Anybody an Actuary?

[mred]

Considering a career change and could use advice.

Just got a surprise firing. Had P&L for $80M business segment, including inventory, pricing, sales, about a dozen reports. Have Aero E degree and MBA, but never used the former other than problem solving. MBA was very useful for finance and general mgmt.

I was an engineer/software developer for around 12 years post-graduation (EE degree) until becoming an actuary around 3 years ago, so my situation was somewhat similar, although my career change was planned and not prompted by a job loss.

Had already been considering a career change for various reasons, now obviously the options are wide open. Actuary is one that I think would be a good fit with my general numerical background. I'm sure I would have to brush up on my high-level math, but honestly that sounds like fun.

You may need to brush up on some basic calculus for the exams, but the math on exams generally doesn't get any worse than Calc 1, and I think I've used calculus at work exactly once. Some specific actuarial disciplines might be different -- I'm in health.

Q1: how hard would it be to get into this as a "non-traditional" applicant? I'm mid 40s. I know this would entail a pay cut, a big one at first, but I am OK with that based on where we are financially and knowing their are growth opportunities. Would I be someone they would want based on MBA and experience, or would there be no interest due to age and wrong degree?

Your age probably isn't a huge issue. Your degree definitely isn't an issue. Your lack of exams passed could be a problem. I passed three exams before getting an entry-level position. Your best bet might be to get a non-actuarial position at a company that has actuaries, and then switching over after you have a few exams passed might not be difficult.

You might want to consider taking Exam P or FM ASAP -- probably FM, because the timing (early to mid December) and your background would make it easier to pass. Exams can be taken in any order. These two exams (and a couple others) are recognized by both the SOA and CAS, so you don't have to worry about which path to go down.

https://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-exam-fm-detail.aspx

Q2: how is the job? Would you recommend it? What's good & bad? Hours and stress? I've always pictured it as problem solving like engineering, but with money instead of physics. Is that fair?

I'm in consulting, so the hours and stress can be somewhat worse than if I worked for an insurance company. Still, it's better than engineering in every possible way, at least for me.

 

[SCNCY]

Some employers may not support you if you fail a test 2-3 times (so you may have to pay for the subsequent ones yourself) but that varies from employer to employer. But it is true that you can retake the exams as many times as you need. Generally only 40%-50% of the people who take an exam at a given time pass it, so it's not unheard of for someone to fail an exam 5+ times before passing it (although not common).

That may be what my sister was saying. I think she said that if they failed an exam 3 times, they got a demotion because of it or something along those lines.

 

[mred]

Another thing to note: most companies will give you a bonus and/or raise for every exam you pass. Mine gives raises. I took a non-insignificant paycut when I switched careers, but 3.5 years later I'm making well more than I ever did as an engineer, and most of that is from raises from passing exams. Additionally, most employers also give you a certain amount of paid study time at work for each exam (~100 hours per exam).

 

[mred]

That may be what my sister was saying. I think she said that if they failed an exam 3 times, they got a demotion because of it or something along those lines.

Where I work, failing three times just means you are out of the study program (you have to pay for your own exams and study materials and get no study time at work), but once you pass the exam that you'd been failing, you can generally be put back in the program.

I've heard other companies might not give as big a raise or bonus if you fail a lot, or it could be as bad as you potentially losing your job if you fail an exam three times.

 

[CascadeClone]

Thanks everyone. This really has been informative, I half expected spiderman gifs.

I feel confident that I can pass any exam - I was always the curve wrecker on tests. I would definitely have to brush up on math, esp stats and probability, but again, have always liked solving problems. At any rate, I do feel this is feasible.

As someone suggested, I also am thinking about getting into the industry doing something like financial analysis (which is a big chunk of my current role) which would be a step down but get in the door, find some support to move into bigger things. The biggest trick for me will be the whole "overqualified yet no direct experience" thing. But honestly, I like a challenge, and working my way towards some goal is probably better for me than just making big $.

With the job shock, and having older kids (youngest has 2 yrs college left) we are almost at a point of "where do we want to finally settle down and live our lives?". So that is a big consideration too. Have mucho family in/near DSM, and of course being a little closer to Ames is also good!

I will probably DM those that offered, when time permits. Right now varying between very bored and very busy. Kinda strange. Thanks again everyone.