Hi All I'd be interested to know if there are any people out there who do mostly software development style IT work whilst still being actuaries. If so: what area do you work in? how did you get into this position? what programming languages do you use? how much connection with traditional actuarial work do you still have? Would you recommend it? cheers!
I work in software development within pensions, and am studying for the actuarial exams, so you are not alone! I enjoy a combination of both IT and actuarial, but these sort of jobs are quite rare.
Cheers Gareth - good to hear from you! A couple of questions if that's OK: what programming languages do you use? How did you get into this job?
i use c++ and vb most of the time. i got the job after targetting actuarial software firms with my cv, i didnt use a pimp (they will just do the same anyway, and you will be paid less to cover their fees). best to look in the actuary at the adverts for software, and get speaking to them. one thing to bear in mind, is that many companies employ actuaries or programmers, finding a postion that mixes the two fields is quite difficult.
gareth just interested in knowing ....assuming you do not do the bog standard reserving, pricing etc.....do you enjoy you rjob as a programmer......Obviously in the grand scheme of things nobody likes to work, but seeing as we all have to work Is your job enjoyable?
i enjoy it more than when i worked in a pension consultancy, but it's hard to get the balance right between programming and modelling work. ideally i would be working somewhere that would allow me to develop models and implement them, but those roles are very rare!
Hey Sorry for the delay in commenting - I've only just seen this thread. I'm the main database developer in our firm and am currently working my way through the CT series. I must admit I do more IT work than actuarial stuff in my job but love the combination of doing both. It is a shame that these jobs are so rare. I was hired as an admin bod in a small firm with no experience in programming or "actuarying" (for want of a better word!), and was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to learn both on the job. I've looked around for similar roles but never found anything suitable. So I'm staying put in a job that's good. K.
so there's a few of us! i was chatting to an "older" member of the IT actuarial world, who told me that back in the old days, all trainees were programmers (cobol, fortran, apl), but since the invention of the desktop computer, most of the software went from inhouse to external companies, and the roles for IT actuarial demised. Now what we need is for the actuarial world to start using complex no-arbitrage based models (soon to be needed if the markets in catastrophe bonds and mortality bonds carry on growing). Then spreadsheets and outsourced valuations systems will begin to become impractical, and the programming trainee will return... (e.g. quants are all c++ programmers) http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~andrewc/papers/ajgc38.pdf is an interesting paper on mortatility no-arbitrage models.
Im an actuarial programmer in a software company. actually, we only have one product called Axis, anyone heard of that? the programming language we is C++. I found it very hard at the beginning since i only graduated last year with a degree in actuarial science, and had no previous programming knowledge at all. i guess it is because im still very junior in the company, most of my work is not very actuarial related. im still struggling with the codes and trying to understand them. T_T im surprised that there are actually a few of us here. =)
