Hello all.

I graduated this past May with a US state flagship math degree, Prelims + Mas-I, and a fortune 500 P&C actuarial internship. I have projects that showcases SQL, R, Python, and Excel. Yet 5 months past and 150+ applications (14 interviews) later I have nothing to show for it. My interviewing skills are good, one interviewer said verbatim "(Company Name) would benefit having someone with your skillset". I usually make it to round 2-3.

If there are common pitfalls that you suspect I am making, I am all ears to hear it, because otherwise would imply my creditials are not enough in the current job market, which means I should start looking outside of actuarial.

Hi all,

I'm a 3rd-year college student looking for a P&C-side professional who would be happy to have a coffee-chat style Zoom call and share some insight.

I'm coming from a scientific research background and hoping to bridge some of those skills over to actuarial work, but I'm struggling when prepping for interviews. The resources on this subreddit and elsewhere online are a great help, but I personally really benefit from 1-1.

Happy to share more about my goals over DM/email.

Thanks!

Hypothetical question: How will you conduct a research to create a new car insurance for Tesla Roadster?

GH301 and my own work experience is making me interested in learning more about the work you do. Would love to hear your perspective on your work

The book constantky uses assumption 1.35, even in its exercises without telling you to use it. This produces answers that are incorrect when the rate of interest isn't constant, like when it isn't compound interest. Will the FM exam force me to use this assumption, even when it shouldn't hold?

for anyone in or moving to the UK: here are the actuarial, pricing, reserving and catastrophe modelling roles open right now at UK insurers and Lloyd's syndicates, pulled from their own careers pages:

https://github.com/mehek-builds/UK-Insurance-and-London-Market-Jobs/blob/main/lists/actuarial-pricing-modelling.md

• 29 roles at 15 employers (AXIS Capital, Chaucer, Hiscox, MS Amlin, Tokio Marine HCC, Markel, Starr, Travelers, Bupa, Rothesay)
• pricing actuaries and analysts, reserving and capital modelling, exposure management and cat modelling
• placement and graduate roles are in the same repo
• every level except director and head

rebuilt every monday.

comment if you want a US version and i'll build one.

For anybody taking ASTAM next week, how are we all feeling about it? This is my first attempt and I have a mastery score of 80 and >1100 points graded, but am still super nervous about what they're going to throw at us. I haven't really gone over the proofs in the supplemental readings so that's going to be my main focus until the exam.

Grind time!

So I'm taking ALTAM for the second time next week and I just don't have the Fear that I've had for every other exam sitting. This will be my ninth sitting for any exam. It's not like I'm super confident that I'm going to do great. When I take practice exams and grade them I'm right on the bubble of passing. That was the same last time.

I've heard some people say they learn most of the material when the Fear sets in for the last stretch. While joking, I think they meant it on some level.

For every other sitting of every exam the last week has been frantically trying to study as much as I can. I'm still studying a reasonable amount, but for whatever reason I'm not scared and my sense of urgency is not there. I don't know if this is (over)confidence or burnout or both.

Has anyone been in a similar place leading up to an exam?

I have not started studying for any exams and aim to take 7 and 8 in April.
Has anyone done this while working full time? Any tricks/tips?

I’m trying to secure my internship before the end of the school year and I’m pretty slammed academically to balance it out so any tips will be really helpful. I know I don’t really have that much experience experiences or leadership but somebody trying.

Edit: I am moving my exam day to January cause I feel capable enough to pour all of my time to pass it

Oliver Wyman Vs. Milliman in Health, P&C, and Life
Also is Oliver Wyman ICG better than all?

2nd year student looking for placements/internships. Some info i changed for privacy reasons. Currently applied to 60, most of them are somewhat advancing but its slow, some i just rejected. Anything i can do to improve it? Either format:wording or getting other experience. Any advice is appreciated.

I have the hirevue for this one, I’m wondering if anyone has had any interviews/knows much about the role. Does it start immediately or in the spring/summer?

I’ve recently received an offer for an actuarial internship, but my situation is a little different. For starters, I am graduating this year, so I would be coming out of college straight to the internship. I am glad they hire recent graduates, but unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee a full time offer afterwards. I do have other interviews that I am waiting to hear back from, both full time and internships, but I’m not sure if I should accept the offer and still look for full time opportunities. This internship offer does follow the track I want to pursue, so I’m wondering if I should keep looking within the same industry or broaden my search. And if I should apply full time for only actuarial roles or related ones as well. What are your guys take for this?

I understand that if you’re planning to take a week off, you should let your manager know well in advance. But what about taking just a day or two off?

How far in advance do you typically inform your manager when you need a day or two of PTO? Do you usually plan these days off weeks ahead, or is giving a few days’ notice acceptable?

Also, do you give a reason for taking one or two days off, or do you simply request PTO without explaining why?

I’m curious to know what’s considered normal in your workplace and what your team’s expectations are.

Hi, I took the PA exam today. I used Word's "Equation" feature to write some formulas. Could this cause a problem? The equation field doesn't display correctly when viewed in applications other than Word. Is it common practice to do this, or was it recommended not to?

For those who have passed MAS-II already: I sit for MAS-II in 2 weeks and have been working through Coaching Actuaries adapt exams but have seen people on here saying they don’t feel that the adapt exams are necessarily representative of the actual exam. I’m curious on peoples experience with GOAL and whether it’s thought to be worth purchasing or do we think CA could be sufficient?

Hi everyone!

I have a PhD in actuarial statistics and experience in insurance data analysis, IBNR reserving and statistical modelling. I moved to Switzerland about a year ago and am looking for an entry-level position in the insurance industry.

After a recent job interview, I realised that Python skills are essential for many roles. My programming experience is mainly in R, with some basic MATLAB knowledge, and I want to improve my practical coding skills.

Which courses or learning resources would you recommend? Should I start with Python basics, pandas/NumPy, or practical actuarial projects?

Thanks for your advice!

To keep things brief, I have a nice opportunity at another company and I'm about to sign the offer letter. However, I have a couple questions about the logistics and etiquette of leaving my job, as I've never left a job before.

My conditional start date is about 6 weeks away. I also have an FSA exam about 4 weeks away, that I planned to take before I even interviewed for this new job. (I've gotten confirmation that my new company will give me a pass bonus if I pass, even though the exam was before my start date.) Due to some scheduling issues, I plan on doing virtual APC a week before my FSA exam.

My questions:

• Am I crazy for doing virtual APC a week before an FSA exam?

• How should I approach giving notice while taking study time and APC/exam day off? There's less than 2 weeks between my exam and my start date. If I give notice early, I'm the guy taking company time off for exams that don't benefit my company. If I give notice after my exam, I'd be giving them less than 2 weeks, especially considering Thanksgiving.

• I've signed up for APC and my exam, but haven't put in reimbursement requests at my company yet. How bad would it look if I charged them for APC and an exam while I'm in the process of leaving? Would anyone even notice? Should I just eat the cost myself?

BC

The list of released past exams for PA, and perhaps a similar deal with ALTAM, suggest that there is just one problem statement per exam period, but multiple days per exam period. Is this the case, and if so how are people prevented from sharing the content with others?

I’ve seen a couple of posts here lately about people sharing their success stories so I thought i’d share mine.

I recently got an offer in health and I want to people to know that if I can get an offer, then so can you!

I graduated in 2023 with degrees in econ and stats from a consensus top tier public unliversity with not so hot grades and only a data science internship in the public sector lined up for post grad (I didn’t know what an actuary was at the time)

When the internship didn’t convert into a full time offer I was stick in unemployment limbo for a year and a half (at the time I was still focused on data science/analyst roles).

One day I decided that that space was no longer attainable for me and decided I wanted to become an actuary after finding out what it was and signed up to take P.

A year later I ended up passing 4 exams (P, FM, SRM, PA) all while being unemployed and paying out of pocket cause for me it was basically do or die. Also I understand that I was in a fortunate enough position to do this that others might not be.

After passing my fourth exam I decided that at this point more exams wouldn’t be beneficial so I focused my attention on applying. In total I applied to around 200 actuarial positions, 3 phone screens, 1 first round, 1 second round which converted into 1 offer.

So after 2.5 years unemployed, 4 exams passed, and no actuarial internships I can finally say that i’ve gotten my foot into the door to my first actuarial role and first full time job since graduating in 2023. The road was long for sure, but if you’re willing to grind it will pay off.