What's it like to be an actuary?

[cheesehead]

I've been pondering actuarial science as a major - it's not exactly the most exciting career in the world, but it seems like one I could do and seems like it would be condusive to me getting paid at some point in the future. Do you have to be a people person or frequently deal with working in groups? How strenuous is the workload? And how well does it pay?

 

[alevasseur14]

I'm pretty sure the people AT YOUR SCHOOL would love to tell you about it. How could anybody possibly know that?

 

[AFurryReptile]

"An actuary is a person who is employed by insurance companies to calculate how much they should charge their clients for insurance."

I think I'd kill myself before I hit 30.

 

[Leros]

"An actuary is a person who is employed by insurance companies to calculate how much they should charge their clients for insurance."

I think I'd kill myself before I hit 30.

Don't tell the insurance people that. It might affect your rates.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Lots of pension analysis as well.

You have to be strong with math and also take a test to become licensed.

Job is not creative, but pays very well.

 

[JEDI]

Lots of pension analysis as well.

You have to be strong with math and also take a test to become licensed.

Job is not creative, but pays very well.

extemely well... 6 figures w/the first # not a 1

but that test is not easy (obviously by the salrary involved for those that do)

 

[SandEagle]

its actuary quite boring

 

[SearchMaster]

A friend of mine is an actuary. Her office is virtually all women (plus), and the pay is very nice (plus). However the tests are apparently very hard and I think you have to pass six of them before you become a full fledged actuary.

To give you an idea of how hard they were, she had a 3.9x GPA (straight As except for one A-) as a double major in college (Math and Chem E) - very smart lady. She failed the first two tests the first time she took them. I'm not sure about the rest of them.

 

[Gibson486]

Engineering statistics made me cry....I can only imagine the full application of it....Makes me love being a consultant.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Engineering statistics made me cry....I can only imagine the full application of it....Makes me love being a consultant.

i was at my friend's PhD defense the other day and his thesis was on stochastic modeling. really quite brilliant. but anyway, when it came time to validate is modeling method, he couldn't use a single variable ANOVA. had to use multi variable - aka, MANOVA. for some reason i thought that was funny.

 

[DaveSimmons]

They all want to be lion tamers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h-wVe9a6rQ

 

[Fritzo]

I hear they're being replaced by virtuaries these days.

 

[dennilfloss]

My dad wanted me to be an actuary. Great money but I would have died of boredom.

 

[Sumguy]

From what I understand, its using statistics (maybe with some real math) to do riveting work, like calculating the estimate of damages or what to charge someone for a service.

Given that I'm trying to get my AP stats credit to count for engineering stats, something I definitely don't want to do.

Isn't there some dude named ActuaryTM who is an actual actuary on these forums?

 

[Xcobra]

Good luck with that!

 

[cheesehead]

My dad wanted me to be an actuary. Great money but I would have died of boredom.

The alternatives for me are going for communication arts, which seems to be a major of debatable utility for future corporate peons, and electrical engineering, which I'm interested in but not very good at. (I do badly with heavy workloads, stressful deadlines, and working in groups. Sue me.) There's also accounting, which seems not far off from actuarial work except in that it doesn't pay quite as well and is somewhat easier to major in.

I figure if I'm going to be miserable, I can be well paid and miserable.

 

[xanis]

A friend of mine is majoring in Actuarial Science. From what I understand, actuaries basically crunch numbers for insurance companies and the like.

That being said, I don't think I could do it. There's very good money in it, but I'd want to kill myself after a few years of doing it. Oh, and I also suck at math... so there's that.

 

[Praxis1452]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

 

[tokie]

I don't know what it's like to be an actuary, but I took most of the required courses in the Actuarial Science stream by the time I finished my Math degree. Once you get into the advanced lifetime-survival stuff it is actually very interesting.

 

[cheesehead]

I don't know what it's like to be an actuary, but I took most of the required courses in the Actuarial Science stream by the time I finished my Math degree. Once you get into the advanced lifetime-survival stuff it is actually very interesting.

What's the difficulty level compared to accounting? Is it just a case of "three semesters of calc and a semester of stats", or does it delve into more advanced mathematics?

 

[Kirby]

From what I understand, its using statistics (maybe with some real math) to do riveting work, like calculating the estimate of damages or what to charge someone for a service.

Given that I'm trying to get my AP stats credit to count for engineering stats, something I definitely don't want to do.

Isn't there some dude named ActuaryTM who is an actual actuary on these forums?

I haven't ActuaryTM post in a long time, on TFNN or here.

 

[MovingTarget]

Lots of math. Then a whole lot more math. It is very rewarding if you can handle the calculations without too much trouble. It is one field that seems to be doing pretty well even in this economy.

Even as a mathematician, statistics was never something that really interested me.

 

[L00PY]

There's money in it but it's a soul killing level of boring. Plus endless tests, test, and more tests. That you've got to pay for to boot. Whether you pass or fail.

Go statistics if you want but I'd suggest you steer away from actual actuarial geared degrees. I suspect it's much easier to transition with a statistics degree in the actuarial field than with an actuarial sciences degree into the statistics field.

 

[ctark]

I've been pondering actuarial science as a major - it's not exactly the most exciting career in the world, but it seems like one I could do and seems like it would be condusive to me getting paid at some point in the future. Do you have to be a people person or frequently deal with working in groups? How strenuous is the workload? And how well does it pay?

My girlfriend is an Actuarial Science and Finance major. She has a 3.9gpa and has done internships throughout college including with American Fidelity. Actuaries make very good money if you can get to the top, but getting there is hard and the tests are VERY hard. She has failed her first two and she's no slouch when it comes to intelligence.

My girlfriend likes to be "busy" and likes to interact with people. Most actuaries are math nerds who have no social interaction with other people, she will be the first to tell you this. It's sometimes a very lonely job, and cause of this reason she's thinking she might go the finance route instead. You better like math is all I can say.

 

[cheesehead]

You better like math is all I can say.

I'm good at math, but not THAT good. I guess I'll go for accounting - from what I hear, it's dull, but low-stress and fairly easy.