Current Position:

Actuarial Analyst

Degree (s):

• Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, May 2016

Was the degree you earned required for the work you do? How did you find yourself in your current position?

For an actuary, the degree you hold doesn’t really matter as much as passing actuary exams. So, if you hold an art degree and have 3 exams passed, you’d probably look better than someone with a Harvard math degree and zero exams.

I talked with people in the profession about good companies to work for. Then I narrowed down to locations that I’d be willing to live. Being willing to look in multiple cities was quite helpful, because I think it would have been more difficult to find a job if I limited myself to staying in Raleigh.

What skills or abilities do you find are most important in the work you do?

Technical skills: Excel, Excel, Excel, SAS or a general programming background so that you can pick up another language quickly. Other skills: time management, logical thinking, not being afraid to ask questions.

What preparation would you recommend for someone interested in entering your field? Are there any courses at State you would recommend?

• There are four main branches of the actuarial profession: Health, Life, Casualty, and pension/employee benefits.
• I would recommend trying your best two get two internships in two different disciplines to try and hone in on which field you like the best.
• I would take and pass 2-3 exams while in college to be competitive. It’s probably fine to pass more while in college, but I don’t think there’s a need. 3 exams will make you very competitive.
• I took MA421, which is a mathematical probability class. It covered all of the background for Exam 1/P, but I would also recommend doing practice problems because the questions are asked in a much different form on the exam than in MA421.
• I don’t know if any other classes cover an exam syllabus, so I’d just take challenging courses that make you think through difficult problems. MA425/426 and graduate courses would be good for this.
• You also need to take something called VEEs to become certified. You can look up if State offers courses that fulfill these requirements on the SOA website or the CAS website.

What other career paths would you suggest a student explore before making a final decision?

• Financial Math – banking or mutual/hedge funds. These will probably require a masters or PhD
• Data science
• Research – this will require a PhD

If you had to do everything over again, would you do anything differently? Why or why not?

This is completely unrelated to being an actuary, but I would have studied a language and studied abroad in a country that spoke that language. There’s more to life than just having a career and I think it’s important to make strides to expand yourself to be involved with more than one thing in your life. It’s very easy to study math at State and do nothing but math for all four years, so try and be proactive about doing something different every now and then.

• Not everyone can afford to study abroad, so alternates include:
  • Still learning another language.
  • Playing a sport, learning a form of art, or some other hobby that isn’t related to your degree.