Advice needed

[Cutter]

I'm extremely borderline on passing the first exam. I would put my chances at 50%. Anyways I have an offer to teach middle school math and I have to let them know by tomorrow. Being an actuary is my first choice, but above all I need a job. What are the chances of me getting a job with one exam (no actuarial experience, strong GPA)?

Has anybody ever been in a similar situation? Man this July 11 release date really is annoying.

Thanks

[beandip]

Originally Posted by tg3

I'm extremely borderline on passing the first exam. I would put my chances at 50%. Anyways I have an offer to teach middle school math and I have to let them know by tomorrow. Being an actuary is my first choice, but above all I need a job. What are the chances of me getting a job with one exam (no actuarial experience, strong GPA)?

Has anybody ever been in a similar situation? Man this July 11 release date really is annoying.

Thanks

if i were you, i'd go for the middle school job. teach for a year and work on course #2. Even if you do pass course#1 exam, the competition is fierce. Chances are you might struggle for 6 months just looking for a job. BTW, what do you think you scored on course#1 examination ?? good luck.

[Summer]

it depends on your timing. i got a job with no exams and no act experience. i think the field is a little saturated right now, and i don't think i would get a job with that anymore (oh, i also had an act sci degree).

i would take the teaching job for now, and look around later for a change.

[VernSchil]

I agree with what others have said. I think it's almost impossible to get a job right now with no exams, and it's extremely competitive even with 1 exam. This has changed since last year. I was hired by my company last year without any exams. This year I had a conversation with the guy in charge of recruting and he told me they aren't even looking at candidiates with no exams.

If having a job is a #1 priority, definitely go for the teaching position and study for course 1 and 2 while working.

[Fenton]

I heard one of the levels of Dante's inferno involved teaching middle school students. But to each his own. Seriously though, it's tough enough to get any actuarial job right now. And given the current job market, if you end out not taking the teaching job and failing the exam, well let's face it, you're screwed. Besides at the end of the year if you play your cards right you could have two exams passed and a shot at a lot better job than what you could get now.

Of course it also depends how much you like teaching middle school students and how good this job is.

[p&cnewbie]

I guess I'm just crazy, but why not apply now? You never know. I just got a job in property and casualty with no exams, and it sounds great compared to some of these posters. I'm not saying you shouldn't take the teaching job either though. You could go ahead and take the job--truth be known you could leave it if you fell into an actuarial job in the middle of the year. All they can do is take your certificate away for a little while. I'm not sure I'd do this either, but it has been done, I'll assure you of that. The bad thing about teaching is you get paid dirt and you think you're going to have all this extra time to study--but teaching can take all the time that you have! If you don't take this particular job, you can probably find one after school has started if teaching is your only option. Turnover is rampant--and especially at the high school level in math. I don't know-- I'd be curious to see how your situation turns out though. Keep us posted.

So it's tomorrow now. which way did you decide to go?
(if you haven't made your call yet, I'd say don't bypass the sure thing for a big maybe. We'll still be here next year, when you have two exams and more time to look for a good job rather than the first job offered)

[Wigmeister General]

If you want to be an actuary (why you'd want to be one, I can't fathom), then tell the middle school to bug off.

Pound the pavement, bust through the doors and be disillusioned in the actuarial profession.

[Cutter]

Thanks for all the good advice everybody. Well, I decided not to take the job, primarily because the job is not a pure math teaching job. About 80% of it is teaching keyboarding and technology, and I really want to teach math (2nd to being an actuary of course). Anyways if it was a pure math job I would have taken it. I know I'm taking a risk here but it feels right. I'm going to keep looking for math teaching jobs just in case. If I get offered one I'll probably take it.

On the first exam i have 22 in the right column, 14 in the wrong column, and 4 that lean right. So I'm looking at anywhere in between 22 and 26. Truly borderline. I'm realizing that taking a minute to store answers in my calculator would have defientely been worth it. I didn't realize they'd be releasing the test and the answers the very next day.

It seems like a lot of people in this forum are down on the actuary profession. Is that because of all of the studying? How bout the actual job itself?

[Wigmeister General]

The work is "money for old rope".

The exams are the pits -- not because of their difficulty, but because of the heinous nature of how they are administered. (Whoop, I guess we botched the wording on question #4 -- we'll exclude it. Whoop, we worded a question badly -- choice C, D and E are all correct. Whoop, we included a question off the syllabus -- exclude it). This year, half of the people scored 70% -- exam was too easy, let's set the pass mark at 75%.