Friday, December 02, 2005
One Final Thought on Being an Actuary
One thing that I meant to bring up in my last post about being an actuary was that I used to study a lot for the actuarial exams. It was not unheard of me studying over 12 hours a day. (Of course, by "study," I mean read a chapter, surf the internet for an hour, talk to another actuary about football for an hour, do a problem or two, take a nap, read another chapter....)
It's been 5 years since I finished my actuarial exams. I find that I don't have quite the stamina that I used to. Or the drive. As an actuary, I knew that if I passed my exam that sitting (the exams were pass/fail with an average pass rate of around 30%), then I'd be getting a nice huge raise. More importantly, I'd never have to take that exam again.
I don't have quite the same motivation right now. I know that I'm going to get no worse than a B in my classes. (Isn't grad school great? You either get an A or a B! I can handle that.) And I'm sure as hell not getting any money if I study my ass off. One of my professors even hinted that I should study less (if that were even possible) and spend more time trying to find a job. I think that's a good idea. But I'm still pretty sure that a nice job is just going to land in my lap without me doing any work at all. (And that job is called "stay-at-home dad.")
It's been 5 years since I finished my actuarial exams. I find that I don't have quite the stamina that I used to. Or the drive. As an actuary, I knew that if I passed my exam that sitting (the exams were pass/fail with an average pass rate of around 30%), then I'd be getting a nice huge raise. More importantly, I'd never have to take that exam again.
I don't have quite the same motivation right now. I know that I'm going to get no worse than a B in my classes. (Isn't grad school great? You either get an A or a B! I can handle that.) And I'm sure as hell not getting any money if I study my ass off. One of my professors even hinted that I should study less (if that were even possible) and spend more time trying to find a job. I think that's a good idea. But I'm still pretty sure that a nice job is just going to land in my lap without me doing any work at all. (And that job is called "stay-at-home dad.")
