Working abroad as actuary – how to start your international actuarial career

One of the advantages of working in a large organisation is the opportunity to work in different countries. There are lots of great reasons to grab this type of opportunity, and for actuaries, it could be easier than you think.

Choosing to work in another country

Lots of people in the insurance business would like to experience working in a different country, and there are several key benefits:

• It’s good for your CV: both within your current organisation and beyond, international experience will often put you ahead of other candidates.
• It’s good for your skills: working in countries that have different regulations and legislation means that you develop a wider range of skills and understanding, putting you in a great position for future roles.
• It’s good for your personal growth: living and working in a new country brings challenges, and those help you grow personally as well as professionally. Learning a new language, living in a different culture and understanding people better is good for you.
• It’s good for your business: being able to move people around to international offices allows your employer to build skills and knowledge, creating more rounded employees and helping with loyalty and retention.

Where are the international opportunities?

If you want to work in a new country, you either need to be working for an insurance company with offices in a range of countries, or you need to look for a smaller insurance company that operates in the country you’re interested in.

So you should think about your priorities. If you speak more than one language, it is an easy choice to work somewhere where you can already communicate. If you’re an English speaker, you should be aware that smaller companies in single countries will be working in their native language, and this might be a barrier to getting an actuarial role – you can check this with your recruitment partner.

However, if you already work as an actuary in an international insurance company, or for a company that has subsidiaries in other countries, your opportunities increase. You may be able to apply for internal actuarial roles in other countries, either on a contract or full-time basis. Some insurance companies may offer a secondment programme, where you can work in another country for a year, for example, gaining experience in international actuarial projects that you can usefully apply when you return to your original office base.

At the moment, you could be looking at opportunities in Europe – in Germany, for example, which has the biggest insurance market in Europe, with companies based in some of the country’s most desirable cities included Munich, Cologne and Hamburg. There are also roles in the USA and the Far East.

As the process of actuarial business is pretty much the same in any country, it is fairly straightforward for actuaries to make an international move. Of course, you will need to go through the relevant working visa and entry processes for whichever country you apply to, but with a professional job offer and sponsorship from your company, it could be more straightforward than you think.

Interested?

To find out more about international actuarial roles in Europe and the USA, contact us today.

 Luis Rebmann
Principal Consultant DACH
 +49 06917008388