Thursday, May 11, 2006
The Ice breaker - My family, My profession and I
I am happy to share with you two important aspects of myself - my family and my profession. In order to spend more time with my children, I have opted to stay at home as a fulltime home-maker and to work from home as a part-time actuary.
Up until two years ago, I was working fulltime with XX. XX is a great family-friendly place to work with. But unfortunately due to the shortage of experienced staff, but no shortage of work, I found myself working long hours each day, coming home late, exhausted with hardly any time left for myself, let alone for my children. It didn’t help that my husband’s job had even longer hours. So after much deliberation, I decided to ask management for a part-time position. Thankfully my 16 years with the company proved valuable and I stayed on as a part-time consultant.
My typical day starts with walking my elder daughter, Y to school in the morning. Y is in Primary 3 and attends the xxPrimary, which is only 3 minutes’ walk from home. So she can afford to wake up at 6.45 am and we can still make it to school on time.
My younger daughter,XX, attends the same school but in the afternoon session. She is having a much easier time in Primary 1 as she has NO exams at all. But this may just mean delaying her ordeal another year when exams start appearing.
In between sending my children to school and other errands, I correspond with the office using email, phone and lately instant messaging. I also pop into office every 1-2 weeks to remind my colleagues that I exist and to allow them to put a face to my emails.
So, what do I do as an actuary? Or more precisely, what is an actuary? Well, actuaries are people trained in using financial and statistical theories to solve business problems. These problems typically involve analyzing future financial events, especially when the amount of a future payment, or the timing of when it is paid, is uncertain. For example, in life insurance, this involves the payment of benefits at an unknown time in the future in the event of death.
A lot of actuaries' work might thus be thought of as 'risk management', assessing how likely an event may be and the costs associated with it.
In Singapore, most actuaries are found in the insurance sector - including myself. Our typical work includes designing new insurance policies, setting premium rates, calculating a company's financial status and reporting on the solvency of its funds.
There are probably not more than 50 qualified actuaries in Singapore. The numbers are small as the exams to qualify are rather tough. You can take these exams via the self study route with the UK, US or Australian actuarial bodies. I took the UK exams set by the Institute of Actuaries. Their current syllabus requires you to do 16 subjects – ranging from technical subjects such as actuarial mathematics, statistics and financial economics and specialist subjects such as Life, General or Health insurance.
So how did I end up in this profession? Well I simply answered a recruitment ad for an actuarial assistant, not having the slightest idea what an actuary was. The ad attracted me as it listed a degree in Mathematics as one of the job specifications. Rarely have I seen any ad that asked for Mathematics, which was what I majored in. So I wrote in, got interviewed and was hired.
The analytical nature of actuarial work suits me fine and I have no regrets joining the profession. Except perhaps over the fact that I did struggle through more than 10 years of exams to qualify! So if one day my children were to ask if they should follow their mummy’s footsteps, I would be pleased at their interest but at the same time I would seriously ask them to think twice!
Currently I am contented at my balance of work and family life. I do miss the pay and security of a full-time job but I don’t wish to miss out on my kids growing up. One day I might return to fulltime work. Until the time comes, I am happy with just the way things are – being a part-time actuary and a full-time mother.
8 Nov 2005
Up until two years ago, I was working fulltime with XX. XX is a great family-friendly place to work with. But unfortunately due to the shortage of experienced staff, but no shortage of work, I found myself working long hours each day, coming home late, exhausted with hardly any time left for myself, let alone for my children. It didn’t help that my husband’s job had even longer hours. So after much deliberation, I decided to ask management for a part-time position. Thankfully my 16 years with the company proved valuable and I stayed on as a part-time consultant.
My typical day starts with walking my elder daughter, Y to school in the morning. Y is in Primary 3 and attends the xxPrimary, which is only 3 minutes’ walk from home. So she can afford to wake up at 6.45 am and we can still make it to school on time.
My younger daughter,XX, attends the same school but in the afternoon session. She is having a much easier time in Primary 1 as she has NO exams at all. But this may just mean delaying her ordeal another year when exams start appearing.
In between sending my children to school and other errands, I correspond with the office using email, phone and lately instant messaging. I also pop into office every 1-2 weeks to remind my colleagues that I exist and to allow them to put a face to my emails.
So, what do I do as an actuary? Or more precisely, what is an actuary? Well, actuaries are people trained in using financial and statistical theories to solve business problems. These problems typically involve analyzing future financial events, especially when the amount of a future payment, or the timing of when it is paid, is uncertain. For example, in life insurance, this involves the payment of benefits at an unknown time in the future in the event of death.
A lot of actuaries' work might thus be thought of as 'risk management', assessing how likely an event may be and the costs associated with it.
In Singapore, most actuaries are found in the insurance sector - including myself. Our typical work includes designing new insurance policies, setting premium rates, calculating a company's financial status and reporting on the solvency of its funds.
There are probably not more than 50 qualified actuaries in Singapore. The numbers are small as the exams to qualify are rather tough. You can take these exams via the self study route with the UK, US or Australian actuarial bodies. I took the UK exams set by the Institute of Actuaries. Their current syllabus requires you to do 16 subjects – ranging from technical subjects such as actuarial mathematics, statistics and financial economics and specialist subjects such as Life, General or Health insurance.
So how did I end up in this profession? Well I simply answered a recruitment ad for an actuarial assistant, not having the slightest idea what an actuary was. The ad attracted me as it listed a degree in Mathematics as one of the job specifications. Rarely have I seen any ad that asked for Mathematics, which was what I majored in. So I wrote in, got interviewed and was hired.
The analytical nature of actuarial work suits me fine and I have no regrets joining the profession. Except perhaps over the fact that I did struggle through more than 10 years of exams to qualify! So if one day my children were to ask if they should follow their mummy’s footsteps, I would be pleased at their interest but at the same time I would seriously ask them to think twice!
Currently I am contented at my balance of work and family life. I do miss the pay and security of a full-time job but I don’t wish to miss out on my kids growing up. One day I might return to fulltime work. Until the time comes, I am happy with just the way things are – being a part-time actuary and a full-time mother.
8 Nov 2005
# posted by CME @ 9:39 PM 
