Pros and Cons of an Actuarial career - YouTube

Hey, guys! Welcome back to my Youtube channel! I'm Arnold. 

I'm a student actuary currently  working and studying in the UK. 

So, in the last video, we  talked about what is an Actuary. 

So, in today's video, I will be going through  3 pros and 3 cons of being an actuary. 

Let's get started! 

The 1st pro point here I'm going to talk  about is that, as an actuary, there's  

less competition to get an entry-level actuarial  role compared to other lucrative careers. 

I remember when I was still in uni in my final  year, everyone was applying to investment banking,  

management consulting, start-ups, tech  firms, FAANG, all that juicy stuff. 

And even with good degrees and stellar  results, a lot of them still get  

a lot of rejections from all these firms. Simply because of the volume of  

applicants that these firms get. And to get into these firms,  

you need to apply for Spring Weeks in 1st  year, and you have to do Summer Internships. 

It's good to do a placement as well. There are so many things to consider. 

And you kinda have to plan all  the activities from 1st year  

just so you can get into one of those firms. In my case, I studied engineering and  

I only realised that I want to go into  finance later on in my 3rd and 4th year. 

And I'm already behind the race, I  haven't done a Spring Week in 1st year,  

I haven't done an internship in 2nd year. But I still want to go into finance. 

Oh, but that's okay because you can still  find a finance career in the actuarial field. 

The employers are not really looking into  internship experience as long as you can  

justify your academic results. You can justify internships from  

an engineering firm and something unrelated as  long as you demonstrate that why you want to do  

it and that you're committed in the studying. And let's face it, most grads don't  

think of insurance as a particularly  glamourous industry to go into. 

Even though a lot of the  stuff are quite interesting. 

You do get paid reasonably well as an actuary. So, the entry-level competition is  

quite a lot lower compared to other lucrative  careers, which is definitely a big plus for me. 

The 2nd pro is that in an actuarial career,  you're typically looking at a relatively  

less stressful work environment and shorter  hours compared to other careers in finance. 

Keep in mind it's all relative. You definitely work even  

lower hours somewhere else. But I'm just saying relative to  

other places that you might have to work 80 hours  a week, in insurance it's pretty much 9-to-5. 

Once you are qualified with your exams  and have a few years of post-qualification  

experience ranked up, you're looking  at around more than £100k per year. 

Which is more than what a  lot of people can ask for. 

And that's definitely a big plus if work-life  balance is something that you view as  

quite important and you want to spend  more time with your family and friends,  

and have a life outside of work. And this also brings me to the  

3rd point, which is high hourly rate. So if we talk about total compensation,  

there's a lot of career and jobs out there  that pays a lot higher than actuaries. 

But some of these jobs will have you  stay in the office until midnight. 

Compared to an actuary who sometimes in less busy  seasons, they can leave at around 4:00/4:30 pm. 

They can go in at around 9:30/10:00  am even, depending on your employer. 

You get paid on a per hourly  basis on par or even higher to  

some of the really lucrative careers out there. And it's just a matter of personal choice whether  

you want a lot of money or you want more time. So, at this point you might be thinking, 

"Wow, it's so good! But is there  anything bad about being an actuary?" 

YES there is. So, let's look at them one-by-one. 

First off, it's the EXAMS. If you ask any student actuaries  

to talk about one thing they don't like  about their work, it's gotta be exams. 

Here in the UK, if you want to qualify  as an actuary, you have to pass 15 exams. 

And these typically take people around  5 to 7 years in order to pass them. 

It's not uncommon for people  to fail at least one exam. 

While you're just starting out after all these  years in uni, you're going into full-time work. 

And once you finish work at night, you still  have to come back home and start studying. 

This can be a lot on someone starting out  especially when they are early into their career. 

They have to make a lot of sacrifices in terms  of social life, when your other friends are  

going out enjoying their drinks -  you have to stay at home and study. 

If you can do that for the next  4/5 years, then you will have a  

relatively comfortable life, but  you have to grind those exams out. 

Second point - you basically have to  enjoy working in insurance or at least,  

be interested in how insurance works. Most actuarial jobs can be found only  

in insurance companies or consulting  companies for insurance industries. 

And as I mentioned before, insurance industry is  not exactly where people associate that with cool. 

Let's face it. But this is also slowly  

changing the actuarial profession. It's kind  of reinventing itself and finding its identity  

among new things such as Data Science. And the Institute of Actuaries are  

definitely making an effort trying to align  themselves with the modern career path. 

A lot of companies are also investing heavily  into creating a better work environment  

for new joiners such as modernising the office  and digitalising a lot of the processes. 

So that it doesn't feel like a  drag going into a cubicle office  

and just not talk to anyone during the day. 

Depending on the employer, you can also find it  relatively easy to work from home right away. 

The 3rd con on the list is that you can  definitely earn a lot more in less amount  

of time compared to grinding through exams. Comparing the time it takes for an actuary to  

get qualified which is typically 5 to 7 years out  of uni, you can just go take a Masters and work  

towards becoming a Data Scientist. The point I'm trying to get at,  

is that there are a lot of career choices out  there that pays as much as actuaries for the  

time and amount of effort that you need  to take to become one in the first place. 

So the point is, if money is the  only thing you're chasing after, then  

there's a lot of other careers out there  that you should look at before considering  

becoming an actuary, because it takes a lot  of time, effort, sweat, and blood, and tears. 

OK guys, thanks for watching. As always, drop a comment down below and  

let me know you want to see next from me. If you like this video, please click  

Like and Subscribe. And follow me on Twitter  

and Instagram at @_ArnoldHo. Thanks very much! Bye bye!