What do you love about being an actuary?

Question

My husband has decided to change careers and become an actuary. So, what do you love about your job/career choice? Do you feel like you have job security? Other career changers- glad you made the switch?

Answer 1

I like the stability. I know what I’m supposed to do. I get paid good and I have no stress. Most jobs that pay you as much as an actuary have something attached to it. Most of the time it’s stress.

Answer 2

I think you have a lot of “power” as an actuary, especially credentialed one. Pay is stable, and job security is high (at least for me). I feel like it takes so much to train an actuary that it’ll take a lot for a company to let one go. I also think companies are always looking for experienced actuaries.

You have a lot of freedom too - I can come and go as I please - as long as I get my work done, no one cares when I log on or whether I’m in the office.

I will say it was a long road for me to get to this point. The first 10 years of my career was brutal - trying to take exams while working in consulting with a crushing workload. But now I’ve gotten to the point where I have the credentials and experience where I can set my own terms. And I don’t work in consulting anymore :-).

Sure, there are other jobs that pay more. But I feel appreciated and valued in my field.

Answer 3

Pay is good enough that my wife can stay home with the kids and I don’t have to worry about saying no to any of their activities, like signing up for an extra session of sports or something like that.

I also enjoy the actual work. There’s a level of problem solving and creative outlet that jives really well with me, even if it’s just updating a yearly report with a new data pull.

Most of the coworkers are good too. One thing I think a lot of people miss is that the exams force a soft bound on the level of competency/intellect your coworkers will have. Of course, it’s still possible you might with a dunce or a blow off, but for the most part you can at least trust your workers to be relatively smart about doing their job. The issues I find about coworkers “missing the mark” are pretty bit picky compare to other coworkers I’ve had in other careers.

Answer 4

We used to have some forum called Actuarial Outpost which was in my opinion the most badass professional forum on the planet until the owner nuked it. But I would say that was one of my favorite parts. Most of the remaining people moved on to GoActuary.

Answer 5

Pros:

• Other Actuaries are very friendly/supportive

• Wide variety of work

• Most jobs are now Hybrid or Remote

• Large focus on analytics with a sprinkle of report writing

• Great salary transparency due to plenty of actuarial salary survives

• Passing exams is a guaranteed way of making more money

• Decent job security, especially after reaching at least ASA/ACAS

• Less competition for jobs compared to other analytical roles (E.g. Data Scientist)


Cons:

• Lower pay initially compared to some other analytical jobs

• Exams take up a lot of your free time

• Can work long hours if you work as a Consultant

• Hard to move industries after 2-3 years of experience (pay cut & more exams)

Answer 6

The home office, salary, and benefits. I'm thinking of changing companies and is nice knowing that I don't have to try so hard because there's always some recruiter on the DMs.

Answer 7

Are you an actuary as well?

Answer 8

Career changer from high school teacher. Absolutely no regrets, exams suck but now that I am almost done the steady pay raises have been a game changer. Once you are credentialed you will have great job security and being in a non consulting role I have great work life balance (even including studying). Feel free to have him reach out to me, always happy to connect and help people out in a similar position I was.

Answer 9

A few standouts:

1. You're in control of your own career progression through the exams. Want more money and promotions? Pass exams. Good with where you're at? Stop taking exams.

2. Actuaries mostly work with other actuaries (until higher levels), who are generally smarter than average and more pleasant than average to work with.

3. The pay is great, and the work uses enough critical thinking I'm not often bored - though that may be a consulting vs insurance thing.

Answer 10

Following this because I’m trying to change my career to become an actuary as well