top 200 jobs 2010 jobs rated

[Shlomi]

top 200 jobs 2010 jobs rated

 

[Andy Nguyen]

What's it about actuary that got it ranked so high consistently. I'm seriously considering changing my career to that field. A lesser stress quant-like job I heard.

 

[Eugene Krel]

According to them it's more stressful to be a historian than a software engineer.

 

[Uncle Max]

11. Philosopher

133. Corporate Executive (Senior)


Really?

 

[bob]

Ah, Max, you beat me to the punch on 11. Philosopher.

I still want to know, though.... What if that were an actual job? Like, you hop up on Monster and find out that the State of New York is looking for an onsite philosopher for a DMV branch out on Long Island.

What would the job interview be like?

 

[chrisd]

I always found the "top jobs" surveys a bit odd.

And I suppose by philosopher, they mean TENURED professor of philosophy. Which is a pretty cushy gig if you can get one of the say, 50 openings in the country every year.

 

[Uncle Max]

Bob, you gotta get this book to figure out what kind of job interviews they have:

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Max,
Can you get me a copy as well? It's back ordered online.
I just came back from my local B&N store and the store clerk mumbling something incoherent about "DMV, LongIsland, weirdo".

 

[bob]

" In my journey to the end of night, I must rely not only on dialectical paths of reason. I must have a good solid automobile, one that eschews the futile trappings of worldly ennui and asks only for basic maintenance. My Dodge Dartre offers me this elemental solace, and as interior parts fall off I am struck by the realization of their pointlessness. I might not know if the window is up or down. It is of no consequence."

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

What's it about actuary that got it ranked so high consistently. I'm seriously considering changing my career to that field. A lesser stress quant-like job I heard.

Take a bunch of exams that are glorified regurgitation nonsense, then for your job, forget everything you studied, all 3000 hours of it, then get paid six figures for doing next to nothing.

Sounds like an average American's wet dream.

For some of us though, we actually prefer to do *work*.

 

[Stefan Zota]

Take a bunch of exams that are glorified regurgitation nonsense, then for your job, forget everything you studied, all 3000 hours of it, then get paid six figures for doing next to nothing.

Sounds like an average American's wet dream.

For some of us though, we actually prefer to do *work*.

If everyone would have a guaranteed 6 figure salary doing nothing, then 95% of workforce will be actuaries.

So let's take the last statement, it means there is a contradiction:

For some of us though, we actually prefer to do *work*.

First one is that actuaries work a lot for the wage. Second is that not everyone is making 100k. Other than that, sentence is correct ...

 

[alain]

If everyone would have a guaranteed 6 figure salary doing nothing, then 95% of workforce will be actuaries.

This is not true. Doctors (and dentists) are guaranteed 6 figure salaries and there is a shortage of Drs in this country. I don't know if Actuaries are in the same boat.

There are some other mechanisms that control the market for those professions.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

As my manager at my internship told me, the exams impose an artificial scarcity, such that the actuaries maintain their salaries. If there is a need for more actuaries, then the exams will be curved more generously so that people can achieve the necessary ranks faster, and if there is a need for less actuaries, the curve is harsher.

If there were a ridiculously large number of them, then the curve would become obnoxious, and all those people taking exams at that time will throw away their $175 exam registrations over and over and over again.

 

[Bryan]

I think there is a major flaw in the rankings, that is that they weight each of the categories they use equally.

 

[Stefan Zota]

This is not true. Doctors (and dentists) are guaranteed 6 figure salaries and there is a shortage of Drs in this country. I don't know if Actuaries are in the same boat.

There are some other mechanisms that control the market for those professions.

You are correct Alain that certain jobs like doctors have this income. However you cannot say they don't do anything.
That was the important part, getting 100k and doing 0 work, not a bad deal

 

[William Kenney]

Probably a strange first post, but I've been trying to get a job as an actuary since I graduated in May 2010. I found this forum because I am going to graduate school and need to find a different career path. Needless to say, good luck getting a job as an actuary.

Companies that were hiring 15-20 entry level and 15-20 interns per year have hired 2-3 interns and 0-3 entry level employees the last couple of years. There's literally 1000s of recent college grads that have spent 200-1000 hours studying for the first 1-5 exams that can't even get phone interviews.

If you guys have experience working with Excel and statistical software as quants, you can get away with 200-500 hours of studying for the first couple of exams and probably be able to find a job within a year of passing them, but why in the world would you want to do that if you have jobs as quants?

 

[WilliamRFrost]

Bob, you gotta get this book to figure out what kind of job interviews they have:

You actually had me thinking that was a real book.

 

[bigbadwolf]

If you guys have experience working with Excel and statistical software as quants, you can get away with 200-500 hours of studying for the first couple of exams and probably be able to find a job within a year of passing them, but why in the world would you want to do that if you have jobs as quants?

Less stress and not such long hours, as Andy indicated. And a feeling that the actuarial profession has been around for awhile and isn't going to ru away -- while the same cannot be said about being a quant.

 

[William Kenney]

And a feeling that the actuarial profession has been around for awhile and isn't going to ru[n] away

With the way they've horribly screwed up the last 2 years of hiring entry level candidates, they aren't going to have enough semi-experienced people in 5-10 years to fill positions in their own departments.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I have a feeling that until recently when the quant profession and MFE programs aren't yet well known, the people working in the actuarial field actually enjoys their job.