Ask an Actuary

"Ask an Actuary" features an actuary that is asked to describe the path that led him/her to an actuarial career. For this installment, our featured actuary is Blake Hill, FSA, Actuary/Canadian Division Finance. We've begun the interview with a few general questions; you may continue the discussion by e-mailing your questions to Webmaster@BeAnActuary.org. We will post your questions and her responses as they are submitted. You will receive an e-mail notification after your contribution has been added.

Photo of Blake Hill

Q: When did you decide you wanted to pursue a career as an actuary?

A: While working at a small insurance company as a senior in high-school I met two programmers that told me about the Actuarial Science degree that they had recently completed; this was my first exposure to the career. A year later, after completing my first year of University in a business program I realized I wanted to continue learning more about math and statistics in a business context so I moved to the Actuarial Science & Economics program. It wasn't until I spent the following summer working with intelligent co-workers solving interesting business problems as an intern at actuarial consulting firm that I was convinced that the career was for me.

Q: What influenced this decision?

A: The opportunity to bring a tangible skill set to solve interesting business issues and work with other bright-minded individuals was amazing and I never looked back.

Q: Where did you go to college, and what is your educational background?

A: I graduated from The University of Western Ontario (London, ON Canada) with a Bachelors degree in Actuarial Science with Economics.

Q: What classes did you take in college that helped prepare you for the career? What class was most helpful?

A: The program I graduated from consisted of math, actuarial, statistical and economic courses. The math, actuarial and statistical courses were designed to introduce the technical skills necessary for a career as an actuary, while the economics courses are designed to teach critical thinking and practical application of math skills.

Obviously math and statistics courses are a key component of the early SOA exams, so these seem the most appropriate to mention as helping to prepare me for a career as an actuary. However, I would say that economic courses in micro economics which teach critical thinking (i.e. game theory) are extremely useful in real world settings and I use these skills much more now than any math skills.

Q: What classes outside of math and statistics (such as communications) were helpful?

A: In addition to the economics courses mentioned above, I took a general business program in my first year at university where I took a psychology and introductory business course. The business course is useful to prepare a student for communicating with non-actuaries (i.e. speaking with accountants about balance sheet and income statements). The psychology course provided me with an insight into the way people perceive the world, which is helpful when trying to effectively present an issue to a large and diverse audience.

Q: What did you do before you were an actuary?

A: I have always worked in the actuarial field as a full time employee. I do have experience as a teach advisor (high school summer school teacher) and as a residence advisor in a university dorm.

Q: Tell me about your first job in the profession. Where did you work? How did you get the job? What did you do?

A: My first job in an actuarial position was at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Toronto Ontario, where I worked as an actuarial consultant on Life and P&C clients. The job was a summer intern position, which I received after applying to nearly 50 companies to get an internship role in a financial firm (determination does pay-off!).

I worked on both Life and Property Casualty actuarial projects. I was able to get experience pricing term life insurance (determine premium rates and sensitivities to key assumptions) a well as an introduction to stochastic (random) modeling of casualty claims.

Q: When did you take your first exam? How long did it take you to get through the process?

A: I wrote my first SOA exam after I finished my 2nd year of university (age 20), once I had completed all the math courses necessary to write first exam. Having only studied the weekend before and not knowing the break down of material on the exam I failed on my first attempt. After that I learned that studying is necessary, and with that knowledge I was able to complete the 8 exams in 10 sittings, or 6 years. I finished all the necessary components for my fellowship in 7 ½ years.

Q: What advice would you give to people preparing to take the exams?

A: Be prepared for a serious commitment, the competition level on SOA exams is higher than most post secondary programs. Given the amount of time required to become an actuary you must be truly engaged and determined to become an actuary because it is what you want to do!

Q: What is a typical day like as an actuary?

A: The nice part of the profession is that on a typical day there is no routine work. With the complexity of the work and the continually changing environment that actuaries work in there is little about our work that stays the same for long. My typical day is spent managing staff to review financial data, answering questions from non actuarial parties about actuarial concepts and attending meetings to discuss the results and future of the business.

Q: How long have you been in the profession?

A: I've been working full time for 5 years, all for my current employer Manulife Financial.

Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in the profession?

A: Ask lots of questions to compliment your technical skills with real world knowledge. The exams prepare you to be a strong technical analyst with an appreciation for the details of the business we work in. Add to that the understanding of what customers are looking for and how your work satisfies the need the customer has will bring greater appreciation for your work. The combination of technical and business knowledge will present you with a multitude of opportunities not found in any other financial career!

Additional Questions:

Q: Would you suggest a student from Canada earn a joint major in Economics and Math or continue with my current Bsc in Math and honours in statistics in order to prepare for the exams and the actuarial profession?

A: That's a really good question and one that is not easy to answer without knowing more about the program you are in and more about you. I would suggest getting advice from your academic counsellors and from a few professors of both statistics and economics.

I would suggest taking an elective (or two) in Economics if your schedule allows it. Specifically an introduction course in Macro and Micro economics.

Under the new SOA/CAS education system there are topics that will be validated through external educational processes. These topics include Corporate Finance, Economics and Regression. You can find more information under the Education section of the SOA/CAS websites. You may wish to take these courses in University (or have ones you've taken validated). Therefore taking some economic courses would work towards completing the VEE (validated by educational experience) requirements of the exam process.

The preliminary exams are geared towards technical math skills, and therefore your current program will address this. I found the economic training very beneficial in the upper exams, but I focused on Corporate Finance and Risk Management area of the exam process. Other disciplines with actuarial science may not benefit as much from the economic training.

To close I would say you should consider taking economic courses only if you will enjoy them.

Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A: The most rewarding part of my job - wow that's a great question. I've thought about this for a while before responding and as I thought about what it is I do I came to the conclusion that I help individuals reduce the financial risks in their lives. It may not seem that an actuary helps people directly, similar to a doctor or other health care professional, but we provide a very important skill set that allows individuals to caring on with their lives not worrying about the financial burdens they would leave for others if something unfortunate were to happen to them.

Q: What are the different career paths that an actuary can take? How soon should a student decide what path they should follow?

A: There is a different career path for Life (SOA) versus Casualty (CAS) actuaries. The first few exams are jointly sponsored, to allow you time while writing the exams to determine which path you would like to pursue. The best way to determine which path you would like to follow would be to work in each field for a short time, 4 months, in an intern position. If that is not possible, try to setup a meeting with an actuary in both Life and Casualty careers.

Q: Would you suggest that students attend graduate school?

A: The choice of attending graduate school is up to the individual. Graduate school is not required, and the work experience gained from beginning work is generally as useful as the time spent in higher education.

Q: If I don't have a degree in Actuarial Sciences, but in a related field like Statistics; what courses of action are suggested for taking the tests?

A: Having a degree in Statistics is very similar to the field of Actuarial Science, therefore with a bit of extra effort to prepare for the SOA/CAS exams you should be in a good position.

Q: How did you study for the exams? What should I do to prepare for them?

A: I have an undergraduate degree that prepared me for the first 4 SOA/CAS exams. I prepared for the upper exams through self study, and received guidance from other actuarial employees at Manulife Financial.

Q: What did your employers emphasize about your educational background and work experience?

A: Actuarial employers typically look for individuals that can show potential for completing the SOA/CAS exams (having good school marks and a few SOA/CAS exams are good to demonstrate this) and other skills useful for the business world (communication skills, leadership, business acumen).

Q: What did you mean by stating that the completition level on SOA exams is that high? Could you expand on this?

A: My comment that competition on the SOA exams is higher refers to the increased level of preparation that an individual hoping to succeed should expected to put in. The SOA/CAS exams are written amongst some of the top students across not only North America but around the world. The knowledge required to succeed is more than most individual academic courses at the undergraduate level, they are an aggregation of many courses into one exam.