If you like Financial Modelling then you don't necessarily have to do Actuarial. If you're good at Maths, go ahead and study Maths, and eventually Mathematical Finance, Mathematical Modelling or Computational Science, or Computational Finance/Quantitative Finance/Financial Engineering. Since a lot of those are graduate level study.

Or you could start with Engineering. Because you need to be really smart, otherwise you need a qualification in Maths or Engineering to do FinEng/QuantFin later on.

There are also some MSc degrees, in case you prefer not to have full-on quant, since not all of these are.

It won't be exams for years, but you will have studied more, longer (and much harder stuff) than those 3 year Accounting or Finance people.

This is going to be more interesting than just modelling pensions or probabilities of accidents and lifespans. You can go into equities, equity derivatives, energy derivatives, currencies, precious metals, rates (fixed income), all manner of exotic and structured products. Very technical shit.

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Added on October 14, 2012, 2:41 amSome people do a Physics PhD and go on to a MS FinEng after! Which is bizarre since they are/should be already so good at Maths and they are a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics of all things. There are also those who start out with Actuarial, but eventually go and study a MS FinEng after many years, and get CFA and everything.

This post has been edited by LightningFist: Oct 14 2012, 02:41 AM

well most of those courses u mentioned are really nothing i knew much, and i certainly dont wanna study something that would get me much trouble in getting a well paid job in the future...and by any chance being an entrepreneur too, hehe

A hard cold truth for you, it's very difficult to enter the actuarial industry these days.
So, if you think studying Actuarial Science will guarantee you a well paid job, you are gravely mistaken. Even if you managed to enter the Actuarial industry, the pay is slightly above average at best, unless you pass papers very quickly.

i really dont understand why so much ppl thk actuary can earn big money whereas there are alot jobs outside offer better pay such as dealer/ trader, analyst, project manager etc...

You're right, a bank does pay high salaries, at least big or successful banks do.

But there's also job security. And both careers/industries work differently.

How many analysts and traders were laid off during the financial crisis? Or the recessionary periods that followed?

An insurance company employs actuaries, but not a huge number of them. And a small number of those are the 'heads' or 'chiefs'. They probably have to compete with less people to move up to CRO, CFO, CEO or COO.

A bank's structure is larger, it had many VPs and Heads, with people holding and working different positions at the same time. But these employees compete with more for top positions.

A successful trader's salary is obviously going to beat an actuary's, when even analysts lose to them. But I think nowadays it's more difficult to get an analyst, trader, or sales job at a good, big bank. So many of them have graduate Financial Engineering degrees, and/or MBAs and CFAs. Probably less time than it takes to get Fellow status as an actuary, but still a considerable amount of work.

Also maybe at the higher level, an actuary doesn't need to work as long as a banker. If you care about per hour pay.

then what jobS offers high pay? and what degrees are required for it?

High risk, high volatility industries or jobs.

Oil and gas. Trading/brokerage. Diving.

Being a pilot pays I think more for the qualification and skill more than the risk, since risk is generally low. Also the industry has become more stable over time, but profits are still affected by fuel prices.

As the saying goes, high risk = high return.
Hence, take maximum risk by playing derivatives using high leverage, then you may have a chance to earn big in a very short period of time.
However, it's also an easy way to go bankrupt

Anyways, to answer your question regarding "job(s)" that offer high pay, what is your definition of high pay?
Starting salary, or ending salary?
If you thinking about being rich, being an entrepreneur would give you a high chance.

No jobs pay a lot and what degree you have doesn't matter.

Anyone can comment on SOA vs UK/Australian qualifications, in terms of the difficulty of the exams/of qualifying?

I noticed a lot of actuaries are SOA-qualified, even those that went to Australian and British schools which provide for IoA/FoA/IoAA exemptions, and many students are doing the SOA series too.

I know UK/Australian preliminary exams when passed can be converted to SOA exam exemptions, and vice versa.

Also, can anyone comment on the different specialisations? What are the implications/consequences of the choice of specialisation - does it restrict job opportunities for qualified actuaries?

For example for STs Health/Care and Life go together, or Pensions with either, the two General subjects go together (but there is only one SA for General), there are two distinct Finance/Investment subjects (but two similar SAs), and ERM (no SA).

The reason why most actuary in Malaysia are SOA-qualified is because it's the most convenient for Malaysians.
For Australia qualification, you'll need to take the exams in Australia as they do not offer them elsewhere.
SoA also have the exams more frequent as compared to other institute. Though, UK is slowly catching up. As most people are in SoA, therefore, it's easier to get advice, materials etc too. Hence, many people convert to SoA.

P/S: Btw, Australia's exam is very very expensive. Cost about RM15k for the final paper... <-- may be one of the reason why people are not keen to take up IOAA.

Yeah, I was wondering about access and logistics too. Several thousand AUD for each of the four final part Australian exams. And each is scheduled to be 15 weeks long. Though they claim to have exam offices/centres in KL, Singapore, Hong Kong too. Anyway any face-to-face is probably in Sydney, if it isn't the web based stuff.

I'm aware the closest place for the UK one is Singapore's SMU. Which is fairly close I suppose, given the exams aren't taken so frequently, just twice a year at most.

Wasn't aware that Australia's was comparably more expensive, or that SOA had more frequent exams.

Thanks for enlightening me. Could I ask some straightforward questions:

1. How frequently can you take SOA exams, and how many times are you allowed to repeat for fails (and what happens - consequences - if you do)?

2. Do you mind telling me where you are working (type of firm and country) and where you plan to work after qualifying?

1. Depends on which paper. But at least twice per year. First few exams up to 4-5 times a year.. For modules, at any point of time. I'm not aware of any consequences for failing. You should be able to repeat as many times as you want. I believe it's the same for other institute as well.

As for your 2nd question, pls do pm me for more personal questions as I'm not too comfortable sharing them in public.

i want to get degree in Acturial Science at Universiti of Malaya

is it ok ? what are the pros and cons ?

can someone help me with this

for number 1, if you are paying the papers for yourself then you should be able to resit as many times as you want, however if your company is sponsoring you then its another story altogether.

I don't actually think there is much use is an actuarial degree.

IINM, it's quite difficult to enter AS in local uni.. (you hv to get CGPA 4.0 for matrix/STPM to enter).
However, if public university is your choice, I would suggest UKM before UM (because UM is 4 years course, UKM is 3 years).

hmm cannot do foundation in UM or UKM then pursue AS degree there ?

Public university do not offer such option AFAIK.

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Added on December 24, 2012, 9:33 pmI would have to disagree with you on this as my degree has helped me a lot.
What I learnt in uni taught me the theory and principle, what work taught me is how to apply them. I believe it would be significantly more difficult for me to adapt work had I not have an actuarial degree.

This post has been edited by Searingmage: Dec 24 2012, 09:33 PM

Did a research recently and found only few Universities in the UK has 8 out of 9 papers exempted (Core Technical) and they are Heriot-Watt University (BSc in Actuarial Science), Queen's University Belfast (BSc in Actuarial Science and Risk Management), Cass Business School (City Uni) - BSc in Actuarial Science, University of Kent (BSc in Actuarial Science), University of Southampton (BSc in Mathematics with Actuarial Science and BSc Social Sciences in Economics and Actuarial Science).
In fact LSE - BSc in Actuarial Science only offers 7 out of 9 papers exempted and Warwick University, you need to complete their Master programme in order to get 7 out of 9 papers exempted.

So, student must choose carefully especially the courses and Universities in the UK when it comes to Actuarial studies.