<p>Can somebody tell me a bit about going into the actuarial field? I know that its tough to get into and requires strengths in like stats and probability. What other requirements are there, and what type of people is it for?</p>
<p>concepts in actural science such as life contingencies, credibility, pensions, etc, may require familiarity with financial accounting, economics, computer science, and strong foundations on mathematical finance, stochastic statistics, mulitvariable calculus, basic algebra, and of course, it varies amongst schools.</p>
<p>It involves translating everything imaginable in life into maths. A life of numbers and equations. And it's really hard. I'm pretty sure most of the work is for insurance companies.</p>
<p>Oh jeez...actuarial science.</p>
<p>I have the worst joke about actuaries.</p>
<p>Actuary A: So why didn't you become an accountant?
Actuary B: I didn't have the personality.</p>
<p>Badumcha!</p>
<p>I must agree, though actsci students are generally way smarter and intellgent compared to 99.99% of the accounting students, they're pretty dull when it comes to having fun and enjoying life. That's probably because they're studying in every waking hours.</p>
<p>There're exceptions though, good buddy of mine is a math genious and she's a pretty active and socialable person. Also very good looking! :)</p>
<p>Accounting isn't as is as people think.</p>
<p>You have to keep in mind there are many different kinds of actuaries. It's not just insurance. Today, there are major consulting firms that recruit actuaries who are expected to have excellent inter-personal skills.</p>
<p>It's a business sexy profession. True, a lot of them are geeks but that doesn't mean you have to be a geek. In fact, the person I interviewed with today (who's an actuary) lives and works in downtown NYC and loves to actively socialize and take advantage of the nightlife. The female actuaries I talked with in Buck consulting firm (a major pension consulting firm) were very attractive and they live in NYC and they love to have fun.</p>
<p>At a job fair at Stern, I talked to several actuaries. There are many different kinds of actuarial companies. From what I've seen, the most social individuals work in areas like NYC and Boston pension/health/p&C consulting.</p>
<p>Right now I'm trying to secure a summer internship with a company called New York Life. I'll be living in downtown Manhattan (paid housing of course) and I'll be getting paid an 8,000$ stipend. I'm halfway through the interview process and I can tell you the various people I met and spokewith are very social people.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>IMO, the actuarial field is quite easy to break into -provided- you can do math intensive exams under time stress. It's not necessarily "Competitive". It's all about can you pass exams or not?</p>
<p>It's not rocket science. A college math major who does well shouldn't have a problem with the initial exams.</p>
<p>I've currently taken the first two exams and have passed one. Let me know if you have any questions.</p>
<p>If you go to the <a href="http://www.beanactuary.org/onthejob/ask/%5B/url%5D">http://www.beanactuary.org/onthejob/ask/</a> website, you will see a list of career profile questionaires for current actuaries and 99-100% of them studied either math or actuarial science in college.</p>