Actuarial Work

[neohio]

What is everyone's opinion of actuarial work?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

When you are on a quant forum whose population includes many actuarial students or ex-actuary who is moving to the quant side, it's going to be biased. I haven't seen anyone who comes here to say the actuarial work they do is extremely intellectual challenging or financially rewarding.

In short, do you need some convincing on one way or another?

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

When you are on a quant forum whose population includes many actuarial students or ex-actuary who is moving to the quant side, it's going to be biased. I haven't seen anyone who comes here to say the actuarial work they do is extremely intellectual challenging or financially rewarding.

In short, do you need some convincing on one way or another?

So very much this. Took the first exam, thought it was gonna be awesome. Had an internship. Realized it was all BS. Decided to become a quant ^_^

 

[neohio]

yeah basically i was looking for positive and negative list. i realized many people here may be biased

 

[euroazn]

To be fair, when I asked this question once on an actuarial forum, I'd get similar answers to Ilya's (namely, that it is a joke), with the exception that they were more content with it.

 

[SYau]

Don't do it.

 

[MRoss]

Not to mention it is probably even harder to get an entry level actuary position than quant - and for less money.

 

[AlbertHo]

Not to mention it is probably even harder to get an entry level actuary position than quant - and for less money.

Are you serious?

 

[MRoss]

When I was an actuarial student I went to the ASNY Actuarial Career Fair. There were probably close to five hundred aspiring actuaries in that room and from the tens of distinguished companies present only about 40 positions available. I know many students who had passed as much as four exams and were not even considered for internships. I am not saying it's impossible, but it was a bit daunting.

 

[SYau]

They all think it is a great career from US News World Report.

 

[AlbertHo]

I know many students who had passed as much as four exams and were not even considered for internships.

I agree with you that actuarial students are over-supplied but I still believe the bar for a real quant job is so much higher.

Do you think a first degree in Act Sci + MFE good enough to get a quant job? I'm under the impression that most employers prefer graduates with degree in math/physics/comp sci/engineering for quant roles.

 

[Lyosha]

When I was an actuarial student I went to the ASNY Actuarial Career Fair. There were probably close to five hundred aspiring actuaries in that room and from the tens of distinguished companies present only about 40 positions available. I know many students who had passed as much as four exams and were not even considered for internships. I am not saying it's impossible, but it was a bit daunting.

A not-stereotypically-top-tier bank in NYC had 800 applicants for 3 quant internship positions.

 

[MRoss]

Anybody can apply. I'm talking about qualified applicants who passed exams already.

 

[alain]

What is everyone's opinion of actuarial work?

If you like it, you will enjoy it.

 

[Kenny L]

Traditionally, actuarial models are about insurance (life, health, casualty): pricing of insurance policies and reserving of the insurer. So, perhaps tasks are more mundane than those in finance.

 

[olgenue]

Depends on the kind of actuarial work. Here are some of the more interesting areas:

Pricing of non-life reinsurance/insurance contracts using GLM models.
Stochastic reserving comes up with stochastic models for non-life insurance reserves.
Portfolio optimization of a insurer's business makes use of optimization techniques to answer questions such as whether it is more profitable to increase a line of business (for eg. product liability insurance) while reducing another line of business (for eg. workers compensation insurance), without increasing the risk of insurance losses.
Use of copulas in modelling dependence between different types of insurance losses (for eg. property losses vs motor-liability losses)
Some actuarial work also involve financial knowledge if you are involved in securitizing insurance risks into insurance-linked securities such as Catastrophe bonds or pricing of weather derivatives. (these type of jobs are concentrated in Bermuda)
Life insurers and non-life insurers with longer-duration liabilities are concerned with asset-liability management, making sure that assets invested today are sufficient to cover liabilities that are due many, many years later. (interest-rate modelling comes into play here)
There is a whole list of interesting, quantitative literature/research papers on actuarial topics themselves for eg. the use of Stimulated Annealing techniques in portfolio optimization, the use of Extreme Value Theory in catastrophe risk assessment.

I think there is no lack of intellectual challenge or interesting topics in the profession. One main reason why ex-actuarial students are moving to quant position is due to the fact that one has to go through a series of 9 exams to become a fully-credentialed actuary. This really is a big push factor in my opinion. Whether or not the exams are the best guage of competence in an insurance/actuarial profession is debate for another day.

 

[PerfectSeek]

I used to be a pension actuary. The work was terribly boring and not quantitative at all. The exams should not be that difficult for someone with a strong quant background.

In general, pros = secure job, fairly good pay, good work life balance (especially in insurance)
cons = limited upside potential, lots of exams, day to day work is not very quantitative

 

[gettingstart]

The most intellectual challenging part is the exams but not the work itself.

After being an actuary and finishing all the exams, I am moving to get an MFE

 

[henry jiang]

Is a background in accounting useful in the actuarial profession?

 

[APalley]

Is a background in accounting useful in the actuarial profession?

Mostly unnecessary, but could come in handy if you have it already I guess. There is really no relation to the 2 fields, except for a few subtypes of corporate actuaries (such as DAC). Do not waste your time with anything other than basic accounting knowledge (income statements, balance sheets, etc) though.