Actuaries make financial predictions of the future in order to advise on the possible profits or losses of planned projects. They do this by analysing the past in order to predict what could happen in the future and thereby be able to explain to the company management the risks involved in the proposed action in financial terms.
A computer is an essential tool in their work and they should be fully capable in the fields of economics, accounting, law and marketing and also have a thorough grounding in maths and statistics. They should be able to analyse data in a logical and creative fashion in order to clearly explain the information gained to other people who have to make decisions based on their analyses but who do not have their expertise.