Where would you turn to find a recent article announcing the hiring of a CEO at a rival company? What if you also wanted to find articles about the insurance market in a foreign country? What about stories on the job market for actuaries or other insurance professionals? What if you wanted it all in one place, and you wanted it all at your fingertips?

Well, such a place exists, thanks to the work of Claude Penland, ACAS. Penland manages the Web site www.actuary.net, which serves as "an international actuarial news feed." Best's Review, Insurance Networking, and Independent Agent Magazine have also profiled actuary.net.

What exactly does that mean? It means that Penland organizes and posts links to articles on the topics listed above, as well as more wide-ranging topics. He recently created a podcast section, which contains links to actuarial and quantitative webcasts. There are also sections for ERM, accounting, software, and general actuarial professional news. "There probably will be other sections added before this article is published," says Penland.

Penland's employment history matches that of most people in the early stages of an actuarial career. He started out doing large account pricing and then reserving. He moved from there to pricing non-traditional insurance risks, and later found a job in consulting. By then he had progressed through exams enough to earn his ACAS. At this point, he was able to turn a passionate side-interest into a full-time job.

Penland's next position, which he still holds, was partner in charge of Web sites and Internet strategy for D.W. Simpson & Company, the actuarial recruitment firm. His job includes managing the firm's salary surveys, helping to keep their recruiters informed of industry trends, writing job descriptions and posting these to Web sites, and fielding questions on ActuarialOutpost.com. In 2004, Penland decided to launch his blog.

He has not abandoned the skill sets that he relied on in becoming an ACAS. In fact, he uses them regularly. "Last year, Clickz (a resource Web site for interactive marketing) had an interesting article about the skills that go into making a good Web site manager. They suggested that two of those skills were being a good actuary and statistician-where you're trying to estimate what will happen when you make changes and adjust."

Penland knows his actuary.net site isn't the only place to find good information about the industry. Information on the current events and issues facing the industry, he says, is crucial to helping shape a career. "Companies demand that their actuaries be businesspeople. It's never been more true than it is now, especially on the property and casualty side. The amount of really good information that's available on the Web is phenomenal. I couldn't imagine not reading the Insurance Journal, Business Insurance, Yahoo Insurance News, and some other sources every day, even if I were still employed as an actuary. The CAS does a great job on their Web site with their professional standards and task force updates, and providing the most important announcements on their front page."

This information can help you in your current role, or later on down the line. "You're going to be asked to remember information and interpret information, whether it's by your boss, or a product manager, or an interview someday. Some actuaries have reached the C-levels (CEO, CFO, etc.) of their companies with their ability to put into the proper historical context the business situation they've found themselves in. Absorbing that information has to be part of your continuing education every day, day after day-it can't be crammed."