Be an Actuary or a Quant? Career Advice

I'm currently double majoring at a university in Mathematics and Economics. I'm a smart kid, (35 ACT, good grades, always been good w math, etc.) but I am FAR from a genious. I struggle with some concepts in class and I'm not one of those people who have things just click for them.

From what I understand, being an actuary is a secure and stable, yet boring job. I'm the type of person who can live with this so long as I'm making 6 figures within a reasonable time frame.

A quant, on the otherhand, sounds much more intriguing to me, but from what I understand jobs are less stable, harder to find, and much more competitive. I don't want to go to grad school to get a Financial Engineering degree if it's not going to pay off (I understand wall street quants can rake in a million a year if they're good). I am hard-working and passionate about math, and I love money, but I don't want to screw myself over and be working at some dead-end programming job if I can be enjoying the benefits of security and stablility in being an actuary.

Basically, Modeling and Trading>boring number crunching actuarial work for me, but Job Opportunity is very important.

I was also wondering what exactly a trader does, would this be suiting for me?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

If you're young (i.e. early-mid 20's) I don't think you really need to worry about job security much assuming you don't have to support a family etc. Given that I would go the high variance route and seek out a trading job. You'll always have other doors open for you if it doesn't work out.

If you're super competitive and able to handle lot's of pressure on the job I then you pass at least a couple prerequisites for trading.

Check out 2+2, there's a decent number of guys there that trade by day/play poker by night. If you're looking for advice from someone who's working in the industry you would be able to find someone there pretty easy - and I think most are pretty open to giving advice on this sort of thing.

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Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Check out 2+2, there's a decent number of guys there that trade by day/play poker by night. If you're looking for advice from someone who's working in the industry you would be able to find someone there pretty easy - and I think most are pretty open to giving advice on this sort of thing.

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Yeah Business, Finances and Investing Forum

made a thread there. thanks guys

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Originally Posted by JoeHaw

From what I understand, being an actuary is a secure and stable, yet boring job.

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this. Those i know tend to be kinda conservative and into golf and drinking expensive whiskey (unless they're mid-life crisising 'adventure sports' and triathlons), but would never spend their last $300 on a good bottle if they somehow ended up broke. I've been broke a bunch of times and am stoked that i never took the actuarial path (straight A math degree, skipped first year math at university, etc - but decided there are more fun ways to spend a lifestyle).

Key is that those with the attributes to get actuarial jobs/quals easily are also gonna be fine getting BA/data jobs too, so.... depends a lot on what you want and your personality re risk and security. Check out doublefly's early blog posts (doubleflypoker.blogspot.com) if you want trading inspiration from a poker playing perspective.

Daven, what career path are you following?

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Originally Posted by daven

this. Those i know tend to be kinda conservative and into golf and drinking expensive whiskey (unless they're mid-life crisising 'adventure sports' and triathlons), but would never spend their last $300 on a good bottle if they somehow ended up broke. I've been broke a bunch of times and am stoked that i never took the actuarial path (straight A math degree, skipped first year math at university, etc - but decided there are more fun ways to spend a lifestyle).

Key is that those with the attributes to get actuarial jobs/quals easily are also gonna be fine getting BA/data jobs too, so.... depends a lot on what you want and your personality re risk and security. Check out doublefly's early blog posts (doubleflypoker.blogspot.com) if you want trading inspiration from a poker playing perspective.

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Had a boring day at work with a hangover so didn't do any work and spent the day readung doubleflys blog, is pretty interesting blog for the most part imo

wanna make 6 figures a year? play 100k NLHE or PLO. what moron couldn't win one buy-in in an entire YEAR. you would only need to make .27 big blinds per day. ez game

but in all seriousness it sounds like you really need to sit down and evaluate what is important to you. i think its about finding what you will be more happy with its easy to be happy everyday when your job is really easy and there is alot of security. but in the long term you may find yourself unhappy with the monotony. on the other hand a high stress competitive job. you will have miserable days a decent portion of the time. but in the long term maybe you feel like you are doing something worthwhile or important.

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Originally Posted by JoeHaw

Daven, what career path are you following?

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i'm not a trader, nor an actuary ;)
feel free to flick me a pm or find me on irc if you wanna talk about this some more

Note that actuaries can typically move sideways into other types of jobs, and can also afford to take a year or two off (often using unpaid leave) to try out some random trading project or whatever. Note that successful traders can comfortably retire at 30 if that's what they want to do. It's harder to move sideways into being an actuary cos you need to sit actuarial exams etc so you have to end up starting at the bottom - which probably gets less and less appealing the longer you've been working and the more you've been earning

also, red speaks wise words.

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Originally Posted by reDZill4

in all seriousness it sounds like you really need to sit down and evaluate what is important to you. i think its about finding what you will be more happy with its easy to be happy everyday when your job is really easy and there is alot of security. but in the long term you may find yourself unhappy with the monotony. on the other hand a high stress competitive job. you will have miserable days a decent portion of the time. but in the long term maybe you feel like you are doing something worthwhile or important.

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