Building a Personal Brand as an Actuary

As an actuary, your personal brand extends beyond your skills; it reflects how you lead, inspire, and develop a team, fostering a positive work environment, boosting team performance and positioning you as a leader in the profession.

Creating a personal brand can be daunting and challenging – but we’ve made it easier by creating a simple framework that’s all about understanding yourself, being present, contributing, and networking.

Here’s how you can effectively build a personal brand for yourself and your team both within and outside of your organisation.

The internal influence

Understand your leadership style

Start by understanding and clearly defining your leadership style. Are you collaborative, analytical, innovative or a combination of them all?

Understanding how you naturally interact with others will help you communicate your values and expectations. Sharing your vision for the tasks and the organisation with a clarity of what you bring as a team member will help demonstrate how your unique approach can drive success and also help set a solid foundation for team dynamics.

Foster open communication

A key aspect of your personal brand is how you interact with stakeholders in your organisation. That’s why It’s essential to remember that communication is a two way street.

Encourage open communication by creating a safe space for individuals to express their ideas, concerns, and feedback. It’s also important to actively listen and respond thoughtfully by being present in the discussion. In doing so, you’ll be seen as approachable and transparent which will help you further build a culture of trust and respect, and hopefully motivating others to do the same.

Showcase your expertise

Within an organisation, the actuarial profession tends to be either highly regarded or completely unknown – depending on who you talk to!

As an actuary, you are the conduit between real-world applications and actuarial concepts. You and your team can enhance your brand by sharing technical expertise, interesting insights, or industry updates. This can be done through firm-wide training sessions, showcases, or even informal water-cooler chats and ensuring you provide your audience with one or two digestible takeaways that they can use anecdotally in their day-to-day activities. This not only enhances your personal brand as a knowledgeable leader but also empowers your team to develop their skills, which in turn, will build credibility for the actuarial profession across your organisation. 

The power of networking 

Networking is often the key in strengthening your personal brand. Share your experiences and insights with others and encourage connection across the business. You can also go the extra mile of bringing networks together by facilitating introductions to mentors or colleagues. This not only enriches your colleague’s understanding but also demonstrates your commitment to growth and success while simultaneously expanding your own network.

The external factor

Creating a personal brand as an actuary doesn’t stop when you leave the office. Your personal brand can permeate into the wider industry where you can showcase your skillset, voice and drive the profession forward for a better tomorrow. In this section, Adam shares his experience applying the framework to building a brand externally.

Adam’s perspective

Volunteering

To establish a personal brand externally, you need to be present externally! Volunteering your time is an easy way to be seen – and the work you do can highlight your commitment to the profession, which will add value to your brand.

As a junior actuary, I volunteered regularly as the SIPC newsletter editor for the SIPC newsletter. This was a great opportunity to showcase my brand and enthusiasm in joining the committee.

Prior to this volunteering opportunity, I often found myself doubting how I could contribute to the profession, particularly when those around me many more years of experience. However, it is important to remember not every contribution needs to be major, especially when you’re a junior. Lean into your current skills and take the opportunity to develop.

Over time, I’ve used my newfound experience to contribute to more technical matters and expand my contributions such as joining as a permanent member of the SIPC, becoming an SME on the education faculty and sharing my voice as an Actuaries Digital guest author all help me continue to build my personal brand.

Attending industry events

Another way I’ve strengthened my personal brand is by attending events. As a graduate in February 2020, I was limited to attending in-person events. It wasn’t until the International Congress of Actuaries (ICA2023) where I experienced the power of meeting in-person – reinforcing the first step to building a personal brand is being present.

To make the most of in-person events, we recommend:

• Meeting at least one new person – It can be easier to mingle with people you already know but don’t be shy – go with the goal of meeting at least one new person!
• Find some common ground – this is an easy conversation starter. If you are at an actuarial event, ask are about their job or their journey as an actuary.
• Regular attendance is key – The more events you attend, the quicker you’ll become a recognised face in the actuarial community.
• Stay in touch – Reach out to those you met at an event. It could be as simple as a network request on LinkedIn, connecting via email, or suggesting a meet up for a coffee.

Staying in touch has been the most crucial to developing my brand as it helps me discuss ideas with other actuaries. This has helped supplement my understanding about the broader industry and forged stronger professional connections.

The process to building an external personal brand doesn’t need to be entirely linear – being present, contributing, and networking can really come in any order.

Last but not least…

Forging a personal brand – internally and externally – doesn’t need to be linear. It does however need to centre around understanding yourself, being present, contributing and networking. So, in short, don’t forget to:

• Understand your leadership style: Identify and communicate your unique leadership style to help inspire others.
• Foster open communication: This will allow for open dialogue and an exchange for ideas.
• Showcase your expertise: Bridge the gap between theory and reality.
• Expand your network and help others to do the same.
• Volunteer: Be open to new opportunities and seize them as they come.
• Be present: Seek likeminded people by attending industry events and expanding your knowledge and network.

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