Hi Everyone I was hoping some of you could give me some advice. I'm thinking quite seriously about taking 1 or 2 of the CT exams to improve my chances of getting a job - I've just recently graduated in Maths. I've also just noticed from reading some of the previous posts that Visual Basic seems to be important. Is this true and should I try and learn some now as well? Also, I'd really appreciate some of your opinions on the various areas to work in eg. life, pensions etc. I've read a fair bit on various websites but would really appreciate anybody's 1st hand experience. Thanks for your time. Sarah
What you say is absolutely true - doing 1 or 2 CT exams will show that you are committed to doing the exams while you work. So definitely a yes to do a couple of exams. Also, IT skills are also a plus when looking for a position as an actuarial student. Employers will look at you more favourably if you have good IT skills as compared to someone with very minimal or no IT experience. Being a maths graduate, you shouldn't have too much of a problem getting interviews and eventually finding a job - I think employers really like maths degrees. With regards to life, pensions, or general insurance, my view is it all depends on you as a person. If you like dealing with clients and solving their ad-hoc problems and don't want to be in a very technical role, pensions would be suitable. If you like more technical work dealing with statistics and statistical modelling, general insurance would be good. There is a variety of areas that you could work in if you were in Life, which could be as technical and client facing (depending on whether you work for a consultancy or company, that is). I think it is quite important to start off in the field that you want to work in or else if you are not happy 2 years down the line it may be quite difficult switching disciplines (depending on your exam progress and transferrable skills).
Hi Veeko Many thanks for your advice. When talking about IT skills could you elaborate on that. Would having a good command of excel etc be sufficient when applying for jobs or is Visual Basic more along the required line. I was also curious as to how long it takes people on average to find a suitable job? Thanks again Sarah
It all depends on where you work. For example, I work in pensions and all I ever use is excel - I've never had to use advanced Visual Basic before (although some places do). I think having good excel ability and maybe be familiar with editing and manipulating VB code for use with visual basic for applications will help a great deal - you don't have to be an advanced VB programmer or anything like that!
If you've done some programming in college, you could pick up VB fairly easily. I'd concentrate on passing some CTs rather than learning VB; if you need it for a job, you can always learn it. Also, I wouldn't necessarily wait to pass some exams before applying for jobs.
