It's been very intersting reading all the replies from what seemed to be a harmless enough discussion. But felt it right to add my weight to the subject. When getting my job straight from Uni I wanted to aim for qualification after 6years at the very most taking into account my realistic knowledge. A few years ago, after realising that my goal was slipping, I reset my goal to not sit anymore exams after age 30. A few days ago I reached the half way point of the golden age and now set my sights on an FIA in the summer of 2007. Although I know myself that it is a case of 'could have done better', setting yourself smaller goals could be the way forward in relighting the zeal that a youthful (you could say blind and daft) student once had when entering this profession. I have been there before thinking of changing jobs, even thinking of becoming a plumber or a policeman. (I have a few friends who are coppers, they seem to have a enjoyable job with a damn good pension. One of my friends can retire at 48 with 2/3rds pension!!!). But have spoken to a few people at the work and at other places who say that it is worth it, when considering what other professions clock up in sense of hours worked and £s. The life work balance is also a good issue. I seem to have lost my 20s somewhere, but that could be being married with kids (I love them really). But coupled with a supportive family and friends this balanced can be redressed in your favour if you make the most of the time you have in between the seemingly constant studying. What you are doing here Gareth is the right kind of therapy. You are sharing your concerns and getting suppport or confirmations as to your troubles. The next step could be to speak to your mentor/manager in work to address this issue. They will probably have had students come to them before with similar problems. An FA hurts but think of the feeling when you are able to stick an I in the middle!!!! Good luck matey, your nearly there!
Do you really think you would have more free time if you worked for an investment bank? I know people who work in banking, and I have so much more free time than them, it isn't funny. Even with the exams, I think that we actuaries have quite a lot of free time compared to other professions - that's certainly the case if you work for an insurance company, rather than a consultancy. But I do see your point. The exams are kind of soul-destroying, and always having study to contend with does make it hard to plan other things to do with my free-time. If I were finished with work stuff when I leave work, then I'd probably fit more into my free-time, even if I was working longer hours. As it stands, I kind of stay in a lot, just in case I'm in the mood for doing some study. I'm just in the middle of my third sitting, and I feel like I've lost focus a bit already. It's not so much that I don't have time to study. I just think the exams are so pointless and boring. CT5 for example seems like a throw-back to the days before computers were invented - lots of fiddly calculator work and use of the tables, with hardly any emphasis on understanding. And there's a misprint on the April 2007 papers that seems to indicate that the people who set the exam lack a basic understanding of the material - just makes me wonder what the point is really. I thought that the point for me is that one day, I'll be earning good money, in a job with low-stress and low-hours compared to jobs that pay a similar amount. But with the way the life and pensions industry seems to be going, we're not even guaranteed that. And with the day-to-day work being so unrewarding, I sometimes think that it's only inertia that stops me looking for a new career. Regards, Sam ps. all this is written in the post-exam-blues frame-of-mind. I'm sure that in a few weeks, I'll remember how good we actuaries have it.
