There are two types of actuarial investigation jobs that can land on your desk:
- This is a really big job, Steve, that will get you loads of exposure to senior management. It's probably going to be pretty expensive so needs loads of tight management controls. If you need more stuff, more systems or more external consultants, just put in a business request. If you can justify the outlay, then money's no object and there won't be any problems in getting you whatever resources you need.
- Sorry about this, Steve, but we need you to investigate something and come up with answers. You'll be on your own with no budget to spend. We have this set of reports and spreadsheets and you might be able to beg the odd person here and there to get you some more numbers, but otherwise you're on your own. Best of luck.
Different actuaries will have different preferences about which type of job they prefer. For me it was always job 2. I'm breaking into a cold sweat just thinking about job 1.
And job 2 did play into one of my superpowers, the ability to make the best use of whatever limited data was available to me to reach answers. Off the top of my head:
- There was that job where I had to come up with experience reservations and reserving methodologies from scratch for credit reinsurance using some creaky database and query writing language with no instruction manual.
- And the one where I came up with a hedging strategy for a with profits fund starting from just a realistic balance sheet and a handful of sensitivity runs.
- Oh, and lots of work for both regulators where I had to read between the lines of various reports to work out whether a proposed transfer of business between funds or companies should be approved.
- And that European insurer that wanted Solvency II models for all its market risks designed and documented and left it all to me to put together.
If you're managing a team of actuaries, you probably have lots of job 1 and job 2 actuaries under you. It's worth (a) being aware of which is which when it comes to allocating work, but also (b) that these jobs require very different skills and that neither type of actuary is better than the other.
And why the photo at the top? Well, jobs 1 and 2 also exist in the world of football management. It's why I'd be much better at managing an international team than a club team. Like Gareth Southgate, I'd have taken England to new heights and Middlesbrough to new lows.
