Adversarial Relationship

Got back home from New York. The trip was wonderful, but I was looking forward to checking phone messages and mail -- when you're on a trip with two other people, you're limited to what they want to do.

So no e-mails from companies beating my doors down, but I got a call back from the actuarial recruiter.

Who is this actuarial recruiter, you might ask? Well, a couple of months ago, I sent an e-mail to a major actuarial recruiter. I'm not going to give you their names, but if you visit one of the major actuarial message boards, you can figure it out.

The first time, I was sent an e-mail where I was told, "Look, we're only looking for people who can work full time. And the fact that you're in school indicates the opposite. Call us in May."

So my wife suggested, "e-mail them again." Which I did, and I finally got the call back.

I got asked a few questions, sort of in an accusatory tone. Namely, "why did you stop being a nurse and start being an actuary?" ("Because I had only first heard of actuarial science a year ago.") "What's this about going to school full time?" ("Because it's a lot easier to pass exams if you have some math background, not to mention that @#$@#$ VEE requirement.")

It took about ten minutes to convince her my intentions were honest. Then the questions went to "where do you want to work?"

My answers: 1) Atlanta, 2) Pittsburgh (my wife visits Pittsburgh every week due to her job), 3) New York (outside). And the recruiter wanted me to expand that. So we went through a list of cities and finally expanded it to "everywhere in the Southeast US that has an airline hub. Oh, and Pittsburgh. And New York."

I'm pessimistic now about getting a callback. But hey, as a beginning actuary, pessimism is the default mode.