Pension vrs Casualty

[dogonyaro]

Can any one educate me about the difference between the Pension and Casualty tracks? I'm more curious about the difference in the nature of work that Casualty actuaries do. Do they use more statistics and mathematical modelling?
:-?

[Lucy]

It depends on where you end up, but yes, there's a lot more statistics and mathematical modeling to be found in P&C than in Pensions. I started in Pensions, and got bored with the work. I'm now in P&C, which I enjoy. On the other hand, my current job offers much less opportunity to play golf with clients than a pension consulting job would have.

[Arlie_Proctor]

At the higher levels, I would agree with Lucy. On the other hand, pension students seem to develop greater data skills than P&C students early in their careers. That makes it easy to make a transition at the 3-4 exam level if you don't find pension to your liking.

My recommendation would be to intern with both (if that's a possibility for you) and to interview for both. For your first job, it's more important to find people you like to work with and a boss who is a good mentor. If you secure those, it will be much easier to make a good decision about whether or not you like pension or P&C.