half-a-dozen InsurTechs across the globe.

An introvert, who would choke while addressing about 10 people in a small room is now a “speaker” who gets invited to prestigious conferences. Earlier this year, I had an honour of addressing over 700 highly qualified audience from 15 nationalities!

And thanks to team fidentiaX, the childhood dream of being on TV got fulfilled too!

2. Qualification gets your foot in the door, articulation gets you client and delivery gets you more clients

Being an actuary with over a decade of experience and have worked with big names certainly helped me in getting into the first level of discussions with many clients. However, what worked for me was the fact that I could paraphrase the problem statement and propose high-level solutions fairly quickly. And in a language that was suited to the client. The good work not only ensured that the client stayed for long but also resulted in many more clients.

A happy client keeps you happy by helping you get more clients!

3. A week has 7 days and a day has 24 hours

Before I started on my own, days (and hence the life) were neatly divided into boxes. While having a structure is great, a lot of effort also goes into “protecting” the structure. For example, one would want to finish everything by Friday so that weekends are free. However, this also implies the life is “lived” during the weekends and the rest of the days are meant for slogging.

When you are a consultant, you don’t have Monday blues nor you suffer from frinits. Every day is equally exciting and challenging at the same time!

4. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no!

In the last 24 months, I have done some crazy kinds of stuff. Most of these I would have not even have dreamt of before I started on my own. The most recent of these include walking into a newly opened cafe and selling my actuarial skills to help them design and price a package of co-working space that offers unlimited coffee!

5. Being visible is as important as knowing your stuff!

If you don’t have skills, there is no point showing off. But if you have picked a few skills over a period of time, the world needs to know! The way I generally put it

You might be a genius but it is of little consequence if the world doesn’t know!

By the way, the quote above also explains why I chose to sleep a little lesser tonight and do this article!