"We have too few actuaries"
"We have too many actuaries"
"Actuarial Science is a dead profession"
"Actuarial Science is an evergreen profession"
I hear all of the above views, in a variety of ways very regularly, from outsiders, from aspiring actuaries, from qualified actuaries.
I hear that it is very tough to get an actuarial job, but I also find it challenging to find and hire suitable actuarial talents. I get lots of applications, and I also get ghosted by candidates I reach out to (especially after I give them a case study to solve).
So many paradoxes, what is the truth?
I think it is a matter of perception. Let's look at some of these views and why it may be true.
"We have too few actuaries"
I can attest that this is indeed true in Asia. By actuaries we specifically refer to qualified actuaries (Fellows or Associates).
A recent report jointly prepared by Bayes Actuarial Solutions & DD Consulting here found that there are only over 76,000 qualified actuaries worldwide vs 1.8 million chartered accountants worldwide.
Surely this should be an alarming statistic worldwide, especially in Asia which has less than 10% of that number.
And it should be a very inspiring statistic for actuarial aspirants, as just a matter of supply and demand economics should ensure that we have strong career paths as actuaries.
"We have too many actuaries"
Yes it is true that actuaries are getting retrenched in the US, UK, Australia and Singapore. These countries have some of the highest concentrations of actuaries per population, and actuarial jobs are getting outsourced to regions with cheaper costs (eg India, Malaysia, Pakistan etc).
But we need to introspect as actuaries as to why we have come to this situation. We Actuaries have boxed ourselves into very deep narrow niches within insurance, within specific lines of business (Life/General/Health), within products in those lines of business (eg Investment Linked), within specific actuarial software expertise (eg Prophet, AXIS etc).
Accountants and lawyers do specialise as well, but their niches are nowhere as narrow as actuaries.
Based on the science of evolution, we see that highly specialised species (eg Mammoths) tend to go extinct while generalised species (eg rats & cockroaches) have no extinction in sight (except in a cataclysmic event, yet still they have and may survive). [PS: no offense intended to lawyers and accountants, I have high respect for you & am not calling you rats/cockroaches..that would be very mean. We actuaries may be like mammoths though]
It's time that we seek to generalise our actuarial skills. Life actuaries should learn a little from their general actuary friends and vice versa.
We need to figure out how actuarial skills can be applied outside of insurance and learn new math and software skills that enable us to branch out further.
We need to figure out how to make actuarial education broader to encompass non-insurance applications & market our profession to non-insurance leaders.
"It's difficult to get an actuarial job"
There are indeed more actuarial graduates than jobs available. However most actuarial graduates, at least in Malaysia, have no actuarial exams passed.
Passing at least 2 if not more actuarial exams is very important, and if you are getting exemptions, getting almost full exemptions is very important.
Candidates also may not realise the actual number of insurance, Takaful, reinsurance etc companies that are available in Malaysia (which should total up to more than 30). Singapore loves hiring Malaysians too.
Getting the first actuarial job is not easy, but there are many actuarial employers available, so it's important to try with all of them as far as possible.
Consider non-traditional employers too, but the downside may be that they may not support your actuarial education (hope we can change that soon).
"It's challenging to hire actuaries"
This is my world as an employer of actuaries.
There is indeed a shortage of talent for candidates with more than 5 years of experience, and actuaries in Malaysia have many opportunities regionally, in Singapore, the rest of South East Asia, Australia, etc.
Exploring into non-traditional domains, I look for creative talents, and I find that candidates get scared away by a case study to test their creative problem solving ability (at least don't ghost me...). I do look for candidates with strong mathematical & programming skills (to take on big data projects), and the ability to adapt to multiple domains.
What's the take-away?
I'm proud to be an actuary (and grateful to my dad for talking me into it). There are lots of untapped opportunities & I have actuarial friends who are talented, kind and generally good people from many countries, many religions etc.
My view is that a growth mindset is the most essential trait an actuary needs, and the rest will fall in place.
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