Actuary vs Chartered Accountant

Well I've been working as an actuary for over 2 years, and nearly qualified now (couple of exams to go).

Firstly, yes the exams are tough - but not impossible. And you generally get plenty of support from your employer. They also don't involve any pure maths (as this relates to abstract maths such as metric spaces,topology etc) but do involve a lot of statistics (which obviously does involve calculus etc which you may think of as pure maths at school).

I agree that it's difficult to get the initial job (I think I went to about 3 assessment centres) but once you have it then jobs are much easier to come by. I now often get phone calls asking me if I'm interested in applying for jobs at the big four accountancy firms so you are generally sought after once you are working as an actuary. Incidentally the big four certainly aren't the best employers for actuaries - either insurance companies or consultancy firms (depending on what you want to do) should be where you start looking.

Also wouldn't say we think of ourselves as above accountants - just a different field, and annoying when people assume that they are the same. For example a post below saying actuarial is boring having worked in audit - two very very different jobs! But I have a couple of close friends that are now qualified accountants and the exams are certainly easier to pass. They also hate their jobs by the way so will be moving on from audit asap.

Insurance companies do certainly hire lots of actuaries (although I work in pensions), and definitely more than 1/2 a year! I'd say overall easily the biggest employer of actuaries.

Contrary to other posts, the job certainly does involve maths on a day to day basis, although generally no calculus or more technical maths that you do in the exams.

It is more financial maths, generally using annuities (valuing cashflows for the remainder of a person's life). You don't get into the really technical detail too much, but you do need to have a good appreciation of how things are calculated. You also need to sit down and think how you would calculate potentially extremely complicated benefits, so there's a bit of a problem solving as well - obviously good for any mathematician.

Pay wise - yes it's good, and much higher than accountants (in general). For example, I'll be paid about £20k more than my qualified accountant mates once qualified (and still more now even when not qualified).

I hope you don't mind me asking some stuff even though it is an old thread. Did you successfully finish qualifying? What kind of money are you making now (if you don't mind me asking) and who do you work for? (I hate asking questions like this they are too personal ) Would you recommend it to others now that you have had even more time working as an actuary?

Thanks.

That person hasn't been on TSR in over a year. You might be in for a long wait!

I hope you don't mind me asking some stuff even though it is an old thread. Did you successfully finish qualifying? What kind of money are you making now (if you don't mind me asking) and who do you work for? (I hate asking questions like this they are too personal ) Would you recommend it to others now that you have had even more time working as an actuary?

Thanks.

Overall, I think it depends on the person. If you love Stats and aren't a people person then become an actuary, if you just are interested in finance and like client work then ACA is a better route.

Overall, I think it depends on the person. If you love Stats and aren't a people person then become an actuary

It's been a while since I've seen someone throw around a massively discredited stereotype, thanks for keeping up the tradition on the internet.

I honestly can't begin to tell you where this falls apart, but in a short phrase, I'd have to say, "people are not one dimensional".

I agree with the last guys comment on your post. I'm on route to becoming an Actuary and socially, I'm bloody awesome.

Well you clearly misunderstand. I didn't say all actuaries are socially awkward. I said, if you enjoy meeting and interacting with people, then obviously being an accountant which has a lot of client work involved would fulfil that far better than the job of an Actuary. If you're not a people person on the other hand, then you won't like being an Accountant because of the client work it involves. It's not that hard to understand. I'm fully aware that people can be perfectly sociable outside the workplace.

There are plenty of actuarial routes which involve a large amount of client facing work, for example investment consultancy. Looking at investment consultancy, you can choose to specialise into a technical area and avoid the majority of the client facing roles, or you spend almost all of your time working directly with clients. Being an actuary just means you've got FIA after your name.

Fair enough. But I was obviously on about the technical side not the consultancy side. You don't need to be a qualified actuary to be an investment consultant, but you do to actually come up with stat models.