Personal Consumer Issues • Questions regarding Actuary Career

Hi everyone, I'm an unusual case compared to the someone who is not of the actuary field and isn't sure about a potential career switch.

I thought cybersecurity would be an interesting field to work in but it turned out to not be as expected. Have been working in it for slightly more than 4 years while doing my masters degree from a top 10 cybersecurity school on the side. I've learned about this industry in multiple ways and have become slightly disillusioned. It seems that a lot of it is just boring -- and boring IT especially. Maybe it is just a function of being in my particular employer but I'm starting to doubt that I can do this for the next 35 years. To be blunt = I'm miserable. Investigate phishing email this, crunch a security alert this, consult on some tool that, do some adjustment of configurations, monitor your network, adjust the firewalls, push some paperwork, pass an audit. My brain is quite literally rotting -- and I hate it.

I also would like to note that I can type code like a software engineer since I've been doing it since age 13. But "computer science" people who just type "if-else" and are programmers are over-saturating that field as well. Besides, just generic software development isn't as interesting nor as specialized.

I'm going to try my hand at one more cybersecurity gig at another employer to see if this is an issue of my current employer or the cybersecurity industry overall but I'm starting to consider a career change. Given that I love math (was on the math team in school years), actuarial work has caught my eye.

Accordingly, I have a few questions:

• To what degree would my prior background assist in a potential crossover? I only know that there are some cybersecurity insurance products that actuaries work on pricing, configuring, and appraising. Apart from that, would any skills be transferrable?

• What would the required time investment be in order to make a cross over? I understand there are many credentialing exams one needs to take -- and it is the first two or three that are required to get an industry foothold in the industry

• To what degree is the work actuaries do repetitive or not? Do you find your brainpower mentally engaged & stimulating?

• What should one know in order to determine whether they would find this career path enjoyable? I am trying to determine whether this would be worthwhile switch -- and do not want to end up regretting a second career path

• What is the best part of the day-to-day?

• To what degree is it susceptible to outsourcing? I know tech is very vulnerable to this kind of stuff

• What is the worst part of the day-to-day?

• What makes you love the actuary career path? Hate it?

• To what degree has actuarial work been boom-bust [like the tech industry like with the recent mass layoffs we've seen] versus steady and growing employment?

• What should one know about the actuarial line of work the most to determine whether this is a good career path or not?

• To what degree do you all manage to have personal relationships/family/etc while succeeding in the actuarial exam prep grind?

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I know these are many questions but they are asked for a reason. Thank you in advance!

Statistics: Posted by mtwistercapitalist — Tue Jul 09, 2024 8:58 pm — Replies 4 — Views 235

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