I Didn’t Take All of Those Actuarial Exams for Nothing
By Tamara Wilt
Small Talk, December 2022
In November 2011 I received two positive test results—one for the SOA final assessment for the obtainment of my Associate of the Society of Actuaries designation and the other … a pregnancy test! Both results I wanted so, so badly, and there they were! July 2012 rolled around and my baby came into this world. Suddenly, I was no longer “Tamara Wilt, brand new actuary,” I was a mother! My new little baby broke my heart open.
On the first day she was to go to daycare and I was to go to work, I was met with a life-changing decision. Do I choose family or career? I wanted both and had waited for both. I called up my boss and told him I could not do it. I could not leave her and return to the office! Understanding my predicament, he allowed me to work from home for the time being. Over the next few weeks, we negotiated. Hard. In his wisdom, he told me it was good for a child to see their mother have a career.
Could I work from home full time? Ten years ago, the idea was taboo. Basically, you had to be a seasoned, “trusted” employee of the company, capable of doing 100 percent of your work on your own. Up until now, I had been a student, in a mentorship type work environment. My employer taught me so much, day to day, in person.
Or maybe I should come into the office part time, and do the rest of the work from home. That way, I could still have face time with the other actuaries. What I really wanted and needed was to work part-time hours. See, my husband is a pilot and airframe mechanic. He travels a lot and we have no family in the area. The day-to-day responsibility of baby caring was mine. I knew the partners at the firm worked on an hourly basis, billing their clients as they worked. This sounded perfect to me. Like a river flowing around the rocks, my work could fill in around my family responsibilities. But I wasn’t a partner. I was a 27-year-old with an ASA certificate. I had become really good at taking exams and instruction from others, with little exposure to working independently thus far.
In my desperation for my new baby and my new actuarial designation, I argued “I will always be an actuary, but she will not always be a baby.” After that, he countered with allowing me to sub-contract. Basically, billing them hourly for my time I spend on their client work. Sold.
The perfect work-life balance is different for everyone, but this worked for my family. Ladies and gentlemen, our career matters. We work really hard for it. But life matters too. As Julie Boggart said in The Brave Learner, “Keep your foot in the door, so you can swing it wide open when the time comes.”[1] As an actuary, this means: stay educated and keep learning, formally and through mentorship. What kind of actuary do I want to be in twenty years, when my children are pursuing their own careers? Learning actuarial software and applying creativity through modeling has kept that spark alive for me. My work is valuable to me, a part of who I am.
10 years later, I am still doing part-time, remote work, paid hourly. Now my husband and I have three daughters, ages 3, 5, and 9. We have built a habitat for them which involves work and education on our terms: I still work part-time hours and he flies in-country more. Between him and myself (with the help of occasional babysitters), we balance caring for our daughters and pursuing our careers. As for career, I took advice from Robert Kiyosaki when he said “If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the 'right' thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It's like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.”[2] After four years of subcontracting for other companies, I started my own firm, Actuarial Guidepoint (while pregnant), obtained my own clients (lots of pregnant meetings involved) and hired my own subcontractors.
I have worked for various large companies over the years and I see a cultural shift towards family importance and life outside of work in general. At this point in time, recognizing an employee’s need for flexibility can be one of the largest competitive advantages a company can offer. According to Forbes and a 2018 Global Talent Trends study by Mercer: flexibility, purpose and health/well-being are the top influencers to job enjoyment. I’ve seen companies that allow parents to work around the school schedule, or to work from home for the summer. Companies are offering paternity leave to soften the transition of a new child entering the family and paid sabbaticals to pursue interests outside of work.
Since COVID, the attitude towards working from home has experienced a huge shift. Pre-COVID, if I had a new client, I would need to meet them in person first, flying out to their location, or driving to the office once or twice a week. Now, we meet on Zoom. I believe the nature of actuarial work, along with the professionalism and personalities of actuaries in general, lends itself to thriving in a remote environment. In 2020–21, many people were able to prove they are able to work remotely, and be trusted. To be more efficient and happier employees in this environment. In my opinion, having one parent that can be an anchor at home while still pursuing their career is essential to a stable family life. My husband is a pilot. He can’t work from home, obviously. Or maybe Dad’s an actuary, and Mom’s a nurse. Both are important. Both are needed.
Through Actuarial Guidepoint, I have had the opportunity to help other actuarial professionals who needed a different work-life balance: whether to snag extra hours, be available when their kids got out of school, or have extra free time to crush exams, build an app, write a book—you fill in the blank. To answer the question, career or family? Both.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Tamara Wilt, ASA, MAAA, is a life actuarial consultant and president of Actuarial Guidepoint. She can be reached at actuarial.guidepoint.llc@outlook.com.