Actuarial Science as a Career
The career of actuarial science is the new up and coming career in the US. This is mainly because of the great prospects that it has to offer in terms of career progression as well as financial compensation. Actuary is a career that is highly regarded and more so in the past few years because of its attractive prospects and rewards.
What does an Actuarial science career entail?
Actuarial careers are all about serving people to enable them in making informed and smart, intelligent financial decisions for them. By having a career in actuarial science, you make it possible for businesses as well as individuals to be better decision-makers when it comes to their financial prospects and issues related to investments and insurance. Hence, it is a part of the actuarial science career to make positive events a part of the client’s future. Through their financial skills, education and training, they are capable of calculating the risks on various financial instruments and insurance. This is done through financial and statistical models. Depending on results of the analysis, actuaries are in a position to offer expert advice and financial solutions to clients. Predicting various scenarios and eliminating and transferring financial risk is an important part of actuaries working in insurance and financial companies and in actuarial consulting firms.
Financial compensation in an Actuarial science career
Among other reasons, the fact that this is a highly rewarded and highly regarded career is what makes it so popular. In terms of financial compensation, actuaries are considered to be among the highest paid professionals with an annual income of around $70,000 on average at the starting level. For people who are pursuing their actuarial science degree, the compensation even at the entry level is really good. For those looking at actuarial science jobs, they can expect salaries of up to $275,000 a year. It is the 6th highest paying job according to a survey by CNN money.
Actuarial Science career prospects
One of the factors that make the career of actuarial science such a successful one is that the skills and knowledge they acquire during their education, especially at advanced levels like actuarial science degree programs are highly transferrable in various finance and insurance related fields. An actuary is perfectly capable of working in financial services as well as in marketing, product manufacturing and new product research and development. The career prospects for actuaries are really bright.
There is a lot of room for progression in this field and the rate of unemployment in this field is almost nonexistent. Depending on the degree in actuarial science one has obtained, the growth prospects are great. In the insurance industry the growth potential of actuaries has been between 3-9% in the year 2010. Finance and investment and banking and financial services are the areas with the maximum growth prospects. For those who don’t become associated with a financial services company, there are the prospects of doing consultancies, which can prove to be really attractive in terms of income as well as growth.
