Actuarial Jobs - Myths Busted

"Jobs"- this is definitely something for which students in India pursue any specialised professional course like Actuarial Science or any other. Actuaries is considered to be a very highly paid job and students are definitely attracted to this profession because of great pay scales. But once they start giving exams some senior peers start scaring them with stories of market being stagnant and no jobs available in the market relating to Actuarial Science. This is anything but True.

It's general perception that Actuaries are meant for Insurance industry only! This is not valid in today's time.

What I think is Actuaries are meant to work in any field that involves risk, working of statistics, analytics, modelling, predictions etc. There is nothing like "Conventional" field for Actuaries but people do say that insurance is conventional and rest all are non conventional field of work. I strongly oppose this.

There are 55 insurance companies in India if one company recruit 10 people in actuarial team, whole industry will require on only 550 Actuaries.. So where will the rest of people go? Because of this situation people have started working in consultancy. So is it a bad thing? Not at all.. There is a huge scope for Actuaries in consultancy services. There are hardly any Actuaries in middle East , major part of Asia, and many other countries. But even these countries have insurance and other risky business in their market and hence require Actuaries. So from where do they get actuarial services? Obviously they outsource it to India or Australia (UK and US being very expensive). So isn't there a good scope?

Since 2013, Employment benefits (like gratuity, leave encashment, post retirement medical benefits, pension funds etc) liability valuation is done compulsorily by Actuaries as per new regulations. There are huge no. of companies who get this valuation done. If you charge around 8-10K to one company with less than 150 employee and higher amount accordingly to companies with more employees. Just imagine how much business you will get if you get good number of companies from market with least competition in valuers? Isn't it encouraging?

Actuaries in UK and US charge exorbitantly and hence some work is outsourced to India these day, creating ample opportunities here in our country.

You must have also heard of analytics? Some or most of my friends in this field say that analytics is non Actuarial may be they are true but I think against this. We should be open to working in any field that will require application of our knowledge. Be it in any department. Breaking the law, one of my friend accepted a job offer from one bank in analytics and business intelligence department. The person in charge in that bank was specifically looking for person with ct3 cleared as he thinks actuarial student can work better than someone with Bsc in Statistics. And that's indeed true. I congratulate him for starting a new trend in India. Though some "intelligent" people call it non actuarial, I hardly feel the same. I Would like them to define what is "actuarial job"?

Actuaries all over the world work in various fields like Risk Management, consultancy, Analytics, insurance, academics, valuation etc. They are not specific to insurance these days. Be open to all the fields and to what ever option that come to you. Just make sure it requires application of your actuarial concepts knowledge. There is no fixed definition of what makes it a "actuarial job".

What are packages likes? Fresh Graduate with few papers cleared get anywhere between Rs 3lakh to Rs 8lakhs based on company and candidate. It's a myth that you get millions immediately. Your salaries of course will increase exponentially with more experience and more actuarial papers in your kitty. If you become qualified Actuary your salary can be between Rs 4-8 millions or even more, again based on your own competence!

When is the right time to start working ? As soon as possible after clearing 1-3 papers. The more you are experienced while you study for exams, the more better you understand the concepts!

This is a great profession which say "earn while you learn"

Also we are proud to be a part of profession with 0% unemployment. There is not even one fellow actuary who is unemployed. Isn't it great?

Is there a huge competition at freshers level? Certainly Yes. But there are two things..

1. Competition is always good

2. Everyone is rushing to only specific employers like insurance, a few consultancy and KPOs. There are lot of other fields where are not approached and hence creates too much rush.

Also think why the company will recruit you. By clearing 2 exams you feel on the top of world. You should remain grounded and try to understand how much knowledge do you actually possess. You need to have basic software skills and your communication should also be excellent. Without these two, you will become a liability for the company. Do remember companies hire you not because they are generous enough to create jobs, but because they want to get their work done. If you don't have required aptitude then how can you expect to get hired? You need to be visibly different and smart.

So from here stop crying and asking if there are no jobs and do something to make yourself smart enough to sustain the competition. I hope you knew even before entering the profession that life is not going to be easy any more.

Also, try to work to improvise our profession. It really need good volunteers.

At the end as I always say, never seek to get jobs, always seek CREATE JOBS. BE AN ENTREPRENEUR!

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