Many people say they fall into the actuarial profession. However, Devyn McNicoll who was highly commended in the young actuarial professional of the year category says she felt like the profession chose her, similar to the renowned "cat distribution system" where a cat chooses their human.
"The opportunity came to me and stuck around. I found myself accidentally and suddenly responsible for this very serious thing. I had a math degree but zero exam experience. I literally got a zero on my first actuarial exam because I didn't realise I needed to study for it.
"I was a broke post‑college traveller turned deeply mediocre waitress, applying for anything that looked like a job and didn't involve carrying hot plates," she said.
McNicoll's interviewed at a major insurer and says the hiring manager "took a wild chance on me" despite a lack of experience.
Starting her career at JG Gaston and Associates, she has worked her way up to head of actuarial at PinPoint Predictive, which is a risk assessment platform for property and casualty insurers that is "pushing the boundaries of data science" and "building fully customised predictive models", she said.
McNicoll said the company was "constantly discussing and thinking about fairness, accessibility, and giving carriers a serious analytical upgrade".
This focus on fairness is also demonstrated by her work in advancing opportunities for women and LGBTQ+ professionals.
She explained that in her whole career, she has only worked with a handful of other female actuaries and the first person to give her first big break was a woman, so she felt there was a "responsibility to pay that forward".
"I'm passionate about people-first leadership: the kind that cares about happiness, balance, and actual human lives," McNicoll said.
She continued that diverse teams "get more done" as mixing perspectives led to "better ideas, better collaboration, and way more room for everyone to shine in their own way".
Technology also set her entry apart, noting that AI will free up actuaries to "focus on creativity, business decisions, and implementation".
Looking ahead, she said actuaries will evolve from "people who crunch numbers to people who drive strategy".
When asked about what she would do differently during her career so far, she said that she would "stop trying to cosplay as a traditional actuary".
"It was never convincing, and honestly, it looked uncomfortable. The moment I embraced being the actuary who leads people with empathy, builds new things, and takes weird career swings, everything got better. I should've ditched the actuarial mould years earlier," she said.
McNicoll continued that advice she would give younger actuaries was not to pigeonhole themselves, adding that it was easy to get swallowed up by the exam process and forget there's an "entire world happening around you".
"Pay attention to what's happening in our industry and in other industries. Insurance is a social service where every claim is potentially someone's livelihood, remember that with every business decision you make.
"Keep empathy at the centre of your work. Build products that help consumers and support the bottom line. And remember: your career can be as wide and interesting as you let it be," McNicoll added.