Entry Positions

It is clear that one of the most difficult parts of undertaking an actuarial career, is to get the firs actuarial job. So let me throw an open question for those of you who are already working as actuaries:

How did you find your first position? Graduate programme? A random openning in the middle of the year? any career changer who can explain his experience getting the first position? Were you already working in insurance and you got the chance to move to the actuarial department?

Any shared experience will be very appreciated.

Cheers

 

Maths and Physics background. During my mid-30s I got sick of writing accounting and insurance software, so I invited a senior local actuary out for drinks to discuss the industry. (NOT touching him up for a job).

He gave me some good targets to send a CV to, and one of them hired me. Then I started ze dreaded CTs.

 

When you say targets you mean contacts or companies? Are the companies willing to consider spontaneous candidates at entry level?

 

I have answered you before and can see you are determined...

In order to get my first position in investment in the City I took a week off work and started cold-calling many investment and general insurance firms (coming from a pensions background). I did a lot of research before calling I had a script prepared in front of me - with possible posed questions and intelligent answers. It was scary - sometimes I had a glass of wine before to defeat the nerves. There were lots of rejections, although most were very polite and considerate - because people are generally nice. Some rejections only came after I sent in my CV. A few firms left me hoping and hanging for a week or so with late responses and maybes.

That week of cold calling changed my life. It worked for me and I got the job in investment on the first and only interview. It wasn't even an interview. It was a chat in the company caffeteria. This 'interview' came about 6 weeks after the cold call since at first they were not sure they were hiring. It was more or less direct since I spoke and exchanged emails to the 'man in charge' only and first. I therefore by-passed HR. I only spoke to HR once I had been informally offered the position.

Also try

• internships/work experience
• try peripheral positions which are not traditionally actuarial
• try looking at companies located outside london
• find work in the technical area you used to work before in insurance and then make an internal transfer to an actuarial area.
• do NSA level surveillance on Company job boards so you apply directly
  

 

Just companies.
As they say: 70% of all positions which get filled are never advertised.

 

I got my first role as an intern, sometimes that's a better way in for people. I had three separate internships during my time at university, and that was great for me because it not only confirmed to me that I would enjoy being an actuary, but it gave me work experience and an idea of what it would be like to work for those specific companies, so I knew which one to choose when they offered me graduate places.

I appreciate that you might not want to do an internship if you're already working elsewhere, but it might be a good way for you to "test the waters" and see if you'd enjoy the work and the people.

 

Grad scheme. During a grad scheme you will be the lowest paid in the department and they will throw all their boring data checking type work at you for as long as they can get away with. You'll wonder why you bothered getting a degree at this point. You'll also wonder where all that learning and development, or when the much hyped Actuarial training begins. You'll seriously wonder why you study stats and stochastic processes in your exams at night then come to work to do such mundane work!

Usually, to get treated more like an adult and get more respect you have to stay at the company for an awful long time on a very mean company pay scale, or move jobs after 2-3 years.

 

Wow, that's incredible. I admire you for that!

 

Sonnyshook-that's really interesting. Apologies if you"ve answered already but what was your experience in pensions? I am keen to know how hard it will be to break into the profession as (as name suggests) I am currently a solicitor with zero work based knowledge/skills of modelling or anything else outside of my CT studies to date. Many thanks!

 

In general breaking into the profession is better facilitated with internships and internal transfers.

Given your lack of experience and past profession the best way to break into the profession is to do an actuarial science degree at LSE, Cass, Southampton, Heriott Watt or MORSE at Warwick (I say these because they are well recognsied). In that way you provide a clean break with your past profession which is somewhat irrelevant. Being a university student or graduate makes employers view you freshly and differently - even though its a competitive job market. For example if you get a first class degree or masters distinction your abilities are viewed without question.

I worked for a mid-tier consultancy firm principally assisting in actuarial valuation of DB pension schemes and all the stuff that surrounds it including unexciting things such as data mining and validation exercises, reviewing demographic and economic assumptions, transfer values, responding to client letters and requests etc.

 

Imperial College also has Masters. Imperial is one of the best Unis in the world. Expensive but worth it

 

List of actuarial Masters.

http://www.mastersportal.eu/search/?q=ci-30|kw-actuarial|lv-master||9464f626

List of actuarial bachelors

http://www.bachelorsportal.eu/search/?q=ci-30|kw-actuarial|lv-bachelor||e3e9d120

 

My Experience

Hacktuary85 - answer to your original question – I had been working in a country where actuarial jobs were sort of ringfenced for those with an undergraduate actuarial degree from the local unis. At the time, I wanted to get into the profession, so I made an effort to prove that I was interested in the work by planning to take a Masters in Actuarial Science at Cass. I was all set to go until someone I knew somehow managed to get me a job in a junior role in his actuarial department. I acknowledge that this was the luckiest thing to have ever happened to me.
For a long time, I thought that it was the norm for people to get into the profession via grad schemes, and that the actuarial route is normally taken by those that have come straight out of uni, without having worked in other fields. This was because of my experience in the country that I worked in, and also based on my initial research into gaining entry into the profession.

I work in the UK now, and I’ve found that it is actually very common for people to have moved into the actuarial field mid-career. That sort of implies that the actuarial profession is attractive to those working in other fields.

My personal experience is that I had done a few very stressful jobs in the past, but I knew of uni friends who had progressed quite quickly in their actuarial jobs without as much stress. They’d also end up with a prestigious qualification – something that I liked the sound of at the time, but which I wouldn’t have got in the job that I was doing at the time.

I know that I’m personally happy with my move.

I can also say that there are relatively fewer whingers in the actuarial departments that I’ve worked in. In previous jobs, there were people who looked depressed at work, and conversations were usually about how much they hate what they do etc. whereas I’ve generally come across people who are relatively happy with their actuarial jobs.