I’m currently employed as an actuarial analyst for a pension consulting firm. The work is a bit boring (accounting stuff) and including travel time it takes up 55-60 hrs/wk. If any of you are familiar with the actuarial career, you will know that I’m also studying my butt off for exams, which takes another 15-20 hrs/wk during exam season.
I recently received 2 offers, here is a break down:
Life insurance - Product design analyst
Pros:
Total time ~45 hrs/wk including travel time.
Creative work
Lots of programming, which I enjoy
Relaxed culture, family feel when I interviewed there
Cons:
Slight pay cut (-$1,800/yr) but bigger bonus so it’s a wash
No rotation program between different actuarial departments (annuities, reserving, investments)
Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance - Home Insurance Pricing Analyst
Pros:
Mega Co., lots of room for growth
P&C has the highest job satisfaction out of all of the actuarial fields
Pay raise (+ 5%)
Good rotation program, rotate every 1.5 years between depts
Creative and more mathematical work
Cons:
60+ hrs/wk because of travel time (extreme commute, 3.5+ hrs/day)
Business culture
Strict exam policy, if you don’t pass you get a notice of termination
Greater number of and more difficult exams
If you had to choose between the 2, which one would you go with?
I would choose No.1
Time is too valuable, 45 hours including travel give a lot more time for meditation and stuff
Creative work, good for spiritual parctice
But that’s just my point of view, I don’t know anything about you
Agreed with Sparkle. A job would have to offer me a huge amount to have me choose an extra 10-20 hours per week.
One or two non-yogic points:
Mega Co., lots of room for growth
Often large companies offer worse pay in the long run, particularly in technical fields. That’s surprising but true.
P&C has the highest job satisfaction out of all of the actuarial fields
This deserves some weight but not too much. A difference you can determine between the two different jobs you are offered may be more imporant than the difference between the two fields. You mentioned that you like programming, for example, and the first job offers lots of it.
If I had to choose I would go with number 1 based mainly on the amount of hours worked per week. At the top of my priority list is precious and genuine time spent with family and friends, so I would not want to decrease that through increased work hours.
But I actually know nothing about your line of work, so maybe I would answer differently if I did know more.
P.S. This is fun. I love learning about what you guys do for a living.
I chose #1. It turns out they have a great exam support program and they are very good to their employees. This way I’ll have more time for practices, family, friends, and hobbies.
Thank you all for your input.
