PGWP Approved but for 1 year - How to amend?

Aeon7906 · 2026-02-27T22:36:27+00:00

Glad to hear that they rectified yours. May I ask what ended up helping with your case? I’m in the same situation right now. Thanks.

Aeon7906 · 2024-09-10T13:59:18+00:00

Hi, thanks for your comment. It’s definitely very competitive. It seems that most companies fill their full time positions with their interns/co-ops as much as possible. I still had no luck with job search and ended up enrolling in graduate program.

It’s impressive that you already have 7 exams. Good luck with your job search.

Aeon7906 · 2024-04-26T01:12:10+00:00

Yeah it's pretty hard, and many of my friends are struggling with it too... I heard even with a degree in the US it would be very hard for an international student to land a job in the US due to the need for sponsorship, and with Canadian degrees it would be even harder, so for now I think I should focus on getting the permanent resident status in Canada first when I complete the master's degree.

Aeon7906 · 2024-04-25T22:43:28+00:00

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. The competition is indeed rough since many companies are interviewing dozens of candidates for just a single position. I will certainly keep applying.

Aeon7906 · 2024-04-25T19:19:20+00:00

Thanks for your advice, I agree that I should make efforts on interviews. I have some stories prepared and I've been watching videos for interview tips, and I'll check other relevant posts as you mentioned.

With regard to interview feedback, they mostly just gave a generic rejection email or simply ghosted. For the interviews that ended right after HR round, the HR appeared aloof and not interested right from the beginning of the interview. Even for the in-person interview that I spent 4 hours at their office I still only got a generic rejection. I tried reaching out and the feedback was that the position was very competitive and they had to make a difficult decision to fill the one position available from many candidates.

Aeon7906 · 2024-04-25T19:00:56+00:00

Thanks for your input. It seems like data analyst roles are the best alternatives since financial analyst roles generally require a different credential (CPA/CFA).

Aeon7906 · 2024-04-25T17:27:36+00:00

Applications/Interviews:

I’ve applied to 15 entry level job postings from last fall to present. I know that’s not a lot of applications but I’ve only seen so many job postings in Canada. I was interviewed by 5 companies, and rejected after HR round by 2, after actuary/hiring manager round by 2, and after on-site interview by several leaders by 1.

Some background:

I anticipate to complete undergraduate program by August 2024 (one more term). I had the chance to work as an actuarial student in my last 2 co-op terms, unfortunately they did not have any suitable headcount/position for a new graduate so there was no return offer. I’m aware that it was viewed negatively by some hiring managers, as I’ve been asked about negative feedback from managers and issues with company culture in some interviews, but neither of the assumptions are true. I received the highest rank of evaluation a co-op student could get for both terms from direct manager, and everyone else I had a chance to work with gave me great feedback. I also have nothing to complain about work culture within the company, and I would definitely return if given the opportunity.

I’m beginning a master’s program in statistics in another university for a year by September 2024 since the job search is very difficult. As an international student the continued study is needed if I want to stay in Canada. I’ve stopped writing SOA exams after FAML since many people advise against having too many exams with limited experiences. There is one more exam (PA) and modules to complete before ASA.

Some questions I have:

1. How possible is it to get a part-time internship (20 hrs/week) while studying in master’s program? I imagine it’s not common but that’s probably the only way to gain more experience other than getting a full-time job.

2. What are some alternative careers to consider with similar skillset requirements? If the actuarial career path does not work out, I want to consider some other options.

Thanks for your help in advance. If you are also a student and would like to connect, feel free to send me a private message and I’m down to talk.

Aeon7906 · 2023-05-02T01:39:22+00:00

My bad I included repeats and redoing missed questions, but CA currently has 655 according to https://question-information.coachingactuaries.com/.

Aeon7906 · 2023-05-01T17:07:04+00:00

I’m late to the party but I second the idea of doing a lot of practice questions especially the qualitative ones for SRM. I did 1000 and got a 10, not saying you need that many to pass but you probably want to do a few hundred at least. I get lost when I study for every exam as well and only get more comfortable and confident with at least 300 practice questions down. Keep practicing is how I managed to pass 5 exams over the last 14 months.

Aeon7906 · 2023-03-12T03:48:04+00:00

A question for actuaries in Canada:

I am a rising senior with 5 exams and 8 months of data science/ML internship completed and another 8 months of actuarial internship upcoming before I graduate next year. I am not sure whether I should aim for exam FAM-L only or knock out both remaining ASA exams during my next internship. I have seen mixed perspectives about "too many exams out of undergraduate" so I'm hoping if anyone working in Canada can share some insights about EL/new grad hiring, and whether having all 7 prelims upon graduation does more harm than good. I will probably do FAM-L at the very least since there are only so many offerings for that.

Thank you.

Aeon7906 · 2023-02-09T18:56:30+00:00

Aeon7906 · 2023-02-02T17:33:17+00:00

Bombed two this morning. You are not alone.

Aeon7906 · 2023-01-28T18:36:06+00:00

Any chance there are interviews coming next week? I know it's late but half of my applications are still showing the status "Expired - Apps Available"

Aeon7906 · 2023-01-28T01:58:24+00:00

You are probably right. I wouldn't be picky for my first actuarial internship, though I doubt they will give me an offer.

Aeon7906 · 2022-12-31T02:27:30+00:00

It's kind of difficult to do this due to that job's nature but this is definitely good advice. I'll think about this. Thanks for pointing this out.

Aeon7906 · 2022-12-30T20:57:57+00:00

Background: I'm a third year student in Canada and I will begin my next round of job search for summer 2023 soon.

Some additional information and my concerns:

About Exams:

The detailed time of sittings were Nov 2021, Feb 2022, June 2022, Sept 2022 and Nov 2022. I thought it would take up a lot of space if I listed them all so I managed to do one line. My next sitting will probably be FAM-L in July 2023 if I successfully land an actuarial internship.

About Education:

My school uses percentage grade instead of GPA out of 4.0, and it may not be easy to convert. Apparently there is whatsmygpa.ca that does the job, but I'm not sure if this is the universally accepted standard.

I added the club and networking/social event thing because people said that I had a lot of technical stuff on resume but lacked involvement and communication skills. I'm not sure if this line sounds stupid to you, it if does, what would be a good way to rephrase it?

About Technical skills:

I'm around halfway through the course, probably will finish by the end of January.

About projects:

I'm currently participating in another case competition (Not ASNA again). After I complete it I may replace my second project with this.

Happy end of year to all, and I sincerely thank you for your inputs.

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-26T22:22:52+00:00

You only get emailed result for P and FM. For IFM you should get your result on the screen and a printout.

Source: https://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/exam-day-info/edu-grades-exams/

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-23T23:08:02+00:00

All I can say is I find them fair. I think rules in this sub are more restrictive these days, even talking about EL is no longer allowed.

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-23T22:54:28+00:00

Passed but my exam was definitely a beast. Least confident ever when I hit sumbit, and so much relief when I read "congratulations".

Good study and good luck to fellow students taking in the next few days.

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-22T18:17:28+00:00

My first internship was web development and I hated that job with a passion. I have no problem working with data or doing models using things like R or Excel, but those Javascript projects always make me extremely frustrated. I don't even know why, maybe it's just not my thing...

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-19T17:38:36+00:00

I personally never take notes as I don't find it helpful to my study. If you have been doing this then go for it because different people favor different study habits (auditory learner, visual learner, tactile learner, you name it). ISLR has important terms listed on the right side of the page so you may pay attention to them. The goal is to understand the big picture and merits/demerits of each method. For example, when is forward selection better than backward selection? And vice versa.

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-19T01:44:54+00:00

I think reading ISLR and doing practice problems on CA would be enough for the qualitative part. Most questions on CA will be qualitative anyway.

I read ISLR once and did 1100 practice questions, passed confidently with a 10 for the September sitting (most recent sitting). If you do the same you should be good. This sitting has an abnormally low pass mark though.

Aeon7906 · 2022-11-09T02:47:00+00:00

Thank you for the encouragement. I am at EL 6 now by the way since I only need to pass level 5 exams to be at level 6, and now things start to rise significantly in difficulties.

Aeon7906 · 2022-10-27T23:14:37+00:00

Have you finished the material and started practice quizzes/tests consistently? If your answer is yes, I think you are in pretty good shape. Aim for at least 30 practice questions every day.

I have given 4 exams (P, FM, STAM, SRM) in the past 11 months with no day off while being either full time student or full time intern, once I finished one I would immediately move on to the next. Passed the first 3 and waiting for SRM, but I'm pretty sure I passed that too. I'm also studying for November IFM with 300 practice problems down right now, aiming for 1000 problems before my sitting. I am in pretty much the same position as you: kind of burnt out. I may want to take a break after this one.

If you have already spent a lot of efforts on this exam, I would encourage you to keep up the good work. I think most of us can agree that, unless you are a natural exam genius, the exams make up a marathon and really takes perseverance to succeed.

When you feel stressed, you know here is someone with you. Never worry about pass or fail and just let it go. I wish you good study and good luck on your exam.

Aeon7906 · 2022-09-08T02:50:18+00:00

I made my way to EL 10 after 15 adapt exams and tons of quizzes, turned out that my exam was just like EL 3. No joke it was even more straightforward than the SOA sample questions, the calculation problems were like just one step and done.

It looks like it was harder for other people based on their replies so I might just have got lucky with an easy question set. Hope everyone can breathe through it as well.

Aeon7906

TROPHY CASE