I think they do some nonsense like handeling motor insurance claims at a major insurance company, and they said that "Its possible for someone who has no bachelors degree and has passed no exams and has no associateship to the actuarial institute to eventually work their way into an actuarial role through a "back door" avenue by "speaking to the right people" and progressing from call center>>team leader>>claims consultant etc. I was thinking this HAS to be nonsense so just said "Really i didnt know that". What do you all make of this?
In my opinion, there are technical roles in general insurance for which a specifically actuarial background is not essential, so someone could be considered for them if they have other relevant experience. Having experience in the insurance industry is a significant advantage, compared to a graduate without industry experience. Whether this means that someone can start in claims processing and move into actuarial work is hard to say, but there are some non-financial careers such as the arts/media in which a similar move might be possible.
But honestly, an actuarial like role? Why do we bother going through the trauma of exam preperation if this were the case? Getting in and working up would be alot easyer than doing a bachelors degree and passing a heap of instutute exams.
I think if you are in an actuarial role some of the exams may be more relevant than others to your job, but they all contribute to qualification. If you are not in an actuarial role the examinations can give you a link to the profession and financial services. It may be worth studying some topics to gain job-related skills in addition to doing the exams, because the exams cover the whole range of actuarial work and cannot consider every topic in detail.
It is possible to do actuarial work without being an actuary. I know of cases (ok 1 case) where a person does actuarial work, is not an actuary, not even a student actuary (but highly highly qualified otherwise), managing a team of student actuaries, reporting to a qualified actuary. But as I said, the exception rather than the norm, and I believe you would require other qualifications to get an "in".
I've known lots of non-actuaries doing actuarial roles in GI. The actuarial profession is relatively new into London Market GI so historically a lot of non-actuaries were doing (and continue to do) actuarial roles - especially in reserving but I also know people in pricing roles (not sure about capital modelling). I would guess that it's a lot harder to do it now than it would have been in the past. I'd say that most of the non-actuaries doing actuarial work I've known were very clearly never going to get promoted and had to watch on while younger, less experienced actuaries were being promoted above them. In many ways I'd have thought they are gold dust for companies - competent people who get the job done, have years of experience, don't expect promotions, don't take study days.
