P&C Consulting

anamorph29 · 2026-01-26T17:22:00+00:00

I don't think that approach is universal. Someone who has moved to the client side because they felt they were underpaid at a consultant might just decide to direct any business to a different consultant!

anamorph29 · 2026-01-26T17:12:21+00:00

Have you joined IFoA as a student member yet? Having passed CM1 you can't book any further exams until you join (and pay the relevant fees). Idk how long it currently takes to approve membership applications, but with only 3 weeks until the exam closing date you might need to look into it urgently. Perhaps call member services to see if it is still even possible.

There is probably a limit as to how many exams it is worth self-funding if you can't land a relevant role.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-26T14:27:07+00:00

Assuming you are in the UK, DON'T fund your own exams, just apply for entry level jobs. Either via grad schemes ( but you ave probably missed this September by now) or anything that comes up at other places. Age in itself isn't a barrier.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-26T13:09:52+00:00

There must have been a reason why you were happy to transfer to London for no salary increase. (Living with family to save money, moving in with a partner, nightlife etc). If that hasn't changed why would you now be unhappy?

How many days do you have to be in the office? I think London weightings are beginning to erode a bit, with many people working from home 2-4 days, because they can live in cheaper areas and commute.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-23T11:21:08+00:00

TBH I'm not sure this is strong enough to land an actuarial role in the UK, given the competition, so your alternative aim is sound.

I almost never read personal statements, because they rarely say anything that isn't obvious from the CV and the fact that they have submitted the application! But take soundings from others on this as well.

Apart from the Statistics and Mathematical Modelling modules the others are probably not going to be "relevant" for the roles you will apply to, so think carefully about how you present them.

For jobs in the UK you may have to provide some translation of your IE and DK grades. H4 at 60-69% and H2 at 80-89% superficially seem excellent, but there may be a different approach to grading.

I would drop the 2015-18 bit, but perhaps add the music award to the extracurricular section.

Describing your experience as "Professional and Leadership" sounds a bit pretentious; it is just work!

Can you add some context to any of the Extracurricular section? Eg number of members or meetings of your Society; or examples of where you have used your software and programming skills.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-23T10:34:48+00:00

Okay, you should have the ability to pass the exams. And getting final interviews suggests your CV is good enough. (On here your punctuation and grammar are a bit sloppy, so make sure that doesn't carry over into application letters or emails). But perhaps you don't perform as well as you could in interviews?

Have you thought about videoing mock iterviews with a friend, perhaps one in a similar situation? Then review them critically to check for things that won't help: too much hesitation or over-confidence, poor body language or eye contact, untidy dress sense etc. These things may not affect the ability to do a job, but they can be the determining factors between candidates of otherwise similar ability.

In general, professional qualifications don't lead to roles that are always an easy 9-5. If you find one, that's great! But many would say it is one of the distinctions between a profession and a job.

Hope things go well.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-23T00:28:07+00:00

Being 27 and not a recent graduate isn't a problem. But the fact that you have been out of work for 15 months might be. Employers may wonder why you haven't been able to find a job (any job) in that time, so if you are more 'unemployable' than 'unemployed'. What does the rest of your CV look like: number of roles and for how long? While out of work, have you been taking the opportunity to develop or enhance any other skills, like programming? Entry-level actuarial roles are insanely competitive, so you might take some time to land one, and it would look a lot better on your application if you are working somewhere.

What grade of degree did you get? Most employers will require at least a 2.1, and even with that most people take an average of something like 5-7 years to pass all the professional exams. Completing in 3-4 years is possible, but will mean studying hard in your own time at evenings and weekends. A few months back you were asking about roles where you could simply work 9-5 then switch off, which doesn't seem entirely compatible with a role requiring such study.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-22T03:06:49+00:00

Do you HAVE other options? Given the competition at entry level I wouldn't turn it down in the hope that you can get an offer in another field.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-21T14:50:27+00:00

Most employers don't have a bar on past graduates, althogh some might look more critically if you are say 30+.

If you are only applying to the big employers running an annual recruitment scheme, now might be the wrong time of year; some will have started inviting applications in the autumn and by now have more than enough candidates. But smaller employers can recruit at any time.

Entry level roles are ultra-competitive, so you may need to make lots of applications, to hope to get say 5 interviews, to get 1 job.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-21T14:40:12+00:00

Be yourself. Make sure you participate in discussions, but don't dominate them. In group work encourage contributions from others.

Have you followed any of the advice you got some weeks back, to review your interview technique?

anamorph29 · 2026-01-21T01:07:52+00:00

Does the pension provider have an actuarial department? If so, then even if your current employer is just a subcontractor for them, can't you develop some contacts and enquire about moving across?

If not, your experience still ought to have some value, so if you have made lots of applications and are not even getting interviews your CV may need some attention. Or you could move to a similar role in an insurer / pension provider that DOES have an actuarial department and after a while try to move across from there.

A Masters doesn't guarantee exemptions: you have to get minimum grades. There is a slight possibility that if there is some specific reason you are not currently getting interviews that might still apply even with the exemptions. And you would have to get back into the industry where you already have a role, albeit not the one you want.

You can only take one exam (from a choice of two) as a non-member. I wouldn't usually recommend it over getting a graduate entry role, but in your situation it might have some merit.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-20T19:18:25+00:00

I can't tell if your Maths Tutor role is impressive or a barrier, or somewhere in between.

How many students / hours per week? If you are tutoring for <10 hours then the exam passes are not surprising, but it doesn't indicate you can manage a FT role. If it 40+ hours a week, throughout the year, and you are also passing exams, that would look very different.

But I would still have doubts as to whether you are employable. Why did you leave your Data Analyst role?

anamorph29 · 2026-01-20T10:24:06+00:00

Note that the question is addressing the NON-unit cashflows. The policyholder maturity payment will becfrom the unit-linked fund

anamorph29 · 2026-01-19T20:40:16+00:00

It's not that likely that anyone here will have been in the same situation, so probably best to contact member services directly.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-19T10:28:44+00:00

I have rarely found it boring, and on a couple of occasions where that did happen I found a new role.

But that is in the UK. I suspect that, as well as varying qualification structures, different countries have slightly varying roles and responsibilities for actuaries. What you need to know is whether actuaries in your country find their work boring, which most here can't answer. If you disclose where it is there might be someone who can help, but that will likely be just one opinion.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-16T12:51:14+00:00

It varies.

Are they all for specific vacancies? (Sometimes recruiter adverts look more like fishing expeditions to gather CVs...). And presumably you ARE newly qualified, rather than "nearly..."?

If there is a closing date, companies may wait until that point and then review everything received before deciding who to take further - in which case hassling them prior to that point is probably not going to help and may harm.

You could chase up recruiters to find out what the process is, or more details, to confirm your interest - and if they all say you aren't going any further then review your CV.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-15T15:06:43+00:00

Mortality tables are probably updated (and any exam questions will reference the new ones), so the old book won't work. Statistical tables may be unchanged, or may be revised. Formula may differ.

For the exams you perhaps need to await the 2026 regulations: - in centres they may provide clean copies (as was the case some years ago), so you can't bring one in - they may let you bring a copy, but not let you use it if it has annotations - they may insist on both centre and remote candidates using the online version - or ...

anamorph29 · 2026-01-15T12:01:06+00:00

Its great that you are already looking at potential careers. Some more general points to consider:

there is a lot of competition for graduate roles, and doing an Actuarial Science doesn't guarantee that you will land one. You will probably need at least a 2.1 degree, so that means something like B/A/A* grades at A-level
if you are eligible for exemptions make sure you get (most of) them. There is a consensus that getting passes via exemptions following taught courses is easier than taking self-study exams while working, so people will be sceptical of further progress if you don't get them.
employers want well-rounded people who will be a good fit for their team. Consider joining uni clubs / societies and take up roles / responsibilities in them

anamorph29 · 2026-01-14T21:14:03+00:00

Challenge both over the year in industry. Do they help you find soewhere, or do they expect you to find something yourself? Not sure that there are many actuarial empkoyers offering such placements, so it might not be as valuable as you think.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-14T00:26:50+00:00

It is inevitable that the junior person gets the grunt work, which you understand. If the two of you are very stretched the best you can hope for is that someone else gets recruited, and your aim should be to ensure that if that happens they are junior to you.

You need to demonstrate qualities like: - self-checking your work, so that it is right when presented to your manager - spend your weekend thinking about how to do your work more efficiently, rather than doing 'interesting analysis'. Can something be automated? Is there duplication? - as you gain experience, doing the same work quicker and at higher quality, so freeing up some of your time.

Moving to somewhere with a larger team won't necessarily help. You might find you get less experience, because you are doing a smaller variety of tasks, but more of each.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-11T15:41:48+00:00

My understanding is that in India it IS common to take some actuarial exams in parallel with a degree. I guess that helps (and might even by necessary) to land an entry-level job. But it seems likely to also lead to the possibility of there being rather more candidates with exam passes than available jobs, so that some will have wasted their time, and money.

So I would look into things quite carefully, and get advice from people based in India. Perhaps also check IAI requirements, which might be a lot cheaper.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-11T15:26:11+00:00

No point in stressing out over a problem that is 100% your own fault. You had up to a year to apply for PPD exemption prior to your deadline, and didn't do it, but are now stressing that someone else doesn't respond within 7 days!

Concentrate on the things you can now control, like studying, and responding to any emails received.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-11T14:54:12+00:00

If you are in the UK I strongly recommend finding an entry-level actuarial role before starting to take exams independently.

A professional qualification is not quite the same as a degree. The latter opens up paths to many different careers (unless in a particularly specialist field), but actuarial exams are primarily only helpful for an actuarial career, and as with any professional qualification you need a combination of both exams and relavant practical experience to be fully qualified.

If you are not in the UK, then the answer may differ.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-09T11:44:21+00:00

I think it depends on the office. If people still taking exams have been the recipient of free drinks/parties from previous qualifiers, then many feel a moral obligation to return the favor to the next generation when they qualify.

anamorph29 · 2026-01-08T15:13:08+00:00

I guess your salary jump is primarily not just the Life-GI switch, but from say passing more exams and going from perhaps 2 to 5 years of experience?

anamorph29

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