Quant analyst with CFA, to take actuary test

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MBAFinance

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Somebody please comment, any comments are welcome.
I am not an escapist. But banks like younger staff and it seems insurance value experience.
 
MBAFinance wrote:
I am a quant analyst with MFE degree and work at a wall street bank. I felt I was not taking seriously and as such my most recent job is within IT (doing quant type of work though).
I am thinking about passing actuary exam to beef up my resume for a real risk job. Since I have CFA so i only need to take 4 more exams and majority of the exams are exempt.
Is this a wise move?
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Only 4 exams to pass Actuary??Which body provides such exemptions to CFA charter holders?
 
So you have a Master’s Degree and the CFA. You work in IT at a Wall Street bank and you weren’t taking seriously.
You remind me of a friend of mine who said, “You know, my Bachelor’s in English isn’t landing me any jobs. I think I’m gonna get my….Master’s in English!!!” You really think that extra year of school’s gonna automatically land you a six figure salary?
 
^ Speaking of bachelor in English, I’ve seen more than a few people break in ER with that degree. It’s not an irrelevant degree.
 
I want to take some Acturial exams while I am working as a quant analyst. And see if there is chance to get to consulting… I do find some people with both CFA and FSA. The also have some FRM, PhD… under their belt.
 
MBAFinance wrote:
I want to take some Acturial exams while I am working as a quant analyst. And see if there is chance to get to consulting… I do find some people with both CFA and FSA. The also have some FRM, PhD… under their belt.
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I have no idea why you think writing actuarial exams will help you get into consulting. I also have no idea how those lead to thoughts of FRM and PhD. Did you already do an MBA? Because that usually helps facilitate a career change.
Try to brush up on your English writing and speaking - I think that will yield the most value added in the same time spent.
 
OP:
For the Society of Actuaries, yes, the CFA charter would get exemptions for the VEE (validated by education and experience) requirements, and your MFE might get you exempted from a couple of the early quantitative exams. I suspect the 4 exams you mention are the Fellowship exams and associated modules. If so, do not underestimate the difficulty in passing them and how much of your time and life you will have to invest!!
 
Actuarial exams are serious business and there are a lot of them. If you have a MFE, perhaps they will be easier.
Either way, CFA and ASA/FSA is good for insurance investment management, pension investment management, LDI type roles, and that’s about it. IF those don’t interest you I wouldn’t waste my time.
 
My perception is: Insurance industry value experience. Many actuaries don’t retire at retirement age. But IB has notoriously high attrition rate. You will be out if you don’t get promoted fast enough even if you do you jobs well. They would want younger who can do half decent job to replace you.
 
former trader wrote:
^ Speaking of bachelor in English, I’ve seen more than a few people break in ER with that degree. It’s not an irrelevant degree.
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I have to. but they are generally from degrees attached to schools like Harvard. Princeton. Yale.. etc
you’re not going to see: BS English, UofPhoenix, Work Exp: hollister greeter - break into ER
 
I wouldn’t bother. I studied Actuarial Science at university and considered what you are considering, after speaking to several actuaries at networking events, it’s just not worth doing both. If you can’t land the job now with CFA, doing more exams is not going to help all that much.
 
former trader wrote:
^ Speaking of bachelor in English, I’ve seen more than a few people break in ER with that degree. It’s not an irrelevant degree.
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+1 i know 2 millionaires with english degrees both in finance
 
MBAFinance wrote:
An actuary consulting is going to interview me …..
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My advice would be to keep your thoughts to yourself, people have lost interviews on this forum for posting information here. This is a public domain after all, and our field, while large, its not impossible to piece together who is who.
 
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/careers/91333456
Very odd. I wouldn’t cancel a candidate if I ran across this. If anything I’d feel somewhat intrigued the guy is hoping to pronounce my name right, AND I can also bookmark the thread and secretly ask questions like some random AF’er and prod the candidate and his true interest/feeling about me on AF later.
 
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