Anybody an Actuary?

[CascadeClone]

Considering a career change and could use advice.

Just got a surprise firing. Had P&L for $80M business segment, including inventory, pricing, sales, about a dozen reports. Have Aero E degree and MBA, but never used the former other than problem solving. MBA was very useful for finance and general mgmt.

Had already been considering a career change for various reasons, now obviously the options are wide open. Actuary is one that I think would be a good fit with my general numerical background. I'm sure I would have to brush up on my high-level math, but honestly that sounds like fun.

Q1: how hard would it be to get into this as a "non-traditional" applicant? I'm mid 40s. I know this would entail a pay cut, a big one at first, but I am OK with that based on where we are financially and knowing their are growth opportunities. Would I be someone they would want based on MBA and experience, or would there be no interest due to age and wrong degree?

Q2: how is the job? Would you recommend it? What's good & bad? Hours and stress? I've always pictured it as problem solving like engineering, but with money instead of physics. Is that fair?

Thanks for any help.

 

[NWICY]

Can't help, but sorry about being let go. Wishing you good luck and success in your next career move.

 

[isufbcurt]

Considering a career change and could use advice.

Just got a surprise firing. Had P&L for $80M business segment, including inventory, pricing, sales, about a dozen reports. Have Aero E degree and MBA, but never used the former other than problem solving. MBA was very useful for finance and general mgmt.

Had already been considering a career change for various reasons, now obviously the options are wide open. Actuary is one that I think would be a good fit with my general numerical background. I'm sure I would have to brush up on my high-level math, but honestly that sounds like fun.

Q1: how hard would it be to get into this as a "non-traditional" applicant? I'm mid 40s. I know this would entail a pay cut, a big one at first, but I am OK with that based on where we are financially and knowing their are growth opportunities. Would I be someone they would want based on MBA and experience, or would there be no interest due to age and wrong degree?

Q2: how is the job? Would you recommend it? What's good & bad? Hours and stress? I've always pictured it as problem solving like engineering, but with money instead of physics. Is that fair?

Thanks for any help.

"Actuary" and "sounds like fun" are not things I thought I would ever hear anyone say in the same sentence together.

 

[dukeebear]

I always tell people on a plane that's what I do so they don't ask me any questions about it. If I tell people what I really do, too many questions. I used to use truck driver and realized I had no idea to answer any questions about that.

Zero questions since I became an actuary. It's a relaxing job.

 

[SCNCY]

My sister is an actuary for the USAA. When she graduated, she got her job, out of school and I don't think any internships starting 63k. So there is money to be made in this field, and I think finding actuaries are hard to come by. She also had a degree in actuary sciences from University of Illinois.

For you, having degree heavy in Math, I think you will be OK if you can focus on the math portions of your experience on your resume. If you are going to be an actuary, there are a series of 7 tests that you can take in order to get an industry designation (think CPA/CFA) that are pretty hard according to my sister. If you fail one of the test 3 times, you cannot take any more and you therefore cannot get the industry title.

I think the hard thing for you is that being in your mid-40's with an MBA, you should be looking at management jobs, and not necessarily an actuary job crunching numbers. You may get the "over qualified" line from recruiters.

To answer your second question, my sister for the USAA basically figures out the risk of property. What is it going to cost to replace, given the number of customers in an area, and the likely hood certain events are going to cause damage. They have 100's, if not 1000's of data points they look at. For example, I remember her telling me that one of their data points for home insurance is based on the distance you are from a fire station.

 

[dukeebear]

Thanks SCNCY for some answers in case I get asked a question.

 

[spk123]

I am an actuary (property/casualty) and would be happy to help answer some questions.

First of all, actuaries have a lot of different functions that they perform, primarily within insurance companies. My role is in reserving, essentially (and this is dumbing it down quite a bit, haha) figuring out how much money to hold in reserve to pay future claims that we don't know about yet. Other actuaries do pricing, statistical modeling, research and development of insurance products, etc. The job also varies based on what type of insurer you work for (P&C, Health, Life, etc.).

I was also a career changer, so I can speak a little bit to that, though I was also younger when I changed (~5 years out of college). Generally, companies look for a background heavy in quantitative work, be that education, career, or exams. Technical skills are important (advanced Excel at an absolute minimum, but preferably familiarity with some or all of SQL, R, Python, SAS/SPSS, etc.). A background in insurance would also be a plus. I have an MBA, but to be honest, it's not really that useful in my job.

Exams are no joke. Depending on whether you pursue a designation through the CAS or SOA (usually depends on what field you are in), it takes around 7 exams to get your associateship and 10 exams to get your fellowship. They are quite difficult, to say the least. The preliminary exams are a lot of statistics, probability, calculus (more "straight" math), while the latter ones are a lot of actuarial theory/methods.

I really like my job. It's challenging and I work with a lot of really smart people. It can get stressful at times, but it's usually predictable when it will be especially busy, so I can plan around it.

Feel free to DM me with any further questions you may have!

 

[ArgentCy]

So your the joker that costs me so much money since I live over 10 miles to the fire station. Although there are a couple from other towns that are closer.

JK....

 

[cowgirl836]

good luck on the job hunt. I 2nd looking into more management type roles if that's of interest to you.

Husband did an internship at an insurance company and sat near the actuaries. He said he learned that they get paid well, were mostly female, and hot.

 

[gocy1]

If you are strong in project/product development you could try that route and have actuaries working for you. A lot more fun than crunching numbers on a computer all day. If strong in negotiations this could also be part of what you bring to a leadership role.

 

[HoopsTournament]

I am an actuary with over 20 years of experience. I have never regretted being an actuary although there have been jobs within certain companies that I didn't like. I have worked in a variety of jobs in insurance, reinsurance and consulting. I have worked in both L&H and P&C and have done both pricing and reserving, so I have had a chance for a variety of work.

As for the stress, exams are not easy by any means. Once you get past the exams, the stress is like any job, but will vary depending on the work. I work in consulting now and the stress varies. Last Friday, I had a client that called about 2pm that wanted to change how we calculated an appraisal and wanted it completed by the end of the day. I worked until 9pm on Friday. However, when there are not deadlines, my time is pretty flexible. Most days, I work from home and work from 9-5.

As for your degree, it really doesn't matter what degree you have for entry level jobs. The important thing is that you have shown that you can pass an exam (or two). An MBA will not help you out much early on, but it may help you once you get your fellowship for management level jobs.

I also would be happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[HoopsTournament]

My sister is an actuary for the USAA. When she graduated, she got her job, out of school and I don't think any internships starting 63k. So there is money to be made in this field, and I think finding actuaries are hard to come by. She also had a degree in actuary sciences from University of Illinois.

For you, having degree heavy in Math, I think you will be OK if you can focus on the math portions of your experience on your resume. If you are going to be an actuary, there are a series of 7 tests that you can take in order to get an industry designation (think CPA/CFA) that are pretty hard according to my sister. If you fail one of the test 3 times, you cannot take any more and you therefore cannot get the industry title.

I think the hard thing for you is that being in your mid-40's with an MBA, you should be looking at management jobs, and not necessarily an actuary job crunching numbers. You may get the "over qualified" line from recruiters.

To answer your second question, my sister for the USAA basically figures out the risk of property. What is it going to cost to replace, given the number of customers in an area, and the likely hood certain events are going to cause damage. They have 100's, if not 1000's of data points they look at. For example, I remember her telling me that one of their data points for home insurance is based on the distance you are from a fire station.

The bolded is not true. You can take the test as many times as you want. Also, there are about 12 tests now, but it depends on whether you go the Life & Health route or Property & Casualty route.

 

[somecyguy]

For example, I remember her telling me that one of their data points for home insurance is based on the distance you are from a fire station.

I don't know about that specifically, but I know when I bought my house 2 years ago and was discussing insurance, the distance from a fire hydrant was an item. Anything over 2 miles would cause a big increase.

 

[cycloneML]

You will need to achieve FSA designations to belong. Be prepared to put your life on hold for years while studying for the tests.

 

[HoopsTournament]

You will need to achieve FSA designations to belong. Be prepared to put your life on hold for years while studying for the tests.

Most of the exams, I would study for 4 months for about 100 hours a month taking two a year. So basically I was studying about 25 hours a week for 4 months, have 2 months off and repeat. This lasted for 6 years until I got my FCAS. (And then I decided to get my FSA later which took me another 4 years). I was already married and had kids, but my wife was VERY supportive and pretty much ran the entire house when I was studying.

 

[CloniesForLife]

good luck on the job hunt. I 2nd looking into more management type roles if that's of interest to you.

Husband did an internship at an insurance company and sat near the actuaries. He said he learned that they get paid well, were mostly female, and hot.

Hmmmmm... maybe it's time for a career change for me as well.

 

[cowgirl836]

Hmmmmm... maybe it's time for a career change for me as well.

I should clarify, I asked him about this last night and turns out he was sitting next to the actuary interns, not the full-timers....though it's been seven years or so, they'd all be post-college now anyway.

 

[cowgirl836]

I don't know about that specifically, but I know when I bought my house 2 years ago and was discussing insurance, the distance from a fire hydrant was an item. Anything over 2 miles would cause a big increase.

Came up when getting our homeowner's. They wanted to know which fire station was closest and how many miles away it was. I think we are about 5 miles from two different ones and IIRC, the lady said 5 miles was about the limit for a hike. They asked about fire hydrants too, but none in our neighborhood.

 

[clone52]

"Actuary" and "sounds like fun" are not things I thought I would ever hear anyone say in the same sentence together.

It sounds like fun to me. I love math.

 

[mred]

The bolded is not true. You can take the test as many times as you want. Also, there are about 12 tests now, but it depends on whether you go the Life & Health route or Property & Casualty route.

Some employers may not support you if you fail a test 2-3 times (so you may have to pay for the subsequent ones yourself) but that varies from employer to employer. But it is true that you can retake the exams as many times as you need. Generally only 40%-50% of the people who take an exam at a given time pass it, so it's not unheard of for someone to fail an exam 5+ times before passing it (although not common).