You've just had a meeting with a governmental client. How did it go? Yes, it went well. I met with the in-house accountant and explained what my reports meant, including the surplus for the fund. I was making sure that they understood the implications of my work.
Lisa, you have a successful casualty actuarial consulting practice. How did you get to where you are today? Perseverance & hard work. And a little luck! And, liking what you do.
You've worked in both insurance companies and consulting firms. How do they differ? Consulting is more interesting for me and fun because you have a lot of client contacts. Insurance is a great place to start--you make good contacts with other actuaries, and you tend to have more study time. And you get exposure to the business. But in consulting you are often called on to know a little about a lot, while in an insurance company it can be "know a lot about a little." Both experiences are good.
Didn't you get into actuarial science through an internship? I went to a co-op school with an accounting & finance concentration, but had a difficulty finding accounting internships. I looked in other areas, and I found out about actuarial science. I wanted something that was more mathematical, something that better matched my abilities. So I transferred to a 4 year school.
What aspects of your college program did you like? I liked the calculus, statistics, econometrics. Actually, I took few courses outside of mathematics after my sophomore year. It wasn't an actuarial program, but one in applied math & statistics.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most? Working directly with my clients. And having the flexibility to set my own hours, as long as my clients are happy!
Every career has its plusses and minuses. For you, what's the biggest plus? It sounds silly but I really, really enjoy it. I enjoy coming to work every day. And I like seeing that my clients understand what I do.
And biggest minus? Exams. I really had no concept for how difficult they where. Here's a funny story: I signed up for three at once at my first sitting, and ended up taking one! You really have to persevere. But it is well worth it.
