Actuaries’ Survival Guide: How to Succeed in One of the Most Desirable Professions
Actuaries’ Survival Guide: How to Succeed in One of the Most Desirable Professions
This unique book is a guide for students and graduates of mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, and other number-based disciplines contemplating a career in actuarial science. Given the comprehensive range of the cases that are analyzed in the book, the Actuaries’ Survival Guide can serve as a companion to existing study material for all courses designed to prepare students for actuarial examinations.
* Based on the curricula and examinations of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS)
* Presents an overview of career options and details on employment in different industries
* Provides a link between theory and practice; helps readers gain the qualitative and quantitative skills and knowledge required to succeed in actuarial exams
* Includes insights from over 50 actuaries and actuarial students
* Written by Fred Szabo, who has directed the actuarial co-op program at Concordia University or over ten years
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Strong in a few areas, but some serious gaps…
As someone interested in making a possible career change into the actuarial profession, I purchased this book hoping to get a feel for the day-to-day job experience of an actuary, as well as get some basic information about career paths and professional organizations. A large portion of the book consists of responses a survey the author undertook; daily tasks, salaries, opportunities and such. These are very useful and are presented without “analysis” by the author, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. However, the book really has very little background information - differences (textbook at least) between different business areas actuaries are employed, or information about what distinquishes an associate from a fellow, etc.
Upon further research I also discovered that some of the information has become out of date, as the professional organizations have recently added some additional requirements for advancement.
Overall I did find this book of some use in understanding more about the “daily life” of an actuary, but with the lack of background info and some information becoming outdated I cannot recommend it at the $40 price tag it currently carries.
5 Stars Job Searching
This is a great book for finding actuary jobs. It gives you ins and out, places to look and places to avoid. I like to use Actuarial Crossing http://www.actuarialcrossing.com to look for jobs. It has jobs only from employer websites and far more jobs than you will find on other job boards. If you haven’t had sucess with other online job searches I suggest you try http://www.actuarialcrossing.com.
4 Stars I haven’t read the book, but……
Sorry to mislead. I haven’t read the book, but having recently left the actuarial profession after 15 years, I can probably save you buying the book and tell you how to succeed in the profession:
Pass Exams!
No one cares about your personality, leadership skills, or anything else, when it comes down to it. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your work related activities. In this profession, he/she who has the credentials is king/queen, and will get all opportunities for advancement. If you don’t have the credentials, you can be the greatest business person and personality on earth, and you will not be recognized for it (not in this profession, anyway). I speak from 15 years experience. If you are getting in this profession, don’t let anything get in the way of exam progress. You should know, to succeed, you should be willing to sacrifice possibly a decade of your life sitting in a dark corner studying advanced mathematics. I kid you not. I left the profession, because in my opinion, the payoff was not worth the sacrifice. That is, there are people making more money, that didn’t have to go through the exam hell actuaries go through.
4 Stars Pretty Thorough
This book is pretty thorough, but provides the exact information you can find on the web. Check out at the library instead of purchasing if you must read it.
3 Stars Only worth buying if you dont have web access
This is a compilation of mainly everything you can read at the CAS and SOA websites. It’s a colletions for FAQs that actuaries in the industry answered and some of the questions weren’t answered well. The second half of the book discusses the examinations which is a little helpful but again you can go to the websites for that. This book was not worth the price I paid.
Filed under: Insurance Book Reviews