actuary as a degree

declan_lgs

Has anyone done/is anyone doing a degree in actuary here? I'm interested in doing it after my leaving cert coming up, but it would be a **** lot of work. I would love to do it for the money and the career, though, but do most people who do actuary degrees get jobs like that after their 4 years in uni? If I do an okay-good degree in DCU will I ACTUALLY have a good chance of going into a €50k/year job? Or would I need to pass further exams or do more years study?

Would I have a better chance if I did the degree in UCD which requires an extra ~60 points (555, which is difficult) instead of DCU?

And if anyone knows anything about actuary as a degree - is it that difficult if you put some effort in or do you need to be amazingly talented (I have a bit of that but perhaps not enough, I don't want to end up dropping out or failing, especially when I could have a handy time doing computer science and probably come out with a very good job too).

Please talk to me

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I started my degree in Actuary there in september in UCD and so far, so good.

The degree itself is not a professional qualification. After you finish it, you will need to get employed as a trainee actuary nd you will have to sit several professional exams. Doing well in your degree will however gain you several exemptions form the professional exams (the better your degree, the more exemptions.)

It is worth noting that you don't actually need any degree to become an actuary, you can just become a trainee after your leaving cert and sit all the professional exams. You'd want a pretty good leaving to get a company to hire you though I'd say.

As for the differences between UCD and DCU, I can't speak with much authority on the subject. Both colleges will try and pimp their own course, and I doubt there are people with enough experience of both courses to conclusively say one is better than the other. So far I can tell you that I'm very happy with the course in UCD though, and it does offer the benefit of a full semester work experience in year 3 which could prove very useful in getting your foot in the door with a future employer.

There are other threads on the subject, if you care to search for them, mainly in the Leaving Cert forum, and UCD forum AFAIK, but if you have any further questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them.

Fremen

If you're interested in doing actuary as a career, you're not limited to studying it in college. I know at least two engineers who graduated and then did a one-year certificate in it, and are now employed as trainee actuaries. They'd proabaly take on any decent maths graduates too.

I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of the degree, unless you really struggle with maths at leaving cert level. I was a bit worried starting college maths, but they don't expect you to be some sort of superhuman. In fact, while college maths is more technical, I would argue that the vast majority of it is "easier" than the LC.

If you want to walk into a 50k job, maybe you should consider becoming a quant for a bank...

http://jobs.efinancialcareers.co.uk/Quantitative_Analytics.htm

animaX

Did the actuarial degree in DCU. Decided not to become an actuary (not for me, its just another office job and not as prestigious as it once was.) The DCU degree is very good and you will definitely get a decent job out of it. The maths is not too hard if you work well.

Colonel Sanders

I did maths in Trinity and now work as an actuarial trainee. If you have decided to work in the field the actuarial degree will get up up to 8 exemptions. However I know some managers who won't hire students with full exemptions as they have to pay them more than someone with say a maths degree despite having the same level of experience (i.e. f uck all!!). I worked with a guy who was a civil engineer. Any subject with a lot of maths and/or economics would allow a company to hire you.

Loads of info on the professions website. I don't know anyone who started on €50k straight from college to be honest. The starting salary would probably be €30-35k these days (based on talking to new students) with no exemptions. You get bonuses and wage increases for each exam you pass or get an exemption from. With full exemptions the starting salary would obviously rise.

I won't lie, the exams are a pain in the backside but I like the job. Fingers crossed I'll be finished my exams in April!

Talk to people who have worked in as many fields as you can (General Insurance, Life assurance, pensions and investments) and decide which field you would like to work in. I work in general insurance and like it as its an area where actuaries are relatively new to and is therefore pretty dynamic and evolving all the time. However being an actuary doesn't pidgeon hole you into working in these areas, the professional qualification is pretty good to have and would help you in other careers too. Actuaries these days pop up everywhere in the financial sector.

Also look at a few recruitment websites, it'll give you an idea of what jobs are available etc.

declan_lgs

Cheers for the help everyone. So actuary in DCU might be worth going for, I'm thinking about doing CS first too now. It's hard to know!

Thanks all.

Colonel Sanders

From talking to people who did the course not all graduates went on to become actuaries. Its a pretty good degree, you would probably get a trading/quant analysis job pretty easily. You don't have to do the work experience in an insurance company, I'm sure there are many trading companies who will hire students for their internship.

ramanujan

too many actuaries qualifying these days which is keep wages low at entry.
wages are good for experienced actuaries though, but if its purely money your after i wouldn't recommend the actuarial road.