What the work is worth. Insurance, pensions, and public health programs only keep their promises if someone priced the risk correctly. Actuaries make long-term promises trustworthy.
An ordinary day. Quantify risk — of illness, accident, disaster, retirement — with probability and financial math, and design products and reserves that stay solvent.
The path in. Bachelor's in math, actuarial science, or statistics, plus a multi-year sequence of professional exams.
From zero. The STEM Farm Data / Analytics / AI Operations track starts at zero-STEM intake and ends in this kind of work, with verified proof at every gate.
Take the STEM Compass assessmentZero to Actuary →
STEM pathway path for extroverts. A path has a start, a direction and a destination. The assessment gives the direction, the career pages the destination, and the STEM Farm track the start at zero. A pathway has a start, a direction and a destination. The assessment gives the direction; the career pages give the destination; the STEM Farm track gives the start. Nursing, physician assistant, systems analysis, industrial engineering and epidemiology run on communication and collaboration; if people energize you, they surface.
Actuary and the Benson County economy
Benson County is farming-typed in the USDA ERS 2025 typology, flagged for low employment, persistent poverty and population loss, a nonmetro county. Its labor market is the Devils Lake, ND commuting zone (3 counties). By local economy, actuary ranks #24 of forty for this county.
The personality behind the work
- Numbers & Data Affinity. You like living in numbers, tables, and measurements; quantitative work feels natural.
- Detail Orientation. You remember complex facts and catch small errors before they become large ones.
- Persistence. You keep going through hours of troubleshooting. A problem that refuses to yield is a reason to stay, not a reason to leave.
- Patience. You accept that real proof takes months or years of testing, and you can wait for it.
- Meticulousness. You record exact notes and follow strict procedures without being told to.
- Abstract & Systems Thinking. You can hold an invisible system in your head — logic flows, data moving between parts, cause and effect you cannot see.
- Skepticism. You question whether the data is accurate, complete, or biased before you trust any conclusion.
Across the Devils Lake, ND labor market
Same search, other careers in Benson County
What moves it
- WIOA-funded training pays for the credential, ages 14 to 24 and adults: find your local office.
- Registered apprenticeship — a wage from day one: apprenticeship.gov.
- FAFSA — free to file, the gate to nearly all aid: studentaid.gov.
- STEM Farm — the track from zero to the career the assessment says fits: the twelve tracks.
STEM pathway path for extroverts: Actuary in Devils Lake, ND → · All careers in Benson County →