This is a post I had posted in my last myactuary.info website which was already down. Thanks to my friend, Issac Bundi Momanyi had re-posted at somewhere else so that I can re-post it back here.

This post is about an actuarial profession, Joel T’s thought about choosing between CFA and actuary as career. He studied hard for actuarial science, sacrifice his social life for about 5 years. After his college, he was still following the actuarial pathway. But later, he was regret and would like to choose CFA as his career. He got out from actuarial pathway and got into finance, study to get his CFA. Here is Joe T’s….

I was in the same boat as you ........

( 6 paragraph long).....

......take your first 4 actuarial exams, as this is your math/quant foundation. Then you can go into Wallstreet no problem. I am looking at CFA part 1 right now, I can answer half the questions correctly without even studying.

My review:

Just want to be clear, CFA is largely about analysis and research, actuaries are more on the risk management and product development side. To get the CFA, besides the designation exams, you must have some years of working experience in finance related field, however for ASA (Associate of Actuary) or even FSA (if you are really a genius), you don’t need any working experience to fill the requirements, just pass your actuarial exams and get your designation, let’s say getting ASA by your graduation.

In addition, there is a clear pathway of becoming actuary either SOA or CAS. You get a college degree, pass the exams while earning experience and you’re there. The raises and experience are greatly correlated to your pay which makes it rare to deviate out of a certain salary range until you’re an ASA or FSA. If one was to become a CFA, it would be more competitive in my opinion since the career is better known and there is only a fraction of exams compared to an actuary. Aside from the hot-shots, I completely see that it would be a less defined path and perhaps a little more difficult to determine salary worth as a CFA rather than an actuary.

And, Joe T is comparing the average FSA with the top CFA. Almost all FSAs will reach the $150K-$200K range. Only the top-earning CFAs will pull down the kind of scratch he described.

Comparing to Investment Banker, getting a job on Wallstreet is much harder, and much riskier than getting a job as an actuary. You will also end up working much longer hours. If you want to get a steady income (security), actuary would be a good career path. If you want to be filthy rich however, Wallstreet is the place to be.

In my opinion, we can’t decide which is the best among these three career, they have their own pros and cons. We have to decide ourselves according our personal profile. There are topmost masters in every profession, just depends how good is you yourself.

I enjoyed this post very much as it let me think about if actuary is the most suitable career for us. We should know what is our target and if we can achieve it from being an actuary. I hope you also enjoyed as I do. Please give some comments and suggestion after reading this thread. You may tell us your real life experience and your thoughts about it. Have a nice day!

Source: Dilemma: CFA, Investment Banker or Actuary