Engineering to Actuary...or renewable energy...

shakeydude

Hi,

I am an civil engineer and this year I want to go back to do an MSc by distant learning. I was interested in Renewable Energy at UU but this has no business/project management modules available and I believe that I have enough technical engineering done so I was looking at an MSc in Actuary. If I did this MSc would I get anything from it or would my only prospects be in working out pensions and the like. Would this MSc be completely useless unless I went into becoming an actuary???Surely not would be my gut reaction but that is the route that the majority of people go down. And what happens the people who drop out of the exam process, do they give up on that career altogether or stay in the industry.

I seem to be getting more confused the more I research???!!!!!

tinkerbell

OK, so you want to do Renewable Energy yet you are looking at doing an MSc in ACTUARY?!!! They are obviously at opposite ends of the scale like ... An MSc in Actuarial Science would be very actuarial and technical, it doesn't have "business / project mgmt" modules in it. There is absolutely no point in putting yourself through the pain of doing actuarial exams unless you actually want to practice it. Take it from someone who did four years in college in actuarial, a postgrad in actuarial and is now finishing off the remainder of the exams while working - it is very tough and I wouldn't advise it to anyone unless they are actually seriously considering becoming an actuary. But, I don't mind it being so tough because I love what I'm doing and the exams are just a small negative in the big amazing package that an actuarial career has to offer.

Furthermore, actuary does not equal pensions. You can be a life actuary, pensions actuary, investment actuary, valuations actuary, reporting actuary, etc. etc. etc.

People who do drop out of the exam process generally just keep working in the jobs they are in, they don't necesarily give up on the work asuch, they just give up on the exams. Of course then they always need a qualified actuary to sign off all their work. There are actually some companies who advertise specifically for actuarial students who gave up the exams because they can pay them less (which is obvious though).

Sounds to me like you want to do a business course instead. You really need to give this "MSc in Actuary" a lot more serious thought before you go down that road because it's not an easy route at all.

What university were you thinking of going to anyway?

EDIT:
Here are the subjects that you take in order to qualify (just to give you an idea):
CT1 Financial Maths
CT2 Reporting (does a bit of accounting, tax, etc)
CT3 Statistics
CT4 Models
CT5 Contingencies
CT6 Risk Theory
CT7 Economics
CT8 Financial Economics
CT9 Business Awareness Module (it's a 2 day course that all students after 2005 are required to sit, this is not done in any university course)

CA1 Core Applications
CA2 Modelling & Audit
CA3 Communications

ST1 - ST6 (2 of these are required, Specialist Technical subjects in Healthcare, Life, General, Pensions, Investment)
SA (1 required to qualify, as the ST subjects except it's your final specialist exam)

shakeydude

Thanks for that Tinkerbell. I really should not have mentioned about the renewable energy I have enough information on that.

The reason that I am drawn to actuary is the fact that it is so maths related but will give me a good basis in business, I believe. Also I think that actuary will really stimulate me and force me to do my best. I finished college 4 years ago and I miss the process of learning:o . Sounds sad writing it down

I was looking also at financial mathematics but I have not seen any decent distance learning courses in this.

The course is in the University of Leeds, and if you have high enough marks you are exempt from the CPT 1-8.

The way I am looking studying actuary for 2 years wont make worse off 2 years down the line. I am also trying to talk to some qualified actuaries so I wont be jumping into anything headfirst blindly