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Hey,
Been neglecting this blog. This will likely get worse as I come up on my exam date mid-August. I just ended my run through the last of the material (I went through options pretty quickly, hopefully I can brute force that material through 28 or so days of ADAPT). I am pretty solid on most of the annuities/loans/bonds/TVM material. I am getting a bit nervous and had my first nightmare the other night about being at the office post-failed attempt. I know I will not jeopardize my position by failing on the first attempt, but it would be nice to pass it first attempt right before my 90 day review.
I am getting a bit more comfortable in my position since the last post. I'm just shy of 2 months on the job now. I go into the office and either have a project to resume work on, or else I know what I can read and learn about. I'm starting to learn and use TW Emblem, for example.
My excel skills are progressing pretty nicely. I definitely see myself either taking a VBA class or getting a book to teach myself from in the near future. I've been finding macros online and editing them a bit to make my workbooks more user-friendsly (i.e. I was tired of having to change filters on multiple tables to update my charts to display a different band, so I found one which updates all the pivot tables on the worksheet to match the one you change). I wish that my coworkers/bosses were a little more into advanced Excel usage and I could learn from or with them.
I've also been interacting more with our vendors lately. ISO and some others... for purposes of requesting data, discussing our data and whatnot. I'm happy to start building some relationships because 1. I like branching out of my cubicle and 2. I may want to go to work for one of these companies one day.
I'll leave it there, work in the morning! If you have any excel tips/tricks, leave them in comments.
I'm liking this blog a lot, and was hoping you could answer a couple questions, if not personally, maybe someone in your office would know. I'm a math major, and a friend told me that if I'm good at math I should look into being an actuary. I don't have any background in economics aside from two introductory classes; is it possible to enter the field without a background in econ? And while my university offers two classes for the CAS and SOA, are there study guides/resources that could be used in lieu of dedicated classes? Anyways, keep up on the blog, even if it's sporadically. You've got a least one person reading!
ReplyDeleteDo you recommend reading some type of intro to accounting book?
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ReplyDeleteI think a background in econ is really unnecessary until maybe far later in your career. You might need to know about elasticity if you are modeling retention, or some other concepts I guess but they are all basic and could just be learned on the job I would imagine. I'm not an expert on what it takes to enter the field, but I think there is consensus that Exams, GPA, and rigor of degree program are the most important things aside from internship (which competes with exams). Few exceptions aside, undergrad Econ programs are not known for their rigor.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the classes for CAS and SOA refer to classes that spoon feed exam material (i.e. a course on "theory of interest" and such). I would recommend avoiding these classes unless you have to as part of your major (i.e. actuarial science). It is hit or miss if your hiring manager is going to respect them or scoff at them, whereas everyone respects a degree in pure math, stats, physics, etc. Pass the exams on your own - you won't have classes to spoon feed the material when you are working.
I took a basic Financial Accounting class. I haven't used it yet but I imagine that would be very useful later on. Some of the material from the class is probably on FM (like amortization of premium/discount, though I forget whether that was in the class. I've yet to use anything from accounting on the job, but I also work in R&D. I also imagine it is more relevant to some areas (like reserving and pensions) over others. Accounting concepts have, however, come up in conversation with a VP at my company and I am glad I knew some basics for that reason alone. I would say yes take a basic accounting course or read a book, if only so you can understand conceptually what insurance companies are (entities where, unlike in most any other industry, the liabilities side of a balance sheet are unknown at any given t). But only if you have free time, don't delay learning Excel/Access/SAS or passing exams to read about accounting.