I am an actuary.
I often get asked what this means. I've been asked so many times that I have a set response to begin with. It's always, "I'm the one who determines how much you pay for insurance." If someone has heard of what an underwriter is, a follow up question is usually something like, "Oh, so you're an underwriter, then?” No, I was starting out small so that you don't get a five minute explanation when what you really wanted was just a ten second blurb. I'll say something like, "No, but we work with the underwriters a lot. An underwriter works with individual policies, but actuaries work with all of the policies at once." Sometimes I'll get the question, "But what is it that you really do?" If I am trying to be comical, I'll say something like "I just make up numbers all day," or "I work as an Excel monkey". If I am someplace where a formal explanation is needed, I’ll say something like, "We use the laws of statistics and probability together with accounting and economic principles to influence the balancing act between attracting new policyholders and keeping the insurance company solvent." If it’s a standard serious question, it’ll be something simpler like, "I'm a cross between a statistician and an accountant," It all depends on what I think the person wants to hear. By this time, unless the person is super interested, I'm usually looking to turn the conversation into either what the other person does for a living or another topic entirely. Because let’s face it, none of this paragraph has any sort of zing or sex appeal to it. It’s not like we’re rocket surgeons (maybe you didn’t chuckle at that, but I did).
There aren't a whole lot of actuaries in the country. There are only about 20,000 of us nationwide. It wasn't something I had even heard about until my sophomore year of college. I was at Iowa State and was unhappy with the chemical engineering major I had picked. Something about it wasn't agreeing with me. That something was my Organic Chemistry classes. I struggled and struggled and struggled with that class. I had problems with that class because there is so much memorization involved. I don't have the ability to memorize and regurgitate a ton of info for an exam. It probably has something to do with why I am better at math classes than humanities type classes. With math type problems, there aren't a whole lot of basic principles that truly have to be memorized. You just have to learn the rules as to how you can manipulate the data to get to the desired result. Anyway, I was unhappy with my chemical engineering major. I took a list of all of the majors offered at Iowa State and printed it out. I then crossed all of the ones that didn't appeal to me. That left some choices. This was reduced further by my requirement that the major actually had to lead to a reasonable shot at a job. We were now down to just a few. I thought about it overnight, and then looked at what the University of Iowa offered. I went through the same process and every time I went through the list, actuarial science kept popping out. I didn't know what it was, but was afraid to cross it off in case it might be something I would enjoy. I got the list whittled down to just a few majors again and then went into research mode. Once I did a lot of digging, I knew this would be the career for me. It always in the top 5 careers in those job surveys, and is always near the top in terms of low stress. It also helped that Iowa is one of the premier schools in the country for actuarial science. There are a lot of companies that do on-campus interviews at Iowa simply because the candidate pool is quite good there.
There is a drawback with a career as an actuary. Those are the professional exams. Your education is not complete once you are finished with college. There are approximately 9 large professional exams that you must pass in order to get your full accreditation. Most students will have one, two, or three exams passed by the time they exit college. They are grueling 4 hour exams covering topics ranging from basic mathematical and statistical principles to laws, regulations, and professional ethics. It is recommended that for each of the exams you study for 400 hours. You're expected to attempt two exams per year. On top of that, the exam pass ratios vary each time, but are only around 40% to 45%. It is extremely rare that someone can make it through all of the exams without failing one. My first major fail in the exam process occurred last fall. I'm looking to rebound with this spring's exam. I’m just hoping that all of the studying doesn’t suck out my soul (just kidding, I think).
The good news is that employers really support the accreditation process. They see the value of the knowledge our professional societies provide. They show their support by giving us about 120 hours of work time per exam sitting to spend on studying. That is why I get to either come in late every day or leave at 2:30 starting today until the end of April. It's also why I can make this post at 4:30 in the afternoon on a workday. So there you have it, a lecture about the life and times of an actuary. I hope I didn’t bore you to death.
I often get asked what this means. I've been asked so many times that I have a set response to begin with. It's always, "I'm the one who determines how much you pay for insurance." If someone has heard of what an underwriter is, a follow up question is usually something like, "Oh, so you're an underwriter, then?” No, I was starting out small so that you don't get a five minute explanation when what you really wanted was just a ten second blurb. I'll say something like, "No, but we work with the underwriters a lot. An underwriter works with individual policies, but actuaries work with all of the policies at once." Sometimes I'll get the question, "But what is it that you really do?" If I am trying to be comical, I'll say something like "I just make up numbers all day," or "I work as an Excel monkey". If I am someplace where a formal explanation is needed, I’ll say something like, "We use the laws of statistics and probability together with accounting and economic principles to influence the balancing act between attracting new policyholders and keeping the insurance company solvent." If it’s a standard serious question, it’ll be something simpler like, "I'm a cross between a statistician and an accountant," It all depends on what I think the person wants to hear. By this time, unless the person is super interested, I'm usually looking to turn the conversation into either what the other person does for a living or another topic entirely. Because let’s face it, none of this paragraph has any sort of zing or sex appeal to it. It’s not like we’re rocket surgeons (maybe you didn’t chuckle at that, but I did).
There aren't a whole lot of actuaries in the country. There are only about 20,000 of us nationwide. It wasn't something I had even heard about until my sophomore year of college. I was at Iowa State and was unhappy with the chemical engineering major I had picked. Something about it wasn't agreeing with me. That something was my Organic Chemistry classes. I struggled and struggled and struggled with that class. I had problems with that class because there is so much memorization involved. I don't have the ability to memorize and regurgitate a ton of info for an exam. It probably has something to do with why I am better at math classes than humanities type classes. With math type problems, there aren't a whole lot of basic principles that truly have to be memorized. You just have to learn the rules as to how you can manipulate the data to get to the desired result. Anyway, I was unhappy with my chemical engineering major. I took a list of all of the majors offered at Iowa State and printed it out. I then crossed all of the ones that didn't appeal to me. That left some choices. This was reduced further by my requirement that the major actually had to lead to a reasonable shot at a job. We were now down to just a few. I thought about it overnight, and then looked at what the University of Iowa offered. I went through the same process and every time I went through the list, actuarial science kept popping out. I didn't know what it was, but was afraid to cross it off in case it might be something I would enjoy. I got the list whittled down to just a few majors again and then went into research mode. Once I did a lot of digging, I knew this would be the career for me. It always in the top 5 careers in those job surveys, and is always near the top in terms of low stress. It also helped that Iowa is one of the premier schools in the country for actuarial science. There are a lot of companies that do on-campus interviews at Iowa simply because the candidate pool is quite good there.
There is a drawback with a career as an actuary. Those are the professional exams. Your education is not complete once you are finished with college. There are approximately 9 large professional exams that you must pass in order to get your full accreditation. Most students will have one, two, or three exams passed by the time they exit college. They are grueling 4 hour exams covering topics ranging from basic mathematical and statistical principles to laws, regulations, and professional ethics. It is recommended that for each of the exams you study for 400 hours. You're expected to attempt two exams per year. On top of that, the exam pass ratios vary each time, but are only around 40% to 45%. It is extremely rare that someone can make it through all of the exams without failing one. My first major fail in the exam process occurred last fall. I'm looking to rebound with this spring's exam. I’m just hoping that all of the studying doesn’t suck out my soul (just kidding, I think).
The good news is that employers really support the accreditation process. They see the value of the knowledge our professional societies provide. They show their support by giving us about 120 hours of work time per exam sitting to spend on studying. That is why I get to either come in late every day or leave at 2:30 starting today until the end of April. It's also why I can make this post at 4:30 in the afternoon on a workday. So there you have it, a lecture about the life and times of an actuary. I hope I didn’t bore you to death.
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