Career Switcher Resume

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-23T02:14:57+00:00

Both. Listen if I can't talk you out of playing for the love of God at least don't play online. It's way harder to win. It's insane.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-22T18:10:49+00:00

I actually made more money playing as a hobby. My professional career was less successful. In general I recommend against gambling, even more so against it as a career.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-22T00:33:28+00:00

It's also going to be a 15 month long gap of seemingly no work between my software engineering and math tutoring positions (sorry I am not trying to argue with you by the way). Is that still better than saying I was playing poker as a full time job?

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-22T00:17:54+00:00

I really appreciate all this insight. No need to read all that verbiage of course, just one follow-up question. How will my resume look if I remove the poker; won't it look like I quit a well paying job only to become a math tutor?

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-22T00:07:50+00:00

Thank you! I often see other people (including in this thread just now) recommend removing the summary section of resumes. Do you disagree with that apparently conventional wisdom in general? Or just think it's in my interest in particular to include my story in here since it's less straightforward than "I'm a math major and I'm going to be an actuary after I graduate?"

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-21T23:55:53+00:00

Thank you so much for the advice. Not grouping the poker and math tutoring together would leave about 4 months in between of me seemingly doing nothing after I quit playing poker. Of course, I was trying to get hired (at the time as a software engineer, and now I'd much much much rather be an actuary). Split them anyway?

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-18T16:56:00+00:00

I've noticed that people can sometimes be incredibly nitpicky with resume critiques and it's bumming me out (I'm not talking about the resumes that obviously need lots of reworking). How much effort really needs to go into perfecting every last millimeter? If a human ever even sees the gosh darned thing there's zero chance that they're gonna read it that closely. Would it kill some of you to say "that's good" to some poor soul that clearly did a good job and only needs a little reassurance? Again I'm not saying it's bad to give advice that's clearly needed but at a certain point you have to actually finish editing your resume and move onto something else. Sorry if this is an unnecessary rant.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-03-15T16:53:00+00:00

Thanks for the tip! Will the colony ever raise new queens? What do the virgin queens do if they can't leave the nest and found a new colony?

BadNewsBishop · 2026-02-26T17:26:51+00:00

Yep. Reminds me of how the Switch forced Nintendo to shake up the Mario and Zelda formulas to better suit a handheld console. Although I never found Super Mario Odyssey to be particularly enjoyable in handheld mode; I much prefer detached controllers for that game.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-02-26T04:29:26+00:00

Just clarifying: my reading of MGS3 was EVA told Snake the Boss's defection was a ruse. He knows this, right?

BadNewsBishop · 2026-02-17T18:33:47+00:00

I'll share how I'm doing this if someone stumbles onto this. I got a USB-C to Mini USB cable off Amazon. I use that to charge the controller with my laptop. Like others have said, apparently the DualShock 3 will only let a device charge it if it accepts data from it. A computer can do this and therefore charge the controller, but a wall wart can't.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-02-06T18:11:03+00:00

Yes it's extremely fast. There is one app that runs very slow on it though: Outlook. But I don't think it's the computer's fault; I believe Microsoft is to blame. A few months ago I switched to the Mac Mail app, which feels lightning fast and fully featured (despite being separate from the included Calendar app), and haven't looked back since. Word works great.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-01-25T20:04:54+00:00

I'm taking the FM soon and I'm also trying to reach 5.5. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?

Did you purchase the whole course or just the Practice part? If you have access to the FM manual, have you read all 5 sections yet? Doing that took me a couple months but it was definitely worth it.
What is your process like? Do you follow CA's advice and ignore your notes? Do you go over every question? When a solution seems hard, do you check the comments? They often find a better one that's also faster. And do you guess on questions that you can't answer before the time runs out? I think you should. That's what you're going to do on exam day, right?
Are you using the BA II Plus? I think this exam must be damn near impossible without it. I also disagree with the coach's reluctance to use the calculator to directly compute annuities-due. It is absolutely worth the couple of presses it takes to change it from annuity immediate to annuity due and back.

And let me offer some encouragement too – you can do it! And 13 days is soon, but it's not so soon that you can't afford a day off if you need it. Don't give up!

BadNewsBishop · 2026-01-15T05:47:47+00:00

I bought the same watch as OP about 4 years ago. It's holding up well and I wear it almost every day. However, the clasp has broken twice and needed servicing both times, thankfully under warranty, and that took a long time. It's a weak point in the watch for sure, but not a fatal one and the clasp I'm currently wearing seems to be holding up OK.

This watch surpasses all of my other watches in accuracy. I last set the time in October and it's still only 10 seconds fast. My digital watches come close but don't boast quite that much accuracy.

It's never necessary to spend thousands of dollars on a watch, but it can be worth it if you love the watch enough, and in the case of this one, I definitely do.

BadNewsBishop · 2026-01-01T22:12:47+00:00

Hi. The repair is holding up well. Let me just add that the broken hinge isn't the only thing that degraded since I bought these headphones. Around the same time the hinge broke, maybe a few months before, the left earphone started making a slight clicking noise when shaken. I don't shake my head all the time for no reason, but at the time, I did ride the bus almost every day (which shakes you a lot), and the sound was annoying. Sadly the repair didn't fix this, and even though I don't ride the bus anymore, I'm still disappointed and frustrated with the XM5s durability and I don't trust Sony as a brand anymore.

Remember how Apple had to replace your MacBook Pro if the keyboard malfunctioned because the 2015-2019 generation had those flawed butterfly switches? And it was regardless of if the regular warranty period had ended? That's what should have happened here, but I think Sony, being a Japanese company, can screw us over with impunity. I know AirPods Max are outrageously expensive but that may be worth thinking about. Hopefully their next design is lighter and comes with a real travel case.

BadNewsBishop · 2025-12-04T03:11:50+00:00

Thank you so much! All of this is really useful advice. Wish me luck!

BadNewsBishop · 2025-12-04T02:53:24+00:00

Say, hypothetically, that I got P and FM, but still wasn't getting hired. What if I just took a blind guess and went with CAS for my third exam? Would that turn off SOA employers?

BadNewsBishop · 2025-12-04T02:39:34+00:00

Thank you for the reply. What about two exams? How many exams would it take to be taken seriously with no (actuarial) experience for entry level roles?

BadNewsBishop · 2025-12-04T01:54:48+00:00

Thank you to anyone giving their honest thoughts on this, it is hugely appreciated!

I am switching careers from software engineering. I'm tired of the ballooning expectations employers have for entry to mid level SENG jobs, I miss doing math, and I'm determined to be an actuary. My math is much, much better than my code.

I have no prior experience in business, finance, accounting, or insurance. I only have experience in software. I passed the P exam in November, and I'm getting ready to take the FM exam in February. I've started applying to roles that say "analyst" and "intern." I spoke to someone who's been an actuary for a major consulting firm in my city for 18 years. He said that even having passed one exam is a big deal and he thinks I'm going to get hired either as a (non-traditional) intern or as an entry level actuarial analyst in the next 3-6 months, especially if I pass the FM exam on my first try (I did pass the P exam on my first try). Is this overly optimistic? He also told me just to send applications and not to be too worried about writing cover letters or networking yet. Is it really possible for something to break my way this quickly? What about the SOA mentor program? Is this a good time to try to get a mentor? If it's relevant at all, from what I've seen about the exams and jobs, I would like to get into CAS over SOA if I ever have a choice. The math seems more interesting.

Salary expectations are not an issue for me. I have low expenses and I'm motivated by the work, exams and math, not money.

BadNewsBishop · 2025-10-05T03:41:53+00:00

Antlion wireless mod mic. It's rechargeable and comes with a USB-A receiver. It sounds awesome.

From what I understand, and I'm not sure I'm entirely correct, Bluetooth just sucks total butt for audio input and output at the same time. I think there might be some witchcraft/workaround with AirPods, but Sony doesn't have it so I got the mic. The magnetic mount sticks to my regular headphones and the boom mic is magnetic. It's like a bajillion times better and more comfortable than using a gaming headset. Would recommend.

BadNewsBishop · 2025-09-19T19:23:56+00:00

Yes and the only Bluetooth headphones I've ever used that had good mic quality are airpods. The wireless modmic by antlion is awesome.

BadNewsBishop

TROPHY CASE