Master of Math in Actuarial Science @Waterloo

pegasusyUID: 3598071

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-5 09:55
那我问你什么工作好找呢? 都是要靠自己努力。

只是干的几个实习里面精算的那个最水最没意思 所以已经动摇干精算的念头了

xiazhetengUID: 3596753

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-5 09:46
我是说他是我boss不是supervisor，至于导师是有的吧，除非你选coursework，thesis option一定都会有的啊。s ...

course option也有supervisor

karykuanUID: 2729812

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-5 09:49
Yes, I knew it.
Just accepted the offer yesterday!
Looking forward to coming to Waterloo!

It's a great program! Competitive but rewarding, make sure you don't just spend your time studying (SOA exams etc), socializing with professors and attending department events are important too! Be alert and ready to jump and take on any opportunities (have a resume ready and up to date), improve your english language skills (hanging out with canadian students while keeping a close circle with other chinese students, something I wish I had known better before I started). If lanuching a career after master graduation is your priority, make sure you share your vision with few profs, they will refer you to potencial positions. Lots to share, be smart, nice and humble and always have your goals in mind. Anyway, I am sure you will do fine there.

karykuanUID: 2729812

pegasusy 发表于 2015-3-5 11:49
只是干的几个实习里面精算的那个最水最没意思 所以已经动摇干精算的念头了

hmmm, not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. There will always be opportunities and jobs in this area. Like any job recruitments in canada, there are so many factors involved and being considered. Thesedays, grades and SOA exams are just part of the criteria. You have to "upgrade" and shape yourself to be a better candidate (start with the attitude!). Believe it or not, lots of students I know have trouble getting a job because they fall short of understanding and clearly explaining themselves using english during the interview!!!

Thomson_yeUID: 3589497

Thank you for your nice and knowledgeable comments. I'll keep those ideas in mind when doing my master's degree at Waterloo!

pegasusyUID: 3598071

karykuan 发表于 2015-3-6 01:13
hmmm, not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. There will always be opportunities and jobs ...

I'm just stating the fact that from my own experience, daily duties of a typical pricing pos wasn't as interesting as what I thought. Showing off/disencouraging lz aren't what I meant to be and pretty much the admission speaks for his/her hard work. Just very very very very curious why there are still thousands of ppl out there lining up for this degree. UW has 200 undergrad graduate from actsc each year and clearly at least half of the ppl have problem finding an actsc related job (supply>>demand) even if they speak good English →.→

Back from a horrible midterm, plz forgive any aggressive word if there is any.

Thomson_yeUID: 3589497

Yes, you are right in overall. Actually, I'm a bachelor student in actuarial science already in HK. And I'm now working in the pricing team in actuarial department with a local insurance company. Yes, the daily routine tasks are purely about running prophet to do profitability testing (e.g. Calculating VNB and evaluate economic capital) and I'm also involved in experience study like review on the premium charges based on the clients' claim experiences (e.g. credibility theory). And those tasks are boring in finding relationships with different factors. However, this is a typical back office job. U know accountants are also doing something boring but with less technical skills compared to actuaries. Another thing I concerned about is to start my formal actuarial research at Waterloo with those world-renowned professors and researchers in actuarial science there. I have already passed 3 SOA exams with all VEE credits granted.... I hope I could go to either professional actuarial career in Canada or pursue my PhD degree there after MMath-ActSc.

karykuanUID: 2729812

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-6 19:24
Yes, you are right in overall. Actually, I'm a bachelor student in actuarial science already in HK.  ...

Well, agree with both of you, there really ain't any "exciting" jobs for a master level statistician. I have been working as a biostatistican at a research institute for more than 2 years. Sometimes, very occationally, I get to participate in the project designing stage. I get to meet with doctors and helping them develop their analysis plans for intended study objectives. I learned a lot medical knowledge about cancer, COPD and other chronic dieases in the past. Tasks and works like that always like a breath of fresh air for me since I don't have to just seating in front of my desk and programming SAS to clean and cut datasets (extremely boring). However, have to be honest, most of my jobs are boring coding. That's why I wanted to go for a PhD in public health - to be able to do more planing and research initiation.

pegasusyUID: 3598071

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-6 19:24
Yes, you are right in overall. Actually, I'm a bachelor student in actuarial science already in HK.  ...

I've exchanged to HKU before! I do think the recuitment in HK should be better that Canada since HK has way more insurance companies than Canada. To me as an actsc student, I feel the only possible place that I could find a job and be willing to work is Toronto but you can count insurance companies in Toronto on one hand... :-( Moreover as an undergrad in Loo, I've never had classes from those famous profs ..NEVER :-( maybe graduate area is a different story. I think in NA, a bachelor degree is enough to start one's career in insurance industry. (But study->work indeed makes it easier to get into Canada/US and FYI they changed work permit policy recently orz). If you wanna be a prof later on (especially getting a NA PhD then manage to teach in a HK university)/ enjoy research, go for PhD, otherwise Don't go. It takes too much time but doesn't grant any advantages when competing with those undergrads who have lots of co-op experience in the industry for an entry level position.

pegasusyUID: 3598071

karykuan 发表于 2015-3-7 01:14
Well, agree with both of you, there really ain't any "exciting" jobs for a master level statistici ...

Do you think digging data for BI would better you experience? was considering apply for statistics for my master degree but discouraged by my supervisor.

karykuanUID: 2729812

pegasusy 发表于 2015-3-7 02:07
Do you think digging data for BI would better you experience? was considering apply for statistics ...

I have a love and hate relationship with pure stats, I did biostat at waterloo (same department but we take 3 different classes). Stat can be too broad for career hunting, you might need specific focus. You can discuss with your supervior in detail but it's usually (from what I hv seen) better to combine stat with training either in finance (risk management and assessment etc) or with computing sciences (data mining...) or with medicine (clinical trial, population analysis&epidemiology). That way you can boost your chances of getting the job.

karykuanUID: 2729812

pegasusy 发表于 2015-3-7 02:07
Do you think digging data for BI would better you experience? was considering apply for statistics ...

experience wise, I doubt. I plan to stay away from any position mentioning keyword "data" lol!!! Well, honestly, there are more stat programming jobs out there, unavoidable.

pegasusyUID: 3598071

karykuan 发表于 2015-3-7 02:51
experience wise, I doubt. I plan to stay away from any position mentioning keyword "data" lol!!! W ...

lol I don't hate programming that much. Sometimes in actsc we have to trace values among linked  cells & spreadsheeets(spot checking?). I hate that part most, together with running dataset for hours. Gonna discuess it with my supervisor next term. Thank you for your advices XD

Thomson_yeUID: 3589497

pegasusy 发表于 2015-03-07 01:56




I've exchanged to HKU before! I do think the recuitment in HK should be better that Canada since HK has way more insurance companies than Canada. To me as an actsc student, I feel the only possible place that I could find a job and be willing to work is Toronto but you can count insurance companies in Toronto on one hand... :-( Moreover as an undergrad in Loo, I've never had classes from those famous profs ..NEVER :-( maybe graduate area is a different story. I think in NA, a bachelor degree is enough to start one's career in insurance industry. (But study->work indeed makes it easier to get into Canada/US and FYI they changed work permit policy recently orz). If you wanna be a prof later on (especially getting a NA PhD then manage to teach in a HK university)/ enjoy research, go for PhD, otherwise Don't go. It takes too much time but doesn't grant any advantages when competing with those undergrads who have lots of co-op experience in the industry for an entry level position.

Well, as far as I know, the actuarial labour market in HK has currently in a turning point from supply > demand (surplus) to an increasing demand for actuaries in the coming 1~2 years. But nowadays, lots of hku actuarial science graduates cannot find their actuarial jobs even though they got coop, 5 soa exams passed with high gpa.

So I switched to finding my goal in Waterloo, Canada. For coop experience, I would like to say I have already accumulated more than 1 year full time actuarial internship experience in hk (almost 14 months). With all 5 preliminary exams passed and all vee credits, is it still difficult for me to compete with those undergrad actsc students with coop when hunting an entry level actuarial job in Toronto?

cheesechanUID: 3505689

Thomson_ye 发表于 2015-3-8 10:22
Well, as far as I know, the actuarial labour market in HK has currently in a turning point from supp ...

我估計問題一樣存在……
係香港，hku ac都好難入行，intake太大。
換了在canada, waterloo應該是best in canada , 你有master加埋soa paperX 5 & VEE x 3,。之前還有intern，硬件夠有突。問題是，一來精算是個matured industry (i.e. entry position不會多)，二來最攞命既係，你是international student…要公司搞work premot不容易