Career change - Actuary

Just looking for opinions on this, hopefully from someone with experience. It's something I'm weighing up at the moment and just would like to gather as much information as possible before actually taking action.

I'm in my early 30s now so I'm not a recent grad. I studied civil engineering and worked in that field for a while before taking a job in the data science field which I'm currently in. I also have an MSc in data analytics.

I enjoy maths/stats/all that good stuff and in my current job I feel like I'm just writing masses of SQL code on a daily basis rather than actually applying mathematical techniques to it which has me thinking of actuary.

I can't give up work to study full time, that's out of the question. Due to living expenses/mortgage/etc etc I don't have a huge amount of money to devote to this either. So just wondering what the potential route is here if I decided to try it out, I know there's professional exams to be done but is self-study an option for these? At least in the early stages anyway? Would it be feasible to try take the financial maths exam as a starting point without taking a course?

Is the work challenging and interesting? How is the jobs market at the moment, I assume it's a skill in demand? How would joining the industry at my age impact my career prospects if at all? Final question, and I'm going to word this carefully, what is the time period before getting employed and starting to earn a decent wage? My salary at the moment is more than enough to keep me going so I am not just chasing money here, but I'd find going back to trainee wages pretty tough.

Well, this got no replies which probably says something in itself, but will give it one bump in case anyone has any advice. Sorry!

Arcade_Tryer

Actuary is a highly skilled specialised area, similar to accountancy, but more elusive. Others may disagree.

Best advice is to research the area thoroughly, and the Dublin market. Apparently pensions are a big part of the field, and pensions are similar to plumbing in that there's always going to be s**t to deal with. No further info to provide unfortunately.

Arcade_Tryer

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

Actuary is a highly skilled specialised area, similar to accountancy, but more elusive. Others may disagree.

Best advice is to research the area thoroughly, and the Dublin market. Apparently pensions are a big part of the field, and pensions are similar to plumbing in that there's always going to be s**t to deal with. No further info to provide unfortunately.

Yeah thanks, really need to speak to someone in the field I think, might try one of the recruitment companies but I'm always a bit wary of them.

Think I'll do the first exam in April next year and go from there. There's a sitting in Sept but don't think it gives enough time to study for it. You can take it as a non-member of the society so won't be too onerous in terms of cost etc etc so even if nothing comes of it it won't be the end of the world.

If you go onto the wedbsite actuaries.ie there is a place where you can ask to speak to an actuary. That actuary then emails you and you can ask them questions and advice. I did this years ago and was very helpful. Best of luck.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

If you go onto the wedbsite actuaries.ie there is a place where you can ask to speak to an actuary. That actuary then emails you and you can ask them questions and advice. I did this years ago and was very helpful. Best of luck.

Great thanks, found an email on the site there, I'll get in touch with them later. Should be very useful.

Ace2007

Leslie Rich Shortbread wrote: »

Just looking for opinions on this, hopefully from someone with experience. It's something I'm weighing up at the moment and just would like to gather as much information as possible before actually taking action.

I'm in my early 30s now so I'm not a recent grad. I studied civil engineering and worked in that field for a while before taking a job in the data science field which I'm currently in. I also have an MSc in data analytics.

I enjoy maths/stats/all that good stuff and in my current job I feel like I'm just writing masses of SQL code on a daily basis rather than actually applying mathematical techniques to it which has me thinking of actuary.

I can't give up work to study full time, that's out of the question. Due to living expenses/mortgage/etc etc I don't have a huge amount of money to devote to this either. So just wondering what the potential route is here if I decided to try it out, I know there's professional exams to be done but is self-study an option for these? At least in the early stages anyway? Would it be feasible to try take the financial maths exam as a starting point without taking a course?

Is the work challenging and interesting? How is the jobs market at the moment, I assume it's a skill in demand? How would joining the industry at my age impact my career prospects if at all? Final question, and I'm going to word this carefully, what is the time period before getting employed and starting to earn a decent wage? My salary at the moment is more than enough to keep me going so I am not just chasing money here, but I'd find going back to trainee wages pretty tough.

If I was you I would apply to sit CT1 as a non member and sit it in September/October this year, that might seem tight, but it's a nice subject and depending what your math skill are like, 8/9 weeks should be more than doable. It's the only exam you can do as a non member.

If you think September is a bit tight, and want to wait till April I would if I was you - join the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (it's UK based as there are no separate Irish exams) and sit CT1 and CT7, along with CT9 they are probably the 2 easies subjects to do. By doing this your showing any future employers that your serious about it and if you pass the exam they will see this.

Exam wise - there are 15 exams starting from scratch, if you could afford to - there is a one year full time post grad course in UCD which I think you can get up to 8 CT exams (more realistic would be 5). Alternatively work and study is the way the majority of people do it.

Industry wise - Life insurance and general insurance would be to 2 biggest employers, then you have pensions and investment. There are also a number of alternative sectors but those 4 are the primary ones.

On the money from, it depends on what you call decent and in turn how quick you can pass exams,

Ace2007

Ace2007 wrote: »

If I was you I would apply to sit CT1 as a non member and sit it in September/October this year, that might seem tight, but it's a nice subject and depending what your math skill are like, 8/9 weeks should be more than doable. It's the only exam you can do as a non member.

If you think September is a bit tight, and want to wait till April I would if I was you - join the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (it's UK based as there are no separate Irish exams) and sit CT1 and CT7, along with CT9 they are probably the 2 easies subjects to do. By doing this your showing any future employers that your serious about it and if you pass the exam they will see this.

Exam wise - there are 15 exams starting from scratch, if you could afford to - there is a one year full time post grad course in UCD which I think you can get up to 8 CT exams (more realistic would be 5). Alternatively work and study is the way the majority of people do it.

Industry wise - Life insurance and general insurance would be to 2 biggest employers, then you have pensions and investment. There are also a number of alternative sectors but those 4 are the primary ones.

On the money from, it depends on what you call decent and in turn how quick you can pass exams,

Thanks for that. I'm not going to be in the country for the Sept exam dates so I can only do them next April really which I think is better off really as more time to study.

The course in UCD would be impossible unfortunately. I can't afford the fees or to live without a salary for a year. I'll probably try do 2 exams next April. I've become aware they're changing the curriculum from 2019 onwards so I'll base what exams I do on that.

CT1 is the only exam you can take as a non-member right? When would I have to join the society to take other exams if I wanted to do them in April?

Ace2007

Leslie Rich Shortbread wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm not going to be in the country for the Sept exam dates so I can only do them next April really which I think is better off really as more time to study.

The course in UCD would be impossible unfortunately. I can't afford the fees or to live without a salary for a year. I'll probably try do 2 exams next April. I've become aware they're changing the curriculum from 2019 onwards so I'll base what exams I do on that.

CT1 is the only exam you can take as a non-member right? When would I have to join the society to take other exams if I wanted to do them in April?

yea I didn't think about the curriculum change - and I'm not sure what goes with what, but probably best to pass subjects that are paired together so that you don't have to re-do them

tbh I haven't a clue when you would need to join - but if you shoot them an email they will get back to you - education.services@actuaries.org.uk

And yea CT1 is only non-member exam you can sit .

cunnifferous

I'm also considering a career change into Actuary. I don't have a maths degree behind me, I have a PhD in molecular biology though so hopefully I have the capacity to learn.

I'm thinking of doing the CT1 exam to dip my toe into the area first. My question is what material do I need to pass the exams? I see they sell core reading notes on the Institute website but what other material would I need to get up to speed?

cunnifferous

cunnifferous wrote: »

I'm also considering a career change into Actuary. I don't have a maths degree behind me, I have a PhD in molecular biology though so hopefully I have the capacity to learn.

I'm thinking of doing the CT1 exam to dip my toe into the area first. My question is what material do I need to pass the exams? I see they sell core reading notes on the Institute website but what other material would I need to get up to speed?

There's a website acted.co.uk that sells the core material plus their own notes plus question banks and stuff like that. It's what I was going to work off anyway. Obviously it's more expensive than just the core material, think it comes to about 130 gbp per subject.

You can also get all the exam papers and solutions for about the last 15 years for free from the UK society website.

Ace2007

Leslie Rich Shortbread wrote: »

There's a website acted.co.uk that sells the core material plus their own notes plus question banks and stuff like that. It's what I was going to work off anyway. Obviously it's more expensive than just the core material, think it comes to about 130 gbp per subject.

You can also get all the exam papers and solutions for about the last 15 years for free from the UK society website.

acted also sell mini booklets (A5) I think of pass exam papers and questions, advantage of them is that every question from a particular section is in the booklet.