Its Sunday and time to be cool and calm. So here we go with a chilling article which will make you feel like going for this profession with higher spirit!
“In actuarial profession,
there is no such thing as a typical day!”
Of the 5 weekdays that one is supposed to work, an actuarial student making good progress with exams, gets one of the weekdays as off for studying. Thus, it is more like you are working on weekends with 2 days of work (Mon-Tue) -> then 1 day off mid-week (say Wed) -> and then again working for 2 days (Thu-Fri) -> followed by 2 days off (Sat and Sun). Pure bliss!?
In those 2 working days every now and then, most of them for me would be somewhat like this:
- 6:30am: Wake up! (generally)
- 7am: Leave for the gym – workout for an hour or so..
- 9am: Reach office, check mails, etc and get down to work.
- Now the work itself varies from working on a financial valuation model on Excel, to projecting future liabilities on an actuarial software called ResQ, to stochastic modelling of assets and liabilities on another actuarial software called Igloo.
- Though modelling is only a part of the job and there is a lot of judgment and experience based analysis.
- Apart from these, some of the days might be spent on presentations (preparing and/or presenting), while others might be spent in meetings with other professionals such as accountants, underwriters and/or claims – in these meetings, I am generally trying to explain actuarial concepts in a way non-actuary is able to understand (very important skill at higher levels).
- 5pm: I generally leave work at this time, but there might be days when I leave slightly later, say around 6-7 pm, while there may be a few days where I am stretching till 10-11 pm, but these days are quite rare and generally because of an unforeseen work.
- 5pm onwards: This time, closer to exams, is spent studying. Otherwise, it is generally spent with friends and/or colleagues either in a pub or playing some sport (or PS4). There are a few days when I spend time on my own working on my blog or reading a book (but these are quite rare)
That’s about my typical days. For others, the days might be different and you can read this article for more examples of a typical day in an actuary’s life. Also, if you are an actuary (or student), please feel free to share your experience in the comments space below. Cheers!
*The study days are obviously spent studying and closer to exams even the weekends are… but then as Theodore Roosevelt once said:
“Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort”
Thanks Anirudh Bansal (Nearly qualified Actuary at RSA) for letting us share your experience.
Source : BackPacktuary (Thanks for the pic too! Its amazing)