Are your salary requirements realistic?

It can be difficult to get perspective on your value in the workplace. Often candidates’ ideas of what they think they should be earning are misaligned with what employers are willing to pay, or what the marketplace will bear.

Wanting to earn more can be a reason to change jobs, but if that’s the only reason, it might mean you need to take a closer and more educated look at the marketplace, your value in it, and your value to your existing employer.

Before you begin, realize that your financial needs are not justification for earning more. Take stock of your experience, not only in terms of years in the industry, but projects and leadership roles that brought value to your employers. If you have accomplishments in your current position such as: money you’ve saved them; models you created; projects you were involved in or spearheaded; results that went beyond your job description, you could use them to ask for an increase. If not, make sure you include them in your next resume.

Knowing what your position with your specialties is worth in your field could be difficult to pinpoint. To assist actuaries, we gather information on actuarial careers and offer detailed salary information, via great query tools that make it easy to see how your skills and salary measure up, and what you need to reach the income level you want.  

Our job listings can also help you see the possibilities! 

What will 2015 actuarial salary numbers tell us?

In 2014, according to our annual salary survey, more respondents earned $300K plus than ever before. We are now collecting information about 2015 actuarial salaries, which we will share on our website. This is our fifth year of collecting and charting this information, and what’s so exciting is that we are able to present year-over-year actuarial salary comparisons.

Each year our actuarial salary survey attracts more respondents. The information we collect, chart and share with clients and candidates is our way of sharing our knowledge of the marketplace. It allows us to help our candidates and clients, giving them the ability to make better decisions.    

Our respondents come from all over the world. They volunteer to participate on a strictly confidential basis. Participation also makes them eligible to win one of several prizes.

Our presentation of the results includes unique online query tools that allow you to see how location, education, experience and area of expertise influence salary. Our charts are so flexible and unique, it’s exciting. 

Each year the number of respondents increases. We’ve been told by participants how valuable this information is, and we encourage everyone to participate this year and every year. If you have not done so in the past, here’s the link. Take a look and what we’ve presented so far, and then jump into the survey.  It’s one way you can help us help get the most accurate information, and also discover if you are actually earning what you are worth!

Check out our latest job postings and access our salary survey and results on our website: 

http://www.actuarialcareers.com