D.W. Simpson Positions [Archive]

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DW Simpson

09-27-2001, 02:27 PM

Hi, my name is Claude Penland, and I'm the webmaster for D.W. Simpson & an ACAS. Since another recruiter's posts were met with some interest, I thought I'd offer the following and see if you think it's worthwhile --

I post a sampling of many new positions to our site every week, at least once a week. In addition, I post positions to other job boards around the web. Would it be of value to you if I highlight some of these new positions weekly here, and include links directly to those jobs? Are there other ways I can help you?

For several months, I've regularly surfed your discussion board (and I'm very impressed) but this is my first time posting. Please let me know what you think.

Claude Penland, ACAS, MAAA
Manager - Websites & Internet Strategy
D.W. Simpson & Company
http://www.dwsimpson.com
claude.penland@dwsimpson.com

Jen

09-27-2001, 05:29 PM

It would be nice!

anon789

09-27-2001, 08:32 PM

Please let me know what you think.

I don't think. I'm a person of action, not words. C'mon buddy, be the same way. Let's post some jobs at the top end of the ole' salary range.

Anonymous

09-28-2001, 08:11 AM

Try posting the links, its free. You can decide if its worth your time as responses roll in or not.

Patience

09-28-2001, 08:23 AM

If you do post, it would be nice if you could work in the important info into the title, so those who care may be more likely to look.

Job for NJ, Pension, ASA

Dr T Non-Fan

09-28-2001, 12:40 PM

I think a once-a-month updated table of how many by area across experience would be beneficial.

A link to the site should be sufficient.

Paying our administrator for your own board area might be more productive for everyone.

(Hmmm, paying for board area, eh?)

DW Simpson

09-28-2001, 02:45 PM

Thank you, all of you, for your helpful comments.

We have around 1,500 open jobs worldwide at any one time, so these are a minute sampling. I posted 15 new ones, that are split this way --

7 new ones to our Life, Annuities, Health, Pensions & Investment Jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/soajobs.html) page, where there are around 80 total positions usually.

6 additional ones to our Property & Casualty Jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/pcjobs.html) page. Normally, there are around 50 to 60 opportunities on there.

2 more to our Entry Level Jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/studjobs.html) page. There are about 20 jobs there.

So all of the jobs on our site represent around 10% of our total open jobs, but I try to juggle a somewhat representative sample. There's also a Data Mining, Financial Engineering, Derivatives & Quant Jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/otherjobs.html) page.

If in future weeks you'd like me to list here a brief synopsis of new posted jobs, I can certainly do that. It sounded like, for now, you'd just like me to list the links. To answer the question, I have discussed with Traci and Glenn the possibility of D.W. Simpson & Co. advertising on your board.

Have a great weekend,
Claude

[ This Message was edited by: D.W. Simpson Webmaster on 2001-09-28 14:46 ]

Anonymous

10-01-2001, 09:50 AM

To be honest, my experience with recruiters webpages (especially DW Simpson - you don't even post a job description) is that the small sampling of jobs is nothing more than a hook to get the employee in touch with the recruiters. The job posted may or may not exist by the time you are in touch with us, but it is of no consequence to the recruiter because by then you have established the contact.

It is akin to a "bait and switch" operation. I would be interested in seeing some credible postings, but there is no way to determine credibility, and until proven otherwise, recruiters will have to remain without the benefit of the doubt.

DW Simpson

10-01-2001, 12:08 PM

I’ll do my best to address your concerns –

"you don’t even post a job description" – We try to maximize the number of jobs on a page by limiting the description to the most important points to the job. (This low-bandwidth solution helps those on dial-up at home.) For example, a workers compensation pricing position in the Northeast for an actuarial student with 3 exams and 3 years of experience can be summed up in a few sentences for the reader to get a general sense of whether there's initial interest in the job on their part.

"[t]he job posted may or may not exist by the time you are in touch with us" – In a given week, if I post 15 new jobs, I pull down at least that many off of the site. I am in daily contact with all of our recruiters to make sure that we maximize the number of jobs on the site that are fresh and, we assume, still open. It is virtually impossible, though, to assure that all the jobs at any point in time are still available, since sometimes the way that we find out that a job has been filled is by presenting a candidate for that position. As I mentioned, our staff is juggling around 1,500 jobs at any one time.

"small sampling of jobs is nothing more than a hook to get the employee in touch with the recruiters" – A sampling of jobs is posted, rather than all of the jobs, mostly because it's unwieldy to manage an external database that involves a lot of redundancy. After all, there are at least a dozen casualty reserving positions in the Midwest, and most of them have similar job descriptions. It’s not necessarily worthwhile to try to manage them all on the site, and make sure that every one is still open continuously. A sampling is meant to maximize the value that the website brings to you, and rather than a "hook", it is our demonstration to a visitor that we probably are working at that particular moment on a job that they might be interested in. If you contact us, after reviewing some of the material on our website, then one of our recruiters can add much more value to the conversation than I possibly could just on the site.

"I would be interested in seeing some credible postings, but there is no way to determine credibility, and until proven otherwise, recruiters will have to remain without the benefit of the doubt." - I have been with DWS for 2 years, and my admittedly biased opinion is that they are quite a credible firm, and have already earned my benefit of the doubt, after I was on the other side as a casualty actuary for 8 years. Like I said, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to demonstrate our credibility.

I thank you sincerely for your comments.

Claude

Intents

10-02-2001, 07:51 AM

I would like to see an occasional editorial by your top thinkers analyzing: 1) current skills that seem to be hot 2) skills that seem to becoming less important 3) emerging skills

other topics might include: setting realistic expectations, theories on negotiating, how far afield our talents may be applicable, how to recognize if you might be getting involved in a no-win situation

It has been said over the years that the easiest time to change jobs is when your set of skills is currently popular, and that if you are patient then your day will come.

DW Simpson

10-02-2001, 08:51 AM

One of our recruiters, K.C. Cho (http://www.dwsimpson.com/cho.html), participated in a roundtable discussion for the Actuarial Review in the May (http://www.casact.org/pubs/actrev/may01/market.htm) and August (http://www.casact.org/pubs/actrev/aug01/market.htm), 2001 issues that addresses many of these topics.

Several other DWS recruiters have had similar articles published in SOA and CAS publications. I will certainly consider aggregating those, and future editorials, on a section of our site. Thank you for the suggestion.

Claude

[ This Message was edited by: D.W. Simpson Webmaster on 2001-10-02 08:57 ]

Anonymous

10-03-2001, 12:59 PM

(sorry, haven't registered yet)

Hmm 1,500 jobs posted at any one time? As a percent of total actuary and student positions, what would that be? Seems to be a little excessive for one recruiting firm.

DW Simpson

10-03-2001, 01:21 PM

As you know, there are tens of thousands of practicing actuaries and students in the world. Having and managing approximately 1,500 open actuarial positions at any one time is actually quite a reasonable number, especially when you consider the increased mobility of actuaries in the last several years, and our rather large staff of 30 people. I couldn't offer a very good guess to you as to what percentage of the total universe of open jobs that is, but it is a great majority of them.

My original point was that the number of positions posted on our site is a small fraction of the number of jobs that we actively recruit for.

Thank you very much for the question. I will be on vacation for around a week starting tomorrow, but I will certainly answer any questions posed here promptly and as thoroughly as I can on my return.

Claude

Anonymous

10-03-2001, 02:37 PM

A recruiter is not going to give you a company name/specific department and job description, especially on a website. If they did that, people wouldn't need to call them or use their services.

DW Simpson

10-03-2001, 03:21 PM

Our recruiters add more value to the process than simply a conduit of specific job information. That includes interview preparation, ongoing career advice, salary negotiation, having a breadth and depth of knowledge of markets by region and discipline (that would otherwise take years to collect on one's own), and many other benefits. In short, serving as an advocate for the job candidate as your representative to the employer. We even took out a full page ad in Contingencies (http://www.dwsimpson.com/discussion.html) earlier this year that fleshed out our position as candidate representatives.

If we are working on an annuity position in NYC, chances are we also are working on one in Connecticut and Boston, too. So that job description is listed under "Northeast" to represent that diversity.

You bring up important concerns, though. Thank you.

Claude

Dick the Bruiser

10-09-2001, 06:56 PM

DWS is tops in my book. Very helpful group.

DW Simpson

10-11-2001, 09:15 AM

Thank you, Curly.

I neglected to mention our Canadian actuary jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/canada.html) page, too. Some posters in other areas of the forum expressed interest in knowing about jobs in Canada.

Anonymous

10-11-2001, 02:23 PM

I visited the D.W. Simpson website, and submitted some positions that I am interested, but did not get any reply yet.

They just totally ignore you.
So I would like to say D.W. Simpson is not a company that you can trust.

DW Simpson

10-11-2001, 02:47 PM

Please email Beth Rave, our Director of Operations, directly at actuaries@dwsimpson.com , and she will in short order contact whichever one of our recruiters has been assigned to you, and they will in turn contact you. Let me personally apologize for any delay in responding to your web submission. We do, however, regularly respond to internet inquiries rather quickly, and many actuaries will suggest that we are a company you can trust.

Enough Exams Already

10-11-2001, 03:47 PM

Anonymous: Relax. They get lots of submissions every day--they'll get to you soon enough. I've used D.W. Simpson in the past, and they've always gotten back to be long before other recruiters have. Give them a break.

Patience

10-11-2001, 04:01 PM

how does one equate not being responded to to not being able to trust someone?

Anonymous

10-11-2001, 05:46 PM

B/C they bragged that they will contact everyone that submitted info. If u promised sth, just keep it. Otherwise just do not say anything

DW Simpson

10-16-2001, 08:42 PM

Hi, I know it's exam time, but since I promised to, I thought I'd mention that I posted our new weekly positions on our site today. Included were several new Canadian Pension & Casualty jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/canada.html), US Pension & Health jobs (Midwest & West) (http://www.dwsimpson.com/soajobs.html), US, Australian & UK Casualty jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/pcjobs.html), and a few interesting Quant positions (http://www.dwsimpson.com/otherjobs.html).

Claude

DW Simpson

10-24-2001, 03:25 PM

In addition to posting some new positions on our site, I thought I'd try to work up a form that can be viewed, clicked and submitted from this forum, and includes some of our new positions this week. The form below is the result of that effort. I hope that you find it worthwhile. - Claude

[It turns out that many HTML commands can't be used within a forum post. So unfortunately I'm just going to have list the jobs below. These are some of the jobs added to our site this week, and by submitting an expression of interest at http://www.dwsimpson.com/cform.html , and including any of the job numbers listed below, a DWS recruiter will quickly follow up with you.] <table BORDER="1" align="center">
<tr>
<td>Selected D.W. Simpson & Co. new opportunities. (Many other positions are listed at www.dwsimpson.com (http://www.dwsimpson.com) as well.)</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9836 - Health - Midwest - ASA/FSA -
National consulting firm has immediate need for ASA or FSA for their corporate
headquarters. Should have extraordinary understanding of health ins. & managed care
products, practices and techniques. Compensation range $85-105K.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9817 - Health - West - ASA - Consultant
seeks recent ASA to provide complex analysis, data interpretation, and related technical
underwriting, actuarial, and communications services to produce quality client work for
the health benefits analysis dept.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9795 - Health - Northeast - Student -
Mid-Atlantic insurer seeks students with managed care experience at all exam and
experience levels. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9816 - Pension - Northeast - Student - A
thriving employee benefits practice with a challenging, dynamic work environment is
looking for actuarial analysts. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9797 - Pension - Midwest - Enrolled Actuary
- CPA firm seeks an EA for their rapidly growing actuarial consulting division. Experience
with design of pension plans required. Possible business development work, too, with a
wide variety of clients <600 lives. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9818 - Pension - Northeast - Student - New
York consulting firm is looking for sharp pension students.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9798 - Casualty - Midwest - Student/ACAS -
Insurer seeks a student or new ACAS for a high visability position that will include
surplus lines reserving and pricing, interacting with underwriters and claims, and
presenting results to senior mgmt. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9805 - Casualty - West - FCAS - West coast
consulting firm is seeking a creative FCAS with experience in commercial lines and
reserving. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9789 - Casualty - Canada - Student -
Student with 4+ exams for Toronto insurer. Commercial auto experience preferred with
strong computer proficiency. 55K-80K Canadian dollars. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9794 - Casualty - Midwest - Student -
Insurer is looking for a student with at least 1 exam to work on pricing and reserving of
warranty products. Compensation in the mid-forties. </td>
</tr>
</table>

[ This Message was edited by: D.W. Simpson Webmaster on 2001-10-25 14:55 ]

WWSituation

10-24-2001, 03:44 PM

While I don't live DW Simpson (I don't really love any recruiter) I thought I'd say Kudos for being smart enough to have a presence on this forum.

I respect the business savvy and wonder why the other recruiters don't have the brains to make themselves known.

DW Simpson

11-17-2001, 08:03 PM

A few actuaries recently sent me emails about CFA-type opportunities, and as a result I posted several of these jobs on our Data Mining, Financial Engineering, Quants & Derivatives (http://www.dwsimpson.com/otherjobs.html) page yesterday afternoon. - Claude

DW Simpson

12-07-2001, 01:49 PM

Someone asked me to give an idea of how our actuarial jobs are distributed across the country. Below, I finally got around to doing that. - Claude
<table border="2">
<tr>
<td align="center">Discipline</td>
<td align="center">North-

east</td>
<td align="center">Mid-

west</td>
<td align="center">South-

east</td>
<td align="center">South-

west</td>
<td align="center">West</td>
<td align="center">International</td>
<td align="center">Unclassified</td>
<td align="center">Sub-

totals</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Pension (http://www.dwsimpson.com/soajobs.html)</td>
<td align="center">195</td>
<td align="center">90</td>
<td align="center">50</td>
<td align="center">25</td>
<td align="center">85</td>
<td align="center">50</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">495</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Life (http://www.dwsimpson.com/soajobs.html)</td>
<td align="center">150</td>
<td align="center">150</td>
<td align="center">60</td>
<td align="center">35</td>
<td align="center">40</td>
<td align="center">120</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">555</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Health (http://www.dwsimpson.com/soajobs.html)</td>
<td align="center">130</td>
<td align="center">120</td>
<td align="center">50</td>
<td align="center">25</td>
<td align="center">150</td>
<td align="center">20</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">495</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Casualty (http://www.dwsimpson.com/pcjobs.html)</td>
<td align="center">375</td>
<td align="center">295</td>
<td align="center">60</td>
<td align="center">10</td>
<td align="center">90</td>
<td align="center">160</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">990</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Unclassified (http://www.dwsimpson.com)</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
<td align="center">100</td>
<td align="center">100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Subtotals</td>
<td align="center">850</td>
<td align="center">655</td>
<td align="center">220</td>
<td align="center">95</td>
<td align="center">365</td>
<td align="center">350</td>
<td align="center">100</td>
<td align="center">2635</td>
</tr>
</table>

[ This Message was edited by: D.W. Simpson Webmaster on 2001-12-07 13:50 ]

Anonymous

12-07-2001, 04:14 PM

Do you consider people for actuarial positions who dont have an exam but have some work experience and a good educational background?

On 2001-10-24 15:25, D.W. Simpson Webmaster wrote:
In addition to posting some new positions on our site, I thought I'd try to work up a form that can be viewed, clicked and submitted from this forum, and includes some of our new positions this week. The form below is the result of that effort. I hope that you find it worthwhile. - Claude

[It turns out that many HTML commands can't be used within a forum post. So unfortunately I'm just going to have list the jobs below. These are some of the jobs added to our site this week, and by submitting an expression of interest at http://www.dwsimpson.com/cform.html , and including any of the job numbers listed below, a DWS recruiter will quickly follow up with you.] <table BORDER="1" align="center">
<tr>
<td>Selected D.W. Simpson & Co. new opportunities. (Many other positions are listed at www.dwsimpson.com (http://www.dwsimpson.com) as well.)</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9836 - Health - Midwest - ASA/FSA -
National consulting firm has immediate need for ASA or FSA for their corporate
headquarters. Should have extraordinary understanding of health ins. & managed care
products, practices and techniques. Compensation range $85-105K.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9817 - Health - West - ASA - Consultant
seeks recent ASA to provide complex analysis, data interpretation, and related technical
underwriting, actuarial, and communications services to produce quality client work for
the health benefits analysis dept.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9795 - Health - Northeast - Student -
Mid-Atlantic insurer seeks students with managed care experience at all exam and
experience levels. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9816 - Pension - Northeast - Student - A
thriving employee benefits practice with a challenging, dynamic work environment is
looking for actuarial analysts. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9797 - Pension - Midwest - Enrolled Actuary
- CPA firm seeks an EA for their rapidly growing actuarial consulting division. Experience
with design of pension plans required. Possible business development work, too, with a
wide variety of clients <600 lives. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9818 - Pension - Northeast - Student - New
York consulting firm is looking for sharp pension students.</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9798 - Casualty - Midwest - Student/ACAS -
Insurer seeks a student or new ACAS for a high visability position that will include
surplus lines reserving and pricing, interacting with underwriters and claims, and
presenting results to senior mgmt. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9805 - Casualty - West - FCAS - West coast
consulting firm is seeking a creative FCAS with experience in commercial lines and
reserving. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9789 - Casualty - Canada - Student -
Student with 4+ exams for Toronto insurer. Commercial auto experience preferred with
strong computer proficiency. 55K-80K Canadian dollars. </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td>#9794 - Casualty - Midwest - Student -
Insurer is looking for a student with at least 1 exam to work on pricing and reserving of
warranty products. Compensation in the mid-forties. </td>
</tr>
</table>

[ This Message was edited by: D.W. Simpson Webmaster on 2001-10-25 14:55 ]

DW Simpson

12-07-2001, 04:18 PM

Sure. Check out our Entry Level Jobs (http://www.dwsimpson.com/studjobs.html) page. - Claude

Westley

07-10-2006, 10:57 AM

Hi, my name is Claude Penland, and I'm the webmaster for D.W. Simpson & an ACAS......this is my first time posting. Please let me know what you think.

:bump:

Saw this while looking for something else, thought it was funny. Calude's first post!

Oh, and look at DTNF's suggestion:

A link to the site should be sufficient.

Paying our administrator for your own board area might be more productive for everyone.

(Hmmm, paying for board area, eh?)

Wow, look how that turned out.

DW Simpson

07-10-2006, 11:03 AM

What a long, strange trip it's been.

tommie frazier

07-10-2006, 03:25 PM

I thought you were D W Simpson. I didn't know your real name is Claude. I feel lied to.

DoctorNo

07-10-2006, 03:49 PM

minnie SNOW dah

07-10-2006, 04:10 PM

To me, the single most important piece of info that's missing on the DWS job descriptions is the city. Knowing the state doesn't tell me enough about the location.

Westley

07-10-2006, 04:16 PM

To me, the single most important piece of info that's missing on the DWS job descriptions is the city. Knowing the state doesn't tell me enough about the location.A lot of times that's included, but if they tell you that it's a large life insurer in Ft Wayne, Indiana, why wouldn't they just post Lincoln's hiring manager's phone number, and save you the trouble of calling DWS? They can't exactly tell you the city and have people call them. However, if there's something that's interesting, why not just call and tell them you're interested in a position like that, and what your own geogaphical restrictions are, and let them deal with it?

violaactuary

07-10-2006, 05:31 PM

I thought you were D W Simpson. I didn't know your real name is Claude. I feel lied to.
:rofl:

tommie frazier

07-11-2006, 10:32 PM

Hi, my name is Claude Penland, and I'm the webmaster for D.W. Simpson & an ACAS. Since another recruiter's posts were met with some interest, I thought I'd offer the following and see if you think it's worthwhile --

is it me, or is that intro eerily similar to:
Hi, kids. I don't believe that I have ever personally introduced myself. My name is Prakash V. Naor. I am here to help you youngsters to think more clearly.

just a thought.

DW Simpson

07-11-2006, 10:37 PM

That Prakash dude had some important things to say, but I didn't say them.