Actuary vs Chartered Accountant

actuary - you spend your life doing statistics - only choose this if you are SUPER keen on stats
(erm .. i somehow ended up doing this degree so i know)
also to become an actuary you will need to take professional qualifications and they are SUPER SUPER difficult (much more diff than accountancy and many more exams)
some universities provide exemptions to some of the exams - namely, City University, LSE, Heriot Watt etc.

accountancy i think there are three routes ACCA, ACA and.. something else

definitely Actuary if you become qualified and continue moving up will give u a pretty high salary
higher than Accountancy
but obviously tht route is difficult

nothing is easy, so i wont say accountancy is easy either

pay wise, depends on your luck, the route you choose, which companies accept you .. bla bla bla
but if you're someone who is very into $$
i recommend you to consider investment banking

v high pay - if you get into front office
but vvv long working hours as well

back to actuaries
pro: v good pay, good working hours,
con: hard route to get there, many exams (and u have to study whilst working), a lot of stats (can b good or bad depending on ur preference)

accountancy
-im clueless..

tbh im heading down the actuarial route myself and am QUITE worried i might not get a job... >.<
well for one, internship application is so hard to get!! been applying like crazy and they offer like VV few places
eg big4 offers like 3/4 places? ... =.=..
alternatives are to apply to places like Towers Watson, Hewitt, Aviva, EMB, LCP etc.

dont think hiring actuaries is that common (by common id say accountants.. yea plenty of ppl want you)
actuaries.. well quite limited .. i havent done too much research into insurance companies.. not really sure they hire us .. hmm.. and even if they do they probably want one or two people per year

yea.. well im slightly worried about being hired.. hoping there will be more vacancies or easier routes to go down..
shall see in a year's time

but definitely i think with an actuarial degree, you are more likely to show them you have true interest and so they may look upon your application more favourably

actuary - you spend your life doing statistics - only choose this if you are SUPER keen on stats
(erm .. i somehow ended up doing this degree so i know)
also to become an actuary you will need to take professional qualifications and they are SUPER SUPER difficult (much more diff than accountancy and many more exams)
some universities provide exemptions to some of the exams - namely, City University, LSE, Heriot Watt etc.

accountancy i think there are three routes ACCA, ACA and.. something else

definitely Actuary if you become qualified and continue moving up will give u a pretty high salary
higher than Accountancy
but obviously tht route is difficult

nothing is easy, so i wont say accountancy is easy either

pay wise, depends on your luck, the route you choose, which companies accept you .. bla bla bla
but if you're someone who is very into $$
i recommend you to consider investment banking

v high pay - if you get into front office
but vvv long working hours as well

back to actuaries
pro: v good pay, good working hours,
con: hard route to get there, many exams (and u have to study whilst working), a lot of stats (can b good or bad depending on ur preference)

accountancy
-im clueless..

well my aunt worked at Ernst & Young and she didn't have great hours sometimes she would work until like after 11pm But now her hours are a little better

thats what I thought prior to uni
in fact lecturers were saying
that since were so rare, were actually in demand...
but in reality..
its hard to find a job because you need to go through numerous application processes
there are loads of ppl out there surprisingly who also wants to be actuaries
(bare in mind ppl from diff countries, ppl from diff education backgrounds - competing with like postgrads! etc. ppl who have taken a year out etc...)

[discovered all this during my internship app process... >.< tough times to fight for a place]

then it all depends on luck
if you get through interviews, assessment centres etc.

its not like
oh, theyre offering a place then you apply and you get it
its more, there arent many places offering the place, and ppl like you who want to b actuaries all look around the same area and so tons of ppl apply for that one or two place and competition is high and you need to do your best to try and get that position

the putting your foot in the industry is V hard

then again applies to any other industry
but i find actuarial a bit more diff.

thats what I thought prior to uni
in fact lecturers were saying
that since were so rare, were actually in demand...
but in reality..
its hard to find a job because you need to go through numerous application processes
there are loads of ppl out there surprisingly who also wants to be actuaries
(bare in mind ppl from diff countries, ppl from diff education backgrounds - competing with like postgrads! etc. ppl who have taken a year out etc...)

[discovered all this during my internship app process... >.< tough times to fight for a place]

then it all depends on luck
if you get through interviews, assessment centres etc.

its not like
oh, theyre offering a place then you apply and you get it
its more, there arent many places offering the place, and ppl like you who want to b actuaries all look around the same area and so tons of ppl apply for that one or two place and competition is high and you need to do your best to try and get that position

the putting your foot in the industry is V hard

then again applies to any other industry
but i find actuarial a bit more diff.

why do you start each sentence on a new line?

this is not a good habit to get into if you want to get into an industry that involves a lot of writing of reports...

Hi,

I'm thinking of doing a maths degree at uni, and I'm trying to see what kind of careers I can get afterwards.

Both actuary and chartered accountancy seem good to me, but could someone explain the pros and cons of each?

Chartered accountancy seems more businessy to me whereas actuary is very maths based if I understand correctly.

Which of the two has a higher salary? How difficult is it to become one of them?

Thanks

oh I had the impression that there are very few actuaries around and that you're pretty much guaranteed a job

Both are very boring jobs

Accoutancy is dull and boring, Actuarial work is also dull as the level of maths dissapears when you get a job

do Maths at uni and you have a number of gateways open, have u checked what a quantative analyst is? if you like maths, statistics, finance and programming go for it

Yes, when you are a qualified actuary.

Getting taken on as an actuarial trainee is difficult. Passing the exams is very difficult, there are very high failure rates.

From my knowledge of the industry I would sum up the difference between being the two careers like this:

Breaking in: easier to get taken on as an ACA trainee than an actuarial trainee, there are far more opportunities

Exams: easier to do ACA than actuarial exams, not saying ACA is easy but most people can do it and pass first time, which will mean you qualify in 3 years. Actuaries take more like 5-7 years. The studying for actuarial exams is harder too, ACA is just volume, loads of stuff to remember, rather than being conceptually hard. Actuarial stuff is advanced maths, but if you're a maths graduate maybe that won't be such an issue.

Working hours: vary in both. Audit is crushingly long. Corporate Tax less so. Actuaries probably have hours more on par with corporate tax, but the studying takes up more time than the ACA and over a longer period.

Pay: while training ACAs usually £20k-£32k or so. After 3 years when qualified probably £40k. Actuaries while training probably £24k-£40k. Newly qualified probably £50k.

Opportunities: Actuaries once qualified, like for like probably earn more than chartered accountants. It is a more secure job and always in demand. I think if you are a qualified actuary and have reasonable skill sets in other areas that you can safely say you will progress into the 6 figure bracket. With ACA it varies much more because ACAs do so many different things. I suppose a typical Chartered Accountant with experience can earn £60-70k. However some people with ACAs use it as a ticket to climb the management ladder in the financial world and so end up earning six figures like the actuaries.

Neither career is going to be the stellar bonus world of front office investment banking but as far as most people are concerned they are well paying enough.

Both are very boring jobs

Accoutancy is dull and boring, Actuarial work is also dull as the level of maths dissapears when you get a job

do Maths at uni and you have a number of gateways open, have u checked what a quantative analyst is? if you like maths, statistics, finance and programming go for it

It depends, I'm an accountant and I don't find the work boring at all. There is lots of scope for promotion which keeps you going!

OP, I would say in the accountancy profession there is a lot of scope for earnings big money if you are willing to put in the hours. I know some partners who are rumored to be on 500k a year around where I work.

thanks for the reply,
Regarding the quantitative analysis thing, I do actually want to do a joint Maths and Computer Science degree so that seems quite good, what exactly do they do?



That was a brilliant post, thank you very much

Is being an actuary more statistics or more mathematics based?

thanks

oh I had the impression that there are very few actuaries around and that you're pretty much guaranteed a job

It's true that there are very few actuaries and that they're in high demand, but that certainly does not mean you're guaranteed a job. The reason there are so few actuaries is because there are so few people who are of the right calibre to be an actuary, not because there are so few people who want to be actuaries. The demand for actuaries is high and the supply is low; but this is because most people do not constitute a "suitable supply"

It's not so much like some other jobs, where anyone can do the work really, but you're competing with other applicants to get the job. Here, the emphasis shifts towards striving to prove yourself capable enough to do the work.

If you're a nearly/newly qualifed actuary with a bit of experience, then it's a different story; you've already shown that you're pretty capable of doing the job. That's when you'll find that actuarial jobs are easier to get, since demand is high, supply is low, you're recognised as "suitable supply" and the competition isn't so fierce.