How do hiring managers compare candidates who only took programming classes in school or used programming languages in a project without having any technical internship or actuarial experience?
Grades could be one criteria but depth of contents and complexity of assignments could vary by school for the same course. For technical projects, they can be done independently or with several students in a group. If it's a group project, a student will only be responsible for a part of the project. Someone might collect data sources and others or all group members or only one student will do data analysis and write summary reports. Some group members may only proofread the final project reports and design PowerPoint slides. But anyone participated can claim that they have done technical projects with *** software.
Specifically, for technical projects, data sources could be nice (without missing values or compatibility of different sources or without interpolation or various assumptions were validated after initial diagnostics) or messy or complicated. Complicated or messy data sources may take longer to clean and analyze than easy data sources but can help one learn more and in depth on different software from solving various problems.
I found that many entry level jobs require proficiency in Excel, VBA, SAS, and SQL or Access.
What level in each software can be considered as intermediate or high proficiency?
If a candidate only knows some of these software but not all, how should they explain to actuaries and HR they can easily convert knowledge of one software to another?
HR only ask level of proficiency (1-10, 1-5, or beginner, intermediate, or advance). Some HRs might know specific functions for different software from actuaries and ask if a candidate knows, specifically, vlookup, pivot table in Excel. If a candidate knows Excel well and tries to convince HR that he or she can learn other languages fast. HR will probably only record what a candidate says and anyone can say he or she is capable learn something new quickly and may provide an adjustment example. However if other candidates have used a software, such as SQL in an internship or job, then these candidates should earn an advantage than the candidate has willingness to learn SQL.
Moreover, write several lines of codes with very small or no error from scratch for a new technical problem given in interview within 10 minutes may be tough if the candidate has never tried to do so in the past. Usually an interview can be 30 minutes to an hour long and candidates need to answer other behavior questions, so max 10 minutes maybe given to the candidates to answer any coding questions. How do you show your proficiency within such short time if you are not good at writing many codes from scratch quickly and accurately? I am not talking about a simple vlookup or index/match function.
In addition, some companies hire third-party agencies to give computing assessments.
Either a 20-minute short-quiz or a couple hours of "test" could be used to assess a candidate's programming skill in different languages. Most common one I have seen is Excel, since many entry-levels are assigned to mainly work on spreadsheets during the first few months of their job at least and there are on-job trainings for other software.
What about other software? Do candidates have to be proficient like FCAS who can write codes in different software quickly?
When I worked on an Excel project the first time last year, there was a template from an experienced FCAS. The FCAS could work out the project for one workbook within several hours. It took me a day or two to do what the FCAS did, since I did not know the potential issues existed in the project. The second time it took me a little more time than what the FCAS did to complete the project for a new state. Now I can do as fast and accurate as the FCAS did on the project for other states. But practice and documentation of what I have done were the key components that led to my success. That's just a small part of my tasks.
Grades could be one criteria but depth of contents and complexity of assignments could vary by school for the same course. For technical projects, they can be done independently or with several students in a group. If it's a group project, a student will only be responsible for a part of the project. Someone might collect data sources and others or all group members or only one student will do data analysis and write summary reports. Some group members may only proofread the final project reports and design PowerPoint slides. But anyone participated can claim that they have done technical projects with *** software.
Specifically, for technical projects, data sources could be nice (without missing values or compatibility of different sources or without interpolation or various assumptions were validated after initial diagnostics) or messy or complicated. Complicated or messy data sources may take longer to clean and analyze than easy data sources but can help one learn more and in depth on different software from solving various problems.
I found that many entry level jobs require proficiency in Excel, VBA, SAS, and SQL or Access.
What level in each software can be considered as intermediate or high proficiency?
If a candidate only knows some of these software but not all, how should they explain to actuaries and HR they can easily convert knowledge of one software to another?
HR only ask level of proficiency (1-10, 1-5, or beginner, intermediate, or advance). Some HRs might know specific functions for different software from actuaries and ask if a candidate knows, specifically, vlookup, pivot table in Excel. If a candidate knows Excel well and tries to convince HR that he or she can learn other languages fast. HR will probably only record what a candidate says and anyone can say he or she is capable learn something new quickly and may provide an adjustment example. However if other candidates have used a software, such as SQL in an internship or job, then these candidates should earn an advantage than the candidate has willingness to learn SQL.
Moreover, write several lines of codes with very small or no error from scratch for a new technical problem given in interview within 10 minutes may be tough if the candidate has never tried to do so in the past. Usually an interview can be 30 minutes to an hour long and candidates need to answer other behavior questions, so max 10 minutes maybe given to the candidates to answer any coding questions. How do you show your proficiency within such short time if you are not good at writing many codes from scratch quickly and accurately? I am not talking about a simple vlookup or index/match function.
In addition, some companies hire third-party agencies to give computing assessments.
Either a 20-minute short-quiz or a couple hours of "test" could be used to assess a candidate's programming skill in different languages. Most common one I have seen is Excel, since many entry-levels are assigned to mainly work on spreadsheets during the first few months of their job at least and there are on-job trainings for other software.
What about other software? Do candidates have to be proficient like FCAS who can write codes in different software quickly?
When I worked on an Excel project the first time last year, there was a template from an experienced FCAS. The FCAS could work out the project for one workbook within several hours. It took me a day or two to do what the FCAS did, since I did not know the potential issues existed in the project. The second time it took me a little more time than what the FCAS did to complete the project for a new state. Now I can do as fast and accurate as the FCAS did on the project for other states. But practice and documentation of what I have done were the key components that led to my success. That's just a small part of my tasks.
How do you evaluate computing proficiency in different languages?
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