If Dwight Schrute was an Actuary

If Dwight Schrute (a fictional character from The Office) is an actuarial student who just started working and taking exams, I wonder if he would ever consider his job title as "Assistant to the Actuary" (aka Actuarial Assistant, a pretty common job title in the field), but refer himself as the "Assistant Actuary". :)

Actuaries Scrutinized on Pensions- NY Times Article

I was sharing this article with some of my co-workers this morning. You don't usually read much news about actuaries on newspaper.

According to the article,

In government, actuaries and the consulting firms that employ them are starting to draw lawsuits in places like Alaska, San Diego, Milwaukee County, Wis., and Evanston, Ill....The Fort Worth pension fund, in 1990, an actuary had calculated that the city could put less money into the pension fund and increase workers’ benefits simultaneously — without making a dent in the fund — if he assumed that the fund would earn 10.23 percent a year on its investments.This worked on paper but not in the real world. In reality, Fort Worth actually lost money on its pension investments that year. And the new benefits did, in fact, have a cost.

The three myths about being an actuary

A friend on facebook tagged me this blogpost about why people shouldn't become an actuary.

The blogpost addressed three myths about the profession.

1. Actuaries love their jobs.
2. Actuaries are insurance mathematicians
3. Actuaries are not nerds.

I thought it's more like a satire.

Here are my 2 cents about the 3 myths

1. Not everyone love their jobs. This goes to many other professions.

2. Some people have never heard of the term "actuary" before. Saying actuaries are insurance mathematicians is just a way for people to understand it faster. A senior guy once told me that he never told people he's an actuary. Whenever people asked him what he did for a living, he said he was a consultant.

3. I think everyone is a nerd in their own little ways. But hey, what's wrong with being a nerd?

Baby Actuary

S is in a surgery residency program. When I asked her if she's official an surgeon now, she told me she saw herself more like a baby surgeon. After the residency program, then she will 'grow up' and finally become a surgeon.

I told her about the rigorous series of actuarial exams and I'm in the middle of it. S said, "so you are a baby professional too. You are a baby actuary."

International Assignments

I always fancy about traveling through my work. I want to experience the life of living and working in another city. Yesterday, something came up that shed a light on my dream. I found out the company is in need of a number of analysts to Latin America for an assignment and the minimum of stay is 3 years.

So you may think, “what about the language, Y, you don’t speak Spanish, do you?” Based on what I knew, having the desire to learn the language is good enough for consideration. So I think I can pull if off regardless of the “language barrier”.

Because of the 3 years time period, I don’t think I’ll really apply for this assignment though. (A lot of things can happen in 3 years.) Now I started to imagine about what other international assignments that may come up next. Who knows, maybe Rome for 6 months, Paris for a year and Beijing for 3 months?

Now when I think of that, I am more motivated to learn my stuff well at work and make faster progress in my actuarial exams.

I saw this quote of the day from No Limits Ladies yesterday, “You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for.”- Ted Turner

Good with numbers, Good with people

I watched The Pursuit of Happiness over the weekend. There was a scene when Chris Gardner was at the financial area, and he saw a guy came out from a nice sports car. So Chris asked the guy what he did for a living. That guy said he was a stockbroker. Chris asked how he became a stockbroker. And that stockbroker said if he was good with numbers and good with people, he could also be a stockbroker. This gave Chris an inspiration to apply for the intern position at Dean Witter.

So I thought if someone is good with numbers and good with people, he/she can be an actuary too. Just imagine the guy who came out from that sports car was not a stockbroker, but an actuary. Who knows, Chris Gardner might become an actuary instead. With the persistence and determination shown by Chris in the movie, I’m sure he can endure the actuarial exams.

I remembered a piece of advice given by a family friend, who was also someone good with numbers (a fairly successful accountant in the bay area). He told me, “you don’t have to the best of the best (to be successful), but you have to be nice to people.”

The Actuarial Scientist

On Friday, I had a late dinner with some family friends who came from Chicago for their relatives' wedding. While waiting for the food, an "Auntie" asked me what I studied in college and what my profession was. I told her I studied actuarial science and now I'm an actuary who's still taking exams.

And here's part of the conversation:

Auntie: How do you say it again? Ac-tuuu-tuuu- what?

Me: I'm an Ac-tu-a-ry.

Auntie: No, I know that's what you studied. How do you say the profession again?

Me: Ac-tu-a-ry. Let me spell it for you- A-C-T-U-A-R-Y.

Auntie: No, I'm still confused. I thought the profession is called Actuarial Scientist. Right, that's right. You are the actuarial scientist.

Me (in my mind): What? Was she confused with the rocket scientist?

Seriously though, this was my first time hearing people calling me an actuarial scientist. :)

Can they update it more often?

Half a year ago, I was excited to see the image campaign of SOA started a blog and there were a few postings.

Half a year later, I checked the site this morning (I should have saved it to my google reader) and it still looked the same. The last posts was dated back in November 2006.

Blogging is an ongoing project. It's more than just setting up a blog, wrote a few posts and leave it there. Though it's not necessary to blog every day, I want to see something new at least every 6 months!

My idea: ask more people to contribute. What about the President or the VP or the committee in SOA? I want to see what they have to say if they blog.

One thing I noticed, many actuaries and actuarial students participated in the actuarial discussion forums. But we don't have many voices in the blogosphere. I wonder why.

Best Career in 2007: Actuary

There is an article on U.S. News today about the Best Career in 2007. And guess what, Actuary is "one of the 25 professions that will be in growing demand as baby boomer age, the Internet becomes ubiquitous, and Americans seek richer, simpler lives."

The "A Day in the life" of a P&C actuary is pretty accurate. That's basically what I experienced during my internship with an auto insurance company.

There's also a mini-profile of Bob Beuerlein, the cheif actuary at AIG. I like the story that his mom bought the insurance that he designed at the backstage.

And finally there's a myth-buster about actuaries:

"Myth: Actuaries are mumbling number crunchers who simply massage figures all day. You'll do a lot of that, but you'll also need good communication skills, since you'll spend a fair amount of time managing employees and presenting complicated material to higher-ups. One number you won't mind crunching is your salary–it often reaches six figures."

Also checked out the most overrated careers. It's an interesting read.

As we all know, the grass is always greener. ;)

P.S. Marty Nemko's website

It's about time...The Official Actuary Branding Image Campaign website is here!

The long-awaited actuary branding image campaign image website is finally here! I checked out the website this afternoon and it's definitely better than the "pre-redesigned" version (more contents, more organized and more up-to-dates).

There are some cool phases in the promotion tools session:

"There will be no opportunities without risks, and risk is the actuaries' domain."--Thomas Terry

"Every time you get in a car, buy a home or assess retirement savings, actuaries have an impact in your life." ---Roosevelt Mosley.

The two videos are pretty neat as well (it's worth to watch). Has SOA thought about putting the videos on YouTube to broaden the audience?

In addition, the image campaign has a blog! So far there are only two entries up there, I'm really looking forward to read more of the other actuaries blogposts.

Overall, this redesigned image campaign website serves its purpose to bring in a more professional/cool online appearance. There was a rumors that the SOA spent more than a 6-figure budget on this image campaign, I really hope it will pay off. (I do like what I see so far.)

So check it out if you want to see our new image (definitely it's better than how we were portrayed in About Schmidt and Along Came Polly ;)).