Career Direction Advice

Actuary springs to mind.

I don't know what the path into it is in this country. Where I come from, it was to trainee job with a firm (usually and insurance company), and did exams as part of the traineeship.

evadingnun wrote: »

Thanks both for getting back to me, sorry for the tardy response.

That does seem very interesting to me, I've done a bit of reading in the past few days.

From what I've seen, at least for trainees, there are a lot of hours, and maybe a bit of travelling. Do the number of hours relent a bit as you go on? I don't mind doing extra work if it's building towards my future. While I don't think they'd be in any way easy, I'm not all that worried about the exams, I've got a good track record with exams. To be fully trained there's 15 exams, right? Again, there's a lot of general info online, but most of it is a few years old.

Finally, what's the best first step to make? Simply search "trainee actuary" on job sites? Who are the big players in Ireland, is there any way to tell which company is better to work for (glassdoor isn't highly populated with Irish workplaces)? I worry about choosing a firm, since, if they're funding exams and membership, they're probably going to expect a long enough commitment.

Hi,

I didn't do more than 40 hours a week while I was doing exams but it really depends on the company and the area you work in. I did do travelling, but most people I know did not travel.

The info is all on www.actuaries.org.uk. It's 100% up-to-date there and very comprehensive - it should be your no 1 reference place. There are 15 exams. There is a forum on acted.co.uk as well which can be useful.

Companies don't require much commitment, people move around as a student all the time. What some do is 'clawback' exam fees paid over the last 12 months but most companies who hire will refund that back. What is more important is to understand the varied areas actuaries work in and decide which is for you. The main three are life, pensions and general insurance. Pensions is dying and I don't recommend so it's mainly a choice between life and GI. You should read up the differences between these areas and understand which would suit you better.

You are right, it makes a minimum of three years. I did it in 3.5 but 5 is probably average and there is no upper limit. The exams generally have between a 30 and mid 50% pass rate each time, with an average of about 40. You can work out for yourself that passing all first time is tough (although we cannot assume independent events here!). The problem is everyone is just as qualified and clever as you are - often it's drive that is the big differentiator in results.

The best next step is to talk to a recruiter. I recommend Jenny at Acumen or Patrick at Oliver James. They will be able to tell you if you are hireable in your current state and could maybe guide you more re different roles. You may need to go and do a year's diploma in UCD in Actuarial Science to make yourself more marketable. However, I think with your data analyst background, you would be a good candidate right now.

Knowledge of SQL will be a big plus and advanced Excel would be great too. VBA, pivot tables and vlookup are some of the key things we would look for. Any other systems will only help too, like R, SAS, Access, etc. I would sell yourself as half a student actuary already so a better gamble than a new grad.

Just to say that I think you will need to read around a bit more and really understand what this role is before you go for it. Employers like to see someone who has done their research and fully knows what they are getting themselves in to. You want to come across as very enthusiastic too.

Hope that helps!

Great advice here, thanks.

Im actually very close to taking the plunge and starting to study in September. Having researched/procrastinated and generally faffed about in trying to decide which direction to pursue, I have settled on actuarial studies. My situation is slightly different though. I am in my late twenties and will be pursuing this as a career change. I will be working in my current job for the medium term ( a job i enjoy by the way, but looking for long term prospects) and will make the change 3/5 years down the line.

Can I ask about the study, the prospect of self study does concern me in terms of not having a peer group to bounce ideas/set standards/kick arse etc. Not a major concern for the CT's but beyond that in order to assimilate the new concepts etc. I would have all my education within 'taught' programmes in traditional universities so the structure isnt there to rely on. Is there a tutorial group/student groups for interacting (How many candidates would there be in Dublin every year for instance?)?

In terms of making the jump into the industry, my age dosent concern me (should it?!) but in terms of employers taking on candidates that may be significantly down the road in terms of having all the CT/CA exams completed but without the experience. Would this be an obstacle? My interest area would be finance/investment side of things as opposed to the others but, in truth I actually dont know that much about the types of roles specifically.

If you have the money should look to the actuarial course in UCD - 9 months course and potential can get all CT's - but in reality be looking to get about 5/6 -

Not knowing anything really about your knowledge, but assuming your somewhere smart, the 2 easy CT exams would be CT1 and CT7, while CT5 and CT8 would be considered the harder ones.

Salary for most companies are linked to your exams, so the more you have passed when you join, the more you'll get paid, and considering guys are coming out of college with 8 CT's, you can see how good the UCD course is considering its over 9 months.

http://www.ucd.ie/graduatestudies/coursefinder/taughtprogrammes/gdip-actuarial-science/