Providing a business professional advice & analyses in financial risk management.
Career Choices
Many businesses need the services of an actuary and yet it is not a career that many people think of when they are growing up. Kids and teenagers want glamorous jobs such as pilots, programmers or working in the Commercial Telecom - Internet industry, but how many fifteen years old kids do you hear saying that they want to be an actuary?
However, for the relatively few that do decide to follow this tough and disciplined career path, the rewards are very high. It takes several years to become a qualified actuary and a lot of hard slog to take the exams, but those who manage to make it have a very interesting and highly paid career ahead of them.
So what do they actually do? A good question as not many people seem to know this. Put quite simply they calculate risk and the likelihood of certain events happening from a financial viewpoint. Who else do you think calculates the risk of crashing your car or your house burning down in order to calculate the premiums for your car or home insurance?
They are also often responsible for financial reporting and cash flow predictions, so they are important to the financial health of many businesses.
It takes determination and an awful lot of hard work to become an actuary, but stick it out and the rewards are extremely high.