Advice needed

[Anonymous]

I've been in my current position for a year and half now. My daily life here was doing nothing but browsing the internet most of the time. I discussed my frustration to my supervisior and asked for more projects sevearl times, but still no response. I know that he personally doesn't like me since I am the one who passes exams too fast. I got my ASA already but still hasn't got any intense actuarial training. I am so worried about this situation and tried to look for some jobs. However, the job markets aren't going too well right now. I couldn't even get a chance to interview. I feel that I am killing my spirit and confidence in this job. What should I do?

[Anonymous]

My advice - keep looking. Try a recruiter. If your current boss is not responsive to your request to actually work...then you need to get out. If not, you are losing valuable work experience and soon will be an ASA with little experience and it will be that much harder to find another position.

[Moe]

If your company has a student committee, talk to someone (obviously, someone other than your boss). If you don't have a student committee, try talking to some actuarial type who is involved in hiring students. He/she can arrange an early rotation/transfer to another area in the company.

In my experience, most companies highly value the quick passers, so I would think they would go to some effort to keep you happy.

I would do this before leaving the company.

[Jen]

Moe is right.

[Anonymous]

Jen is right.

[Anonymous]

I've talked to some other actuarial supervisor half a year ago, but they don't allow any early rotation. I guess I'll have to be patient either to find a job or wait for the rotation.

[WWSituation]

You may want to look into working in consulting. I'm sure any firm would be more than happy to utilize you, especially since you are already an ASA.

[Minerva]

What part of the country?

[Higher Authority]

To Anonymous
If you really have as much free time as your first post implies. Then this is the perfect time for you to develope your own sense of direction. You have time to evaluate the current methods you are using and try to find better ways or better tools for performing those same tasks. You could look for other correlations that no one else has the time to look for. This may be the only time that you get to "play" at work. From my experiece, this time will be short lived. I suspect that you would see a signifigant increase in your responsibilities inside the next 6 months if you take full advantage of your situation.
You may still want to look for another position, but have fun while you are waiting for that new position.

[rabbit]

This may be no help at all but when I was in your situation, I bought an Excel book and learned Visual Basic at work. Maybe you could undertake some similar resume-enhancing activity.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for a better employment opportunity.

[Anonymous]

I agree that this is the time to look at what little work you do have and try to improve processes wherever you can. But as a heavily-burdened employee who has a few not-so-heavily burdened employees nearby, I suggest you don't just drag out every single task you get as long as you possibly can. I know it's tempting to fill your time, but if somebody else is busy and needs the info from you, get it done and give it to them, or you'll make more enemies! In your spare time go back to an already-finished task and figure out how next time you could do it better/faster/more efficiently.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your suggestions. These days I did try to dig into the projects I am working on and tried to find ways to improve the process. It really calms me down a little bit and I do feel more comfortable at what I should say about my job responsibility if I have an interview. I'll keep an eye on the job market and keep organizing my projects.

[HRsuperPro]

Don't know where you are geographically, but the market is definitely hot in certain places.

[SirVLCIV]

Um, I see dead threads.

[crayolaab]

2001? Where did this come from?

[SirVLCIV]

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HRsuperPro

[DW Simpson]

Um, I see dead threads..