Sanjog Karki ’20 began the summer as an actuarial intern working remotely at The Hartford. When August rolled around, he was offered a permanent position as an actuary. Here Karki describes his interest in mathematics and how that led him to his budding career.
What sparked your interest in actuarial science?
Big data and modern advances in analytics like machine learning and artificial intelligence are changing the insurance landscape and are already reshaping actuarial work. Besides just crunching numbers, actuaries also are business professionals who make business proposals, interact with clients, and develop their business acumen and interpersonal skills, which is what got me interested in insurance and the actuarial profession.
How did Hamilton help prepare you for a career in this?
My statistics, math, computer science, and econ classes have definitely prepared me well for this career. In order to become a credentialed actuary, you need to pass a series of actuarial exams. The first one is Probability and second is Financial Mathematics. My Probability Theory and Corporate Finance classes were super helpful in teaching me the concepts required to pass the first two exams.
Major: Mathematics
Hometown: Grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal; moved to Arlington, Va.
High School: Rato Bangala School, Nepal
I gained solid coding skills through my Intro. to Comp. Sci class. I learned a lot about machine learning through projects I worked on in my Stats Modeling and Applications, Senior Seminar in Statistics, and Data Analytics & Machine learning classes. I also got to study powerful statistical concepts like Bayesian Statistics through my Stats Theory and Applications class.
I employed all of the knowledge I gained through these classes to successfully accomplish my internship project, which in turn helped me land a full-time actuarial job at The Hartford. I’m grateful to the faculty for innovating the curriculum and adding new classes that help students develop data analysis skills, which is really coveted by today’s quantitative job market.
What will your day-to-day job be like?
As an actuarial intern, my main project was creating different machine learning models to predict ultimate losses for auto bodily injury claims based on different variables/characteristics of a claim. As a full-time actuarial student at The Hartford, I will get to rotate in various departments like pricing (analyzing data to price various insurance products), reserving (analyzing data to set aside money enough to pay out future claims), and data science.
Is your job remote or in-person?
The job will be initially remote due to the pandemic, but I look forward to working on-site at Hartford, Conn., after the company determines it is safe to do so.
Did any Hamilton connections help with your career search?
I’m very thankful to David Hibbard ’12, director and actuary at The Hartford, whom I reached out to in my internship search process. He sent my résumé to the lead recruiter. I’m also thankful to my career advisor David Bell for all his help and advice throughout my job and internship search process.
