Por Ben Marshall
I have had a long and enjoyable career as an actuary. The actuarial profession has given me a wide variety of important benefits, such as strong compensation, intellectual stimulation, numerous deep friendships, influence on important decisions, career prestige, and even international portability!
If you asked me to identify the key drivers that make these benefits from the actuarial profession possible, at the top of the list would be “being a part of a professional community.” Why is this so important? The answer lies with what is meant by a “profession.”
Doctors, lawyers, accountants – all of these are part of other professions, and all of them enjoy professional benefits that are similar to those enjoyed by actuaries. Why do they have these benefits? Each one is a member of a community that’s based on their profession. A ”profession” is defined by several important characteristics:
- Membership starts with a rigorous credentialing or qualification process that’s required to practice in the profession. This process gives stakeholders confidence in the member’s professional knowledge and abilities, and it leads to strong compensation for members.
- Each community provides requirements and/or opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) after becoming a member. The content of this CPD ensures that members’ knowledge and abilities continue to grow with changes in professional practices and the business environment, leading to career prestige. Participation with others in CPD activities often also gives opportunities for developing numerous deep friendships, as does the work of the actuary with others in the workplace.
- Each member is bound by a professional code of conduct for guidance on professional ethics, and perhaps by standards of practice and/or practice guidance for specified activities in the member’s ongoing work as a professional. There is also a professional discipline process for violations of the code or standards of practice. All of these mechanisms give assurance that members are acting in their stakeholders’ best interests, not in their own self-interest, which provides the actuary greater influence on important decisions being made by their stakeholders.
An actuary is part of a global profession, but the actuary’s professional community is determined by the actuarial organization(s) in which the actuary is a member. My career journey has led to my primary professional membership being in the internationally portable Society of Actuaries (SOA), but I also belong to the national actuarial associations in Canada and the United States. I encourage all actuaries and aspiring actuaries to consider becoming members of both the SOA and the national actuarial association for their country(ies) of practice, such as la Sociedad Argentina de Actuarios (SAAC) in Argentina!
Ben Marshall, Regional Director, Americas, for the Society of Actuaries (SOA)