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Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

bloomberg.com

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Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#81

Post by psandersen »

TylerE wrote: post #63
randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

Isn't it sort of a truism that high-paying jobs are not fun? Know who gets paid a lot (relative to education)? Sanitation workers. You know who doesn't? Pilots

Data science is pretty fun and quite well paid. I enjoy my work a lot and manage a good work life balance.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#82

Post by tfehring »

madeuptempacct wrote: post #74
tfehring wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It sounds like, once you finish the first several actuarial exams, you are pretty much set. Typically you need ~3 exams to get a job in the field. Then it's a total of 7 exams for associateship and 10 for fellowship (for candidates starting today - it used to be fewer), plus various online courses throughout the process. You can stop at the associate level, but it limits your advancement opportunities at most compan…

So, what's the "light at the end of the tunnel" here? What's the expected, realistic salary after all ten exams? The lure of the CFA is that $250,000 is not unusual. Except most people finishing their CFA never get an analyst job, so it's kind of a moot point.

$120k-$150k is the norm for new fellows in my area. People typically reach that level around 5-7 years of experience nowadays. If you can't or don't want to manage people, your salary probably won't get much higher than that, but directors (managing teams of ~10-15 actuaries) make ~$250k-$300k at my company and VPs (managing ~2-4 directors) probably make ~$400k-$500k.

Also, keep in mind that the hours are much shorter than what CFAs would typically work - most actuaries outside of consulting rarely work over 45 hours a week.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#83

Post by danieltillett »

s0rce wrote: post #15

The average income for biochemists and molecular biologists is >$100k? Is this heavily skewed by doctors who did biology as a pre-med degree?

This result tells you the whole study is garbage. Anyone who claims that the life sciences are the way to riches (outside of medicine) is off with the fairies.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#85

Post by kaitai »

randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

While it's a stereotype, there's a bit of truth to the idea that actuarial jobs appeal to people who want a steady, non-adventurous 9-5. At most places, innovation is not prized in an actuarial position. A certain conservativism is demanded (I'm not talking politics here; I'm talking a cautious nature).

That's one reason it's rare to see someone switch from actuarial science to machine learning, for instance. A lot of actuarial students just want to check some boxes and have a job that pays well without requiring a lot of attention. This is not true across the board, but it is a certain subset. Most people reading Hacker News don't have this mindset -- why bother reading things here if you do?

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#86

Post by mrep »

amigocontigo wrote: post #53
randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

> If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder I was able to more than double my starting salary (ending at around 135k with bonus) 3 years out of school. I worked in consulting and thought the work was incredibly boring. The main issue is that a lot of people in the field, even those good at passing exams, aren…

>> If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder

> I was able to more than double my starting salary (ending at around 135k with bonus) 3 years out of school.

Have you considered software engineering because current pay starts at around 150k in big tech and I'm now making 215k 2.5 years out of college? I say this because I work with a bunch of math and physics major people so it is definitely possible to switch careers (a lot of the advanced software we use utilizes complex concepts in physics and math so they are highly valued, though, you will definitely need to know basic algorithms and data structures but that isn't too hard to learn especially compared to advanced math and physics in my opinion).

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#87

Post by kaitai »

microcolonel wrote: post #44
randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

> That said of all the actuaries I went to school with, none liked their jobs and all eventually moved on to do something else. Part of that, from my perspective, involves the slow pace imposed by overbroad regulations on the applications of actuarial science. I personally think that a diverse market of specialized insurance products would be an immense moral good, but in the established jurisdictions where demand fo…

Your comment points out something important. In finance, there are situations in which you can implement any investment strategy you can reasonably argue will make more money. Great returns are rewarded. Actuarial science has a much more defensive nature. There are many external regulations, but there are also many internal regulations, both on company levels and in the actuarial profession itself. It's still very much a guild and there is an actuarial code of conduct.

I've come to appreciate the value of this drudgery and stagnancy, even though it's not my cup of tea.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#88

Post by [deleted] »

randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

[deleted]

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#89

Post by CydeWeys »

mirimir wrote: post #84

I was gobsmacked by the ranking for zoologists. What sorts of jobs do they have to put them at #2?

Veterinarian. Though you need advanced degrees for that and it also helps to be entrepreneurial, as you make more starting your own practice than joining someone else's.

Pre-med should be up there too for the same reason, though there's more diversity in degrees for people who go on to become doctors.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#90

Post by TylerE »

psandersen wrote: post #81
TylerE wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it sort of a truism that high-paying jobs are not fun? Know who gets paid a lot (relative to education)? Sanitation workers. You know who doesn't? Pilots

Data science is pretty fun and quite well paid. I enjoy my work a lot and manage a good work life balance.

There are certainly outliers (I'd argue that programming in general qualifies) but they also tend to be in things that - while I won't say you can't learn them - are things that a certain subset of people are just sort of naturally wired for.
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