Career Change - Engineering to Actuary?

Quote: UWPeteO

To put it simply I'd say it's a lack of passion for the field (and industry). I wouldn't go as far to say as I hate (or even really dislike) the work, but this is definitely not how I envisioned spending my life. And since I can keep my job while I pursue the change it seems like a safe bet to give it a shot.

Nobody ever feels called for actuarial work either. It is just a good job choice for those good at applied math. Crunching statistics is not exactly glamorous work either. It also doesn't help that 9 out of 10 Americans don't know what an actuary is.

Quote: Wizard

Nobody ever feels called for actuarial work either. It is just a good job choice for those good at applied math. Crunching statistics is not exactly glamorous work either. It also doesn't help that 9 out of 10 Americans don't know what an actuary is.

If you don't mind, a question on that. When you were an actuary how did you do most of the calculations? Was there a "glorified excel" you used or did you need to know a fair amount of programming to do calculations?

Based on forecasting I have had to do in the past (not nearly that level, but bosses are the same in many places) after the initial formula is made people want to play "what if" for all kinds of things.

Not contemplating a career change, just curious.

I changed careers to become an Actuary 6 years out of college. So far I like the day to day work, using excel and sql, answering what-if type questions, but in general I don't exactly feel passionate about it.