Wednesday, April 05, 2006

"No."

When I last posted, I mentioned that I was traveling south for a job interview on Monday. Here is the story.

I woke up at 5:30 am to get ready for the subway trip to the local airport. After leaving home at 6:30 and arriving at the local airport -- it's always a good idea to plan your airport arrival for at least two hours before your scheduled departure -- My plane finally departed at 9:30 and arrived locally at my interview site at 11:15 am.

I was picked up by my interviewer. There were only about 9 people (in total) working for this consulting company and I met six of them for lunch. I made sure to remember not to order anything messy (you don't want anything to get on your clothes) or expensive. As it turned out, we arrived at a French/Vietnamese place. (I am reminded of the Right Minded Actuary who warns that you might face some challenges in cuisine. :)

However, oddly enough, the day before the flight I had my first visit to a Vietnamese restaurant. So the food wasn't foreign to me. I tried to be polite, but not too polite, made sure not to gobble my food, and ALWAYS thanked the waitress for whatever she did for me, even if it was just a simple refill.

After that, I went to visit the office. The interviewer warned that it wouldn't be marble floors and glass crystal windows. And indeed, it was not. It was a dump, to be frankly. However, this office did actuarial evaluations for pension plans from all across the state. I suppose the lesson should be "take no account of the surroundings".

First, I talked to the founder. He explained the work the company did in detail -- generally, he stated (and every other interviewer emphasized) that the very first work any consulting pension actuary does in in benefits calculation -- you have to know how to calculate benefits. You have to know how to do it without mistakes, as the firm can be held liable for a mistake you made. Generally, a beginner signs that (s)he did the calculation, and the result is reviewed by a senior actuary.

"But I don't know what they expect me to calculate!" you might say. No problem. You'll be brought along in increments, but you won't be given other responsibilities until you know how to do the benefit calculations, so it is both in your best interest and the company's to know how to do this.

Unfortunately...the company will not show you any benefits calculations being made during the interview. Benefits calculation is proprietary -- it's a trade secret.

After talking with the founder, I talked with the two other senior actuaries. I call this the "Come to Jesus" part of the interview, or the sermon. The actuaries emphasized not only the need for calculations to be error-free, but also the odd hours consulting actuaries work. You have to be ready (during some parts of the year) to work on Saturday, and if the work load is bad enough, even on Sunday.

The three major questions I was asked were:

"Tell me about yourself." (Remember...sell yourself, and don't give them your life story. Every part of your story you tell should sell your talent.)
"How have your past experiences prepared you for this job?" (In particular, did you have deadlines? Or major responsibilities)
"Have you ever given presentations, or directed a group?" (As a consulting actuary, you might have to present your results to a group of non-actuaries. How comfortable do you feel about speaking?)

The hours were stressed in particular. You might have to travel to give a presentation at some late hour, say, 8:30 pm, and not get back until 11pm. Furthermore, both actuaries emphasized the difficulty in studying for exams while working full time. (I got the impression that every actuary had failed at least one exam; this is almost a given in the field.)

Finally, I reviewed the day with the phone interview. We then talked benefits and numbers. (Note: NEVER ask about benefits during the phone interview -- you can find that out at the face-to-face interview.) He asked what kind of salary I considered reasonable. (Be sure you have a number. The best place to go is http://www.salary.com, where you can look up actuarial salaries by job title and geographic location. I put myself at the 40th percentile of salary for an Actuary I position, since I would be relocating. (If you really want the job, you could ask for the 25th percentile.)

And that was it. I was driven back to the airport, and they flew me back.

I will state that my interview was a bit different. First...I needed an offer right away. I've been accepted into my college's Ph. D. program in Risk Management. Obviously, the department needed to know my answer ASAP, as it was a competitive program. So if I got a good offer, I would choose the consulting actuary position; if not, I would accept the Ph. D. offer which comes with a $15,000/yr stipend.

I got the call back yesterday. Yes, they liked me, but they decided that since I was the first person they interviewed, they really weren't sure enough to give me an offer at present. To say it was a let down was an understatement. They were serious enough to fly me down and spend $600 + a lunch, but I must not have blown them away enough to forego them looking at other candidates. Oh well, as another actuarial blogger said, "it is THEIR LOSS". But I couldn't help but feel depressed over it.

So...I e-mailed my professor and accepted the Ph. D. stipend. I am now an official Ph. D. candidate in Mathematical Risk Management/Actuarial Science at my local university. I hope that my work is up to Ph. D. standards.

I just have to remind myself -- if I don't like this, I can depart after a year. After all, it's not forever, and after four years of sweat, it (theoretically) comes with a Ph. D. My only question is...should I change the title of the blog?

2 Comments:

Blogger Y said...

Seems like you had a good experience from your on-site interview. So you told the company you are not considering them and accepted the Ph.D?

I think giving a shot to the Ph.D program is a very good idea. I have a lot of respect to people who are pursuing this path.

Besides,you can always look for another actuarial position next year or after the Ph.D program. There's always a demand of actuarial analysts.

I would keep the title of this blog, since you are still pursuing a program related to actuarial science---just my two cents.

2:17 PM  
Blogger James said...

Yukki,

Thanks for the advice. Yep, I'll be sending a thank-you note for the interview and an e-mail stating that I've accepted the offer of the Ph. D. program.

Yep, I think I can call myself technically an actuary...as long as I'm pursuing exams!

4:34 PM  

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