This guide is for actuarial analysts, credentialed actuaries and exam-track students applying to insurers, health plans and consulting firms. It shows you how to present exam progress, pick keywords for your practice area, and turn model work into bullets with financial impact.
Keyword match
Actuary, Commercial Lines
4/6must-have skills
Found on your resume
Missing
JORDAN REYES, ACAS
Hartford, CT · jordan.reyes@email.com · linkedin.com/in/jordan-reyes
Summary
Commercial P&C reserving actuary, 6 years on workers' comp and excess liability. Runs quarterly reserve reviews on a $1.4B book and turns indications into booking recommendations.
1Skills
Loss reserving · Chain ladder / BF / Cape Cod · Schedule P · GAAP & STAT · SQL · Python · R · Arius · Power BI
2Experience
Assistant Actuary (promoted from Sr. Actuarial Analyst, 2023) Harborline Mutual Insurance · 2020–Present
3Practice area, lines of business and book size in the first line tell a reserving manager this person does their kind of work.
Summary examplesMethods (chain ladder, Bornhuetter-Ferguson), a regulatory deliverable (Schedule P) and code mirror how P&C reserving postings word their requirements.
Keywords and skillsA promotion shown inside one employer signals the firm trusted this person with more scope.
The analysis ends in a booked reserve change, the outcome a reserving function exists to get right.
Bullet pointsDesignation, year earned and a dated next exam answer the first screening question: where are you on the exam path?
CertificationsMany employers expect entry-level candidates to have passed one or two exams before graduation; at mid level, the question becomes how close you are to ASA/ACAS or fellowship. Put your designation after your name.
Life, health, P&C and retirement run on different regulations, software and vocabulary. "Insurance analytics" with no line of business makes the reader guess, and most won't.
Actuarial work ends in a number someone books, files or pays: a reserve, a rate, a bid, a contribution. Show what moved.
Postings across practice areas commonly pair Excel and VBA with SQL, Python or R. Show what you automated or rebuilt.
Analysts run, validate and document. Mid-level actuaries own a process, like a quarterly valuation or rate indication. Senior actuaries set assumptions, sign opinions and manage teams, regulators and auditors.
(word them for your practice area)
Use only the true ones: "supported the appointed actuary" fits a mid-level resume; "served as appointed actuary" is senior.
Soft skills
Skip "strong communicator" and write the bullet that proves it: "presented the rate indication to underwriting leadership and revised the filing after their review."
Actuarial analyst candidate with SOA Exams P, FM and FAM passed and a B.S. in Statistics. During a 10-week health plan internship, built a SQL claims-lag table that fed the monthly IBNR estimate for the commercial block. Targeting health pricing or reserving roles; sitting Exam SRM in May 2027.
Why it works: Exams come first, and the internship is described by a real actuarial deliverable, not coursework.
ASA with 5 years in individual life and annuity valuation, currently owning quarterly VM-20 reserve production for a $3.8B universal life block. Moved two legacy blocks into AXIS and wrote the LDTI assumption-update memo reviewed by external auditors. Two FSA courses completed.
Why it works: Framework, platform and block size tell a valuation manager exactly where you'd fit.
FCAS, MAAA pricing leader with 13 years in personal auto and homeowners. Directs a 9-person team producing rate indications in 22 states on $1.9B of written premium. Rebuilt the auto class plan using GBM-informed GLMs and took filings through regulator objections in prior-approval states.
Why it works: Team size, premium and regulatory accountability separate a pricing leader from a strong individual contributor.
WeakResponsible for data preparation for the annual lapse study.
StrongCleaned and reconciled 4.2M policy-year exposure records in SQL for the annual lapse study, resolving 1,380 admin-system mismatches before assumptions went to committee.
What changed: Volume, tool and downstream decision show the work mattered.
WeakHelped with monthly IBNR calculations.
StrongRan the monthly completion-factor IBNR model for a 287,000-member Medicare Advantage block and flagged a pharmacy claims-lag shift that changed the estimate by $2.7M.
What changed: A named method, the population size and a specific catch replace "helped."
WeakWorked on pension valuations for clients.
StrongCompleted IRC 430 funding and ASC 715 accounting valuations in ProVal for 14 defined benefit plans with $860M in combined liabilities, delivering every report before the client's disclosure deadline.
What changed: Regulatory basis, software, caseload and liability size show readiness.
WeakBuilt pricing models for homeowners.
StrongRebuilt the homeowners GLM in Emblem with 9 new rating variables, supporting a +6.8% rate filing approved in 5 states and improving the projected loss ratio by 2.3 points.
What changed: The model now connects to an approved rate change and a loss ratio result.
WeakConverted models to AXIS.
StrongConverted 3 ULSG blocks from spreadsheet models to AXIS for VM-20 deterministic and stochastic reserves, cutting quarterly run time from 26 hours to 9.
What changed: Product, framework and time saved show the conversion's value.
WeakLed the Medicare Advantage bid process.
StrongLed bid development for 11 Medicare Advantage plans covering 184,000 members, signed the actuarial certifications, and brought 2025 plan-year margin within 0.4 points of target.
What changed: Scale, sign-off and a result against plan show senior ownership.
WeakManaged the reserving team and handled year-end opinions.
StrongManaged a 6-person reserving team and issued the NAIC Statement of Actuarial Opinion for 3 statutory entities with $2.1B in carried reserves, presenting the reserve range and risk of material adverse deviation to the audit committee each year.
What changed: Headcount, regulatory sign-off and board-level communication define senior scope.
SOA Exam P (Probability), passed November 2025.SOA Exam SRM, sitting May 2027.SOA Exam LTAM, passed October 2021 (ALTAM credit). Check the transition charts before you write it, because some partial FAM credit lapsed in July 2024."Passed 4 actuarial exams" gives no names or dates.
Fixlist each exam by its current official name with month and year, and add your next sitting.
"Issued the actuarial opinion" when you prepared the exhibits. Opinions are subject to qualification standards, and interviewers will probe.
Fix"Prepared reserve exhibits for the appointed actuary's Statement of Actuarial Opinion."
"Valuation work" could mean life reserves or pension liabilities.
Fixname the line of business and framework in your summary and each role.
"Ran quarterly valuation models" describes a task, not a result.
Fixadd what changed: reserve movement, filed rate, run time saved or an error caught.
Python, R, SAS and Prophet with no bullet that uses them reads like coursework.
Fixtie each major tool to a bullet, and drop tools you haven't used since school.
One page for students and analysts with under three years of experience. Two pages is fine for credentialed actuaries with several roles to show.
No. List the exams you've passed and the next one you're registered for.
Not to start. Enrollment requires certified pension actuarial experience, so analysts typically pass the EA exams while building that experience on the job. If you're on the path, list the EA exams you've passed with dates.
Show the result with a one-line entry such as "Full-time exam study, Jan–Aug 2026: passed FAM and SRM," so the gap reads as progress rather than time off.
Use figures that show scale without revealing confidential results: rounded block sizes, percentage changes, time saved. Many states make rate filings viewable online, but what's public varies by state, and internal work such as reserve studies and bid results isn't part of those filings. Check your employer's confidentiality policy first.
Paste a job ad and get a fit score, the keywords you're missing and the one thing to fix first.
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