The Official "I Recently Got Hired" Thread

[tgadd]

Originally Posted by Pug5

Since nobody has posted here in a while, I guess I'll have to come out of the shadows of lurking to bump this up.

Exams: 2
Internships: None
3.6 < GPA < 3.7
Phone interviews: 5
On site: 3
Offers: 2

Offer 1: Midwest, Health
Offer 2: Northeast, Life

Hope it breathes some life into my fellow no internship candidates out there. Took a lot of work, tons of applications / feeler emails, but feels good to get it done.

Advice: Read the sticky, it's awesome. Network, network, network, apply, apply, apply.

Congrats.

[Pug5]

Thanks! Took the life job. Guess that's an important detail, huh?

[actuary_aspire]

Originally Posted by Pug5

Since nobody has posted here in a while, I guess I'll have to come out of the shadows of lurking to bump this up.

Exams: 2
Internships: None
3.6 < GPA < 3.7
Phone interviews: 5
On site: 3
Offers: 2

Offer 1: Midwest, Health
Offer 2: Northeast, Life

Hope it breathes some life into my fellow no internship candidates out there. Took a lot of work, tons of applications / feeler emails, but feels good to get it done.

Advice: Read the sticky, it's awesome. Network, network, network, apply, apply, apply.

Congrats!

[campbell]

Originally Posted by Pug5

Since nobody has posted here in a while, I guess I'll have to come out of the shadows of lurking to bump this up.

Exams: 2
Internships: None
3.6 < GPA < 3.7
Phone interviews: 5
On site: 3
Offers: 2

Offer 1: Midwest, Health
Offer 2: Northeast, Life

Hope it breathes some life into my fellow no internship candidates out there. Took a lot of work, tons of applications / feeler emails, but feels good to get it done.

Advice: Read the sticky, it's awesome. Network, network, network, apply, apply, apply.

Congrats!

[Gentle Giant]

Hmph... It's been so long since I've been in this part of the forum that I didn't even know this thread existed.

I recently had a job change as well:

Note: the tl;dnr's can scroll down to the bolded bit.

Exams: 4? (I know I only need the FAP for ASA, though I doubt that'll ever happen)
Internships: None
GPA: n/a
Experience: 14 yrs (6 actuarial, 8 in my current field)
Phone interviews: none!
On site: none!
Offers: 1

Bad news: So, basically, in December my (former) company, at which I have 8 non-consecutive years of experience, announced that it's going out of business.

Good news: I would have had until the end of 2011, plus 3 months severance and 3 additional months retention bonus had I stayed.

Bad news: My wife absolutely HATES uncertainty. My family life would have suffered considerably had I chosen to stay for my severance, though the 6-month buffer would have been nice, and did offer some comfort. I agreed to look around and strongly consider anything that comes along.

More bad news: My field is rather specialized. There are only three** main companies that do what we do, and one is shutting down. Only one competitor has a local (Dallas) presence, and at that company my role is filled by a team in L.A. (headquarters). Would be a hard sell to be the sole person in my role reporting to a team two time zones behind, and it doesn't look like they're looking to expand their version of my department regardless. Furthermore, there's no way my family and I are moving, unless absolutely forced to. A look at open positions does not look hopeful. Even if I find something outside my specialty, I'm likely to take a significant pay cut.

Good news: The competitor with no local presence has a CEO who absolutely knows what he's doing, sees opportunities, and acts quickly. Knowing that there is a pool of 200+ talented people with expertise in the field, he flew into the area within a couple of weeks of the shut-down announcement, spoke with a number of people at the failing firm, made a decision to open a Dallas office, and snatched up some key people who are in the first couple of rounds of layoffs (Feb 1 and Apr 1). The first to go had new-business-related roles and were obvious first-rounders, and the second round were middle management, which of course you need much less of in the sitiuation at hand. Anyway, with this new presence, my outlook is somewhat rosier.

VERY good news: Just after the second round of layoffs, and right as the second round of people (mostly managers) started, I got a call from a former coworker/manager. Wait, no, she contacted me on Facebook. On a Saturday. "Call me at xxx.xxx.xxxx." The message: "Hey, I just thought I should give you a heads-up that you'll be getting an offer this coming week."

And so it did, we negotiated in good faith (i.e., I was realistic and didn't expect a sign-on bonus of 50% of pay, but they worked with me to try and bridge the gap), and I accepted. This is my third week! The office is only a few blocks from my old one, though this is temporary space and I have concerns about where we'll end up once we grow out of this space.

** Actually, there are a few others, but their market is considerably smaller. And they're not in the Dallas area either.

[tgadd]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Hmph... It's been so long since I've been in this part of the forum that I didn't even know this thread existed.

I recently had a job change as well:

Note: the tl;dnr's can scroll down to the bolded bit.

Exams: 4? (I know I only need the FAP for ASA, though I doubt that'll ever happen)
Internships: None
GPA: n/a
Experience: 14 yrs (6 actuarial, 8 in my current field)
Phone interviews: none!
On site: none!
Offers: 1

Sounds like things worked out. Uncertainty can be a real jerk some times.

[limabeanactuary]

Congrats, Gentle Giant!

[Maine-iac]

Originally Posted by Pug5

Since nobody has posted here in a while, I guess I'll have to come out of the shadows of lurking to bump this up.

Exams: 2
Internships: None
3.6 < GPA < 3.7
Phone interviews: 5
On site: 3
Offers: 2

Offer 1: Midwest, Health
Offer 2: Northeast, Life

Hope it breathes some life into my fellow no internship candidates out there. Took a lot of work, tons of applications / feeler emails, but feels good to get it done.

Advice: Read the sticky, it's awesome. Network, network, network, apply, apply, apply.

Congratulations!

[Maine-iac]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Hmph... It's been so long since I've been in this part of the forum that I didn't even know this thread existed.

I recently had a job change as well:

. . .

VERY good news: Just after the second round of layoffs, and right as the second round of people (mostly managers) started, I got a call from a former coworker/manager. Wait, no, she contacted me on Facebook. On a Saturday. "Call me at xxx.xxx.xxxx." The message: "Hey, I just thought I should give you a heads-up that you'll be getting an offer this coming week."

And so it did, we negotiated in good faith (i.e., I was realistic and didn't expect a sign-on bonus of 50% of pay, but they worked with me to try and bridge the gap), and I accepted. This is my third week! The office is only a few blocks from my old one, though this is temporary space and I have concerns about where we'll end up once we grow out of this space.

[Gentle Giant]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: For obvious reasons, all the faces here look remarkably familiar.