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Aligning the Stars with the Right Profession
By Bosco L. Chan
Actuarial science is increasing in popularity among university and high school students in Canada. I recently spoke to such a student audience in Toronto where I addressed two topics: career decision–making and my personal success story as an actuary in the local market.
My Story
I first thought of my future career when I was fifteen years old. I discovered that being an actuary is a rewarding role for people including myself who have an aptitude for mathematics. Furthermore, I was impressed by the importance of insurance and social security programs in times of crisis. Overall, actuarial science seemed like an attractive career option for me.
At that time, I also liked accounting and computer science. Therefore, I studied computer science, mathematics and accounting when I entered university. Although I was a top student in computer programming in high school, I found out that computers were no longer friendly in university. This was similar to love at first sight as I was attracted but found out later that we were not a match.
I received all A's in my accounting courses so I knew I could become an accountant. At the same time, I also received A's in the lower year actuarial science courses. There was, however, an obvious difference between the two. For my actuarial science courses, I did not study much and easily obtained better grades than my classmates. It just happens that I had a talent of understanding and applying actuarial concepts easily. For my accounting courses, I would spend more time to prepare for exams and received good marks, but noticed that relatively more classmates did well also. I was in the lead of my classmates when pursuing actuarial science studies. Looking back, it took me four years to confirm that becoming an actuary was a suitable career move for me. It was a lengthy discovery. I wish there was a short–cut but in life we are must invest our time to discover what is best for us.
Career decisions are often confusing because there are many factors that can affect our decisions. I believe that we can summarize these factors into three main categories and then make sound choices by answering a few questions.
The ability to understand our talents and personality is crucial. Our gifts vary from person to person despite the fact that each person is being equal in value. Before we choose a career, we must first identify and develop our talents.
Each person is talented. At the same time, we all have underdeveloped areas. Some of these underdeveloped areas can be improved to enhance our potentials. Other underdeveloped areas are very difficult to change and require the power of grace for these imperfections to be accepted. We must fully utilize our talents and our potentials.
"Playing with your talents" means that we experience satisfaction after completing challenging tasks. We do not suffer. We have fun while playing. Repeated successes allow us to develop self–confidence. With self–confidence, we become courageous enough to take on impossible missions and exceed our limits. Over time, we would find more satisfaction in our achievements and lives. We become stronger after each successful completion of the impossible.
It is my advice that a person should avoid jumping on the bandwagon when choosing a career simply because other people say it is a good career or solely because the compensation is attractive. We all feel good if our job pays well, but there are many things that money cannot buy. If we are doing something we are not good at, it would not take long for us to discover that we are moving slowly and even falling behind
A person's potential can be hidden if he or she was not given the opportunity to access, explore and develop it. One possible approach of testing your various strength levels is to try different things and to compare your abilities with others. For example, if you are good at doing certain work but most of your peers can do better, you do not hold any comparative advantage in pursuit of a career in that direction. Being able to handle the same issue in an innovative way such that the majority cannot perform can help us stay ahead of the crowd. If your talent happens to be utilized to the fullest in your career and you are doing far much better than others with your talent, you can always stay at the top 10% of the industry. You seldom need to worry about jobs because there will always be a demand for the best in each field. Understanding your competitors' abilities always helps you to participate in and win the right battle
What is your service? Service is work that can help others lead better lives. Human beings are constantly looking for ways to improve their health, expand their freedom, as well as finding greater social justice and pleasures. If your career choice can help you achieve some of these goals, your career will have a market demand.
Service always equals reward. The more valuable the service and the bigger its impact, the higher the mark–up payable is for such service. More importantly, the work should be moral and cause no harm to the society. Over time, others may not remember our wealth, our power or our personal success but will undoubtedly remember the positive impacts of our actions to their lives. The passion that we shared for our careers and the compassion in our relationships will bond with those around us. It is those positive contributions that will make others remember us.
Looking back and looking into the future
Throughout my decade long actuarial career, I have seen many happy and sad faces. I myself have never had regrets about becoming an actuary. This does not mean that I did not have any "down time" in my career. I did experience many ups and downs and sometimes pondered about being an actuary.
Each time I was in doubt, I would review the questions mentioned above to find out whether the justifications are still valid or not. If my decision was still sound under the new situation, these challenges would become opportunities for me to better understand myself, my strength and possible areas for improvement. I knew that the difficult situation was temporary and I could overcome them eventually. During those difficult times, I would feel as though I was surrounded by darkness.
Having a positive attitude is very important. Believe in the future! If we lose hope, we lose everything. It would be only a matter of time to go downhill. Those who are willing to face a challenging situation are more likely to succeed than those who avoid it. People who avoid difficult situations will not develop the skills to resolve a similar situation when it arises again. Chances are, similar situations will come up frequently.
Some people enjoy working as actuaries, while others struggle with the dilemma of whether to linger in the field or quit for good. An actuarial career is a good career that is not for everyone. It is essential that you envision your own vision and make a wise choice. Life should be fun at all times. For those of you who have already figured out that an actuarial career is a good fit for you, I look forward to the opportunity to get in your partnership and join forces to build an even stronger actuarial profession in the future.
The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and should not be interpreted as those of the author's employer or any other organizations with which the author is associated.
Bosco L. Chan, FSA, FCIA, FCA, M.Math. is the Treasurer of the Society of Actuaries International Section Council and a consultant at Mercer Human Resource Consulting in Toronto, Ontario. He can be reached at bosco.chan@mercer.com
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