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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, innovat
by kaitai 8y ago
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?
- dajohnson89 8y agoseems like a nice way to make good money, while being able to pursue your hobbies after work.
- roel_v 8y agoBut is it? Being an actuary at a big 4 consultancy would expose you to the same stresses and resultant lifestyle than others at such a firm, I'd imagine (although I don't know anyone who is actually an actuary, just extrapolating from others who I'd thought could have a quiet life at bigco's yet are still sucked into typical bigco lifestyle (or 'lack of', rather)).
- salemh 8y agoMy sibling is an actuary (5-6 years work experience) on a break to pursue passion projects. The only issue with that comment is you need to continually study/take actuarial exams on a frequent basis. Though others in this thread are probably far more knowledgeable then me on this. So his 40 hour work week turned into +15/30 hours with studying/exams for a number of years - perhaps not always consistent, but frequent enough to cause a bit of burnout.