Career Escape
Moving from actuary to accountants and auditors, by the occupational data
Both occupations are described by the same O*NET 30.3 rating system, which makes them directly comparable: the same requirements, rated for each. What follows is that comparison for actuaries and Accountants and Auditors, not an opinion about whether the move is a good idea.
Can an actuary become an accountants and auditors?
O*NET 30.3 rates 58% of what matters to either actuary work or accountants and auditors work as mattering to both, which is a real overlap with a real remainder. The requirements that carry across include Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates, Providing Consultation and Advice to Others, Economics and Accounting. Both sit at O*NET Job Zone 4, so the typical education, training and experience expected is the band you are already in. BLS assigns both occupations the same typical entry education, bachelor's degree. What would be new concentrates in work activities: Monitoring and Controlling Resources, Performing Administrative Activities, Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others. BLS puts the 2025 national median wage for accountants and auditorss at $83,680 against $130,000 for actuaries, a difference of 36% downward at the occupational level rather than for any individual move. BLS projects employment in the destination occupation to grow 5.0% between 2025 and 2035, with about 115,300 openings a year on average. O*NET describes the destination as follows: Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. This compares two occupations, not two people, and says nothing about whether any individual would be hired.
- Weighted overlap
- 58% of the requirements important to either occupation are important to both, with 1 of those shared requirements classed as distinctive rather than near-universal.
- Preparation level
- O*NET Job Zone 4, against Job Zone 4 for actuaries. No additional education typically expected.
- Typical entry education (BLS)
- Bachelor's degree, against Bachelor's degree for actuaries.
- Prior experience typically expected
- None, with no on-the-job training category assigned.
- Where the overlap is strongest
- Knowledge, with 1 distinctive requirements important to both. Requirements that carry over include Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates, Providing Consultation and Advice to Others, Economics and Accounting.
- Independent corroboration
- O*NET separately lists this occupation as directly related to 1 of the occupations in this source set, which is a signal independent of the overlap measure.
Source and method
O*NET 30.3 Database, with BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4. Verified 2026-09-02. Importance ratings, Job Zones and occupational titles are read from O*NET. Typical entry education, prior experience and on-the-job training are read from BLS. The weighted overlap percentage, the distinctive-requirement counts, and the shared and new requirement lists are computed by RoleSprint from those inputs using the method published at /career-change/methodology.
Career transition data
Actuary to Accountants and Auditors
- Work activities overlapderived
- 58%
- Knowledge overlapderived
- 70%
- Transferable skills overlapderived
- 30%
- Essential skills overlapderived
- 100%
- Job Zone
- 4 to 4 (no change)
- Median annual wage, 2025
- $130,000 to $83,680
- Wage differencederived
- −$46,320 (−36%)
- Projected employment change, 2025–35
- +5.0%
- Annual openings, 2025–35 average
- 115,300
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
Largest transferable capability: Economics and Accounting
Largest new demand: Performing Administrative Activities
Source. Job Zone and requirement ratings: O*NET 30.3. Wage, employment projections, openings and entry education: BLS Employment Projections Table 1.2, projections 2025–35, wage year 2025. RoleSprint-derived. Overlap percentages and the wage difference are calculated by RoleSprint from those published values. Limitation. These are national occupational statistics for two occupations. The wage figure is not a salary you would be offered, employment growth is not job security, and overlap is not a likelihood of being hired. Fields BLS does not publish for an occupation are omitted rather than estimated.
What carries over
Requirements O*NET rates as important for both actuaries and accountants and auditorss, by domain. Most distinctive first, so the top of each list is the part that is actually worth putting on a resume.
Work activities
22 of 29 work activities important to either occupation are important to both.
- Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates3.3 for actuaries, 3.4 here
- Providing Consultation and Advice to Others3.6 for actuaries, 3.3 here
- Developing and Building Teams3.1 for actuaries, 3.6 here
- Coaching and Developing Others3.3 for actuaries, 3.4 here
- Developing Objectives and Strategies3.3 for actuaries, 3.3 here
Knowledge
5 of 8 knowledge areas important to either occupation are important to both.
- Economics and Accounting3.8 for actuaries, 4.7 here
- Law and Government3.0 for actuaries, 3.3 here
- Mathematics4.9 for actuaries, 3.9 here
- Computers and Electronics4.0 for actuaries, 3.0 here
- English Language3.7 for actuaries, 4.0 here
Transferable skills
6 of 10 transferable skills important to either occupation are important to both.
- Service Orientation3.0 for actuaries, 3.1 here
- Social Perceptiveness3.0 for actuaries, 3.1 here
- Complex Problem Solving4.0 for actuaries, 3.4 here
- Coordination3.0 for actuaries, 3.3 here
- Judgment and Decision Making4.3 for actuaries, 3.5 here
Essential skills
8 of 8 essential skills important to either occupation are important to both.
- Mathematics4.3 for actuaries, 3.3 here
- Writing3.5 for actuaries, 3.5 here
- Active Learning3.3 for actuaries, 3.1 here
- Reading Comprehension4.3 for actuaries, 3.9 here
- Monitoring3.1 for actuaries, 3.4 here
Numbers are O*NET Importance, on a 1 to 5 scale. A requirement counts as important at 3.0 and above, which is the threshold the whole comparison uses.
What would be new
Requirements important for accountants and auditorss and not important for actuaries. This is the part you would have to be able to evidence, and it is usually the real obstacle rather than the job title.
Work activities
6 work activities rated important here and not for actuaries.
- Monitoring and Controlling Resources3.2 here, 2.2 for actuaries
- Performing Administrative Activities3.7 here, 2.1 for actuaries
- Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others3.2 here, 2.6 for actuaries
- Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others3.6 here, 2.9 for actuaries
- Scheduling Work and Activities3.5 here, 2.8 for actuaries
Knowledge
3 knowledge areas rated important here and not for actuaries.
- Administrative3.1 here, 1.8 for actuaries
- Administration and Management3.5 here, 2.9 for actuaries
- Customer and Personal Service3.5 here, 2.3 for actuaries
Transferable skills
1 transferable skills rated important here and not for actuaries.
- Persuasion3.0 here, 2.9 for actuaries
Practical caveats for this move
Specific to this pair, and worth reading before treating any of the above as a plan.
- Accountants and Auditors sits at the same Job Zone as actuaries, so the typical preparation band does not change. That removes one obstacle and none of the others.
- BLS records no prior experience in a related occupation as typical for this role, which makes the requirement lists above the more useful guide to what a posting will ask for.
- O*NET independently lists this as a related occupation, so two separate parts of the dataset agree that the work is adjacent.
- None of this accounts for licensing, geography, pay, hiring volume, or whether you would want the work. Occupational data describes the job. It does not describe the market for it, and it does not describe you.
How this move compares with the alternatives
This page is one move. The Opportunity Atlas puts every destination mapped from actuaries side by side on skills overlap, day-to-day work, wage, projected growth, openings and the size of the training step.
It does not rank them, because the dimensions genuinely disagree: measured across every transition published here, how much your skills carry over and how much your knowledge carries over are close to unrelated. You choose which one matters and it orders by that.
Compare the alternatives in the Opportunity AtlasThe destination occupation, as O*NET describes it
Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.
O*NET-SOC 13-2011.00. Full title: Accountants and Auditors. Where this page uses the shorter phrase “accountants and auditors”, that is a common name for readability, not a separate occupational classification.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. RoleSprint has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Analysis generated 2026-09-02 from the O*NET 30.3 Database. Entry education, work experience, and on-the-job training are reproduced from BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4, Education and training assignments by detailed occupation, 2024, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What to do next
Occupational data compares two jobs. It cannot tell you whether one specific employer would consider you, and this is the point where most people stop reading data and start applying blind.