the busy + stressed actuary-to-be.
life’s REALLY hectic these days. i work my ass off in the day to meet deadlines for our system integration, major project of the yr which will form 60% of our company’s appraisal and 50% of my individual appraisal this yr end.
u must be thinkin i’m someone frm IT dept, but no, i’m frm Actuarial Dept so i check the actuarial aspects of the integration and data conversion.
Actuarial? havent heard of it and dunno wat it means? haha.. i seriously have tried all kinds of answers when ppl ask wat we do at work. well, the most cool ans i can think of is that we design insurance pdts, takin into account probability of the policyholders dying or makin claims, come up wif the features of the pdts and a set of premium rates that will more or less guarantee the company a certain profit margin at the end of the day.
in other words, helpin the co to make money at ur expense! hahaha.
well other ppl like jeremy n junli do reporting, so they report to the regulators like MAS and LIA aka Life Insurance Association. i think reporting is SUPER boring, and pricing is cool. there’s some technical aspects + some mkting in it which i like! i requested to be in Pricing when i went for my interview, but i noe that there’ll come a day when i have to undergo job rotation and do reporting. oh well, that’s life isn’t it?
so other than work, there’re still exams to take. we’re studyin for a fellowship at the IOA aka Institute of Actuaries UK. the pressure to pass is definitely there, firstly becos everyone in the office has passed at least 8 out of 9 of the ‘100 series’ paper. each ‘100 series’ paper that we pass coincidentally gives us a 100 bucks increase in our salary! jeremy is alrdy taking a ‘300 series’ paper this sept! eeky..
and if i dun pass my paper this sept, not only am i not entitled to pay increment, i’m not reimbursed my $500 exam fee. and if the next time i wanna buy notes for the same paper that i’m re-taking, i’m not reimbursed that $450 either. argh.. this is a very expensive hobby!
to make things worse, the passing rate gets lower the higher the exam level. at last april’s sitting i think 10 ppl frm singapore sat for jeremy’s paper n NONE PASSED! omigod. i’m fainting.. but hey i’m not at ‘300 series’ level yet wahahaha!
gosh.. i’m stressed. every mornin i think of wat i muz complete at work, n every nite i think of the chapters i muz study. and every time i get all determined to study, sthg jus has to crop up. surprise visits frm aunty, uncle’s bdae dinner, family dinners et al.. everythin’s jus workin against me n my IOA. =(
i needa be more focused!!
think of the money and study, candy!!
* YES, SIR!! *
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