A Career in Reflection

In the early 1980s, I wandered aimlessly as a math major during my first two years in college at Penn State University. When I had no response to my dad’s question about my plans (I was tempted to say “just one word: plastics”), he suggested I consider becoming an actuary. Having never heard the word before, I turned to my trusty source, a 1974 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (entry below), to learn what being an actuary was all about.

Out of curiosity, I attended an actuarial science club meeting. The speaker was a recruiter who handed out page after page of job openings, some with salaries reaching into the mid-20s! Next, I visited the actuarial science professor, Dr. Arnold Shapiro, who encouraged me to sign up for the next exam. With just one day before the deadline, I overnighted my application to the SOA. With minimal additional preparation (Part 1 was essentially coursework I had previously studied), I passed with a 6.

I was hooked, but not without obstacles. In my first graduate-level statistics class, I fell below the passing line after the first exam. The instructor advised all students below the line to drop the class. I was devastated but didn’t give up. I improved my self-study methods and finished with an A. Later that year, my university hosted an insurance conference with executives, regulators and legislators involved in insurance. Naively, I spent my time as a student attendee handing my resume to any participant willing to take one. It turns out that the CEO of one of the companies was the father of a classmate. That led to an internship, and with one more exam completed, a full-time offer.

From the start in June 1985 at Philadelphia Life Insurance Company, I loved every one of my early tasks, including recording Single Premium Deferred Annuity (SPDA) data from microfiche to mainframe, putting green-bar reserve data into binders, and calculating Individual Rates of Return (IRRs) on irregular Flexible Payment Deferred Annuity (FPDA) installments per customer request.

More than focusing on specific tasks, I was truly living the dream. While I didn’t expect my first job to be permanent, I also didn’t anticipate it ending after 18 months when the company moved to another city. However, demographics worked in my favor. At that time, I only needed to choose my location, and I was confident I would receive job offers. I used severance pay to pay off my student loans, started my new job two weeks later, and the dream continued. While I progressed through the exams at my new job, I didn’t pass at the pace the student program required, so the position I was assigned was an analyst. Ironically, the exam I passed at that unacceptable pace was the one I needed for my ASA, so I said goodbye, and two weeks later, I started my next job at yet a third company.

Cutting to the chase, I ended up at nine companies in five cities in 38 years, with the final stop at Global Atlantic Financial Group, ending in July 2023. Along the way, I was asked if this was my plan. Certainly not, but seeing nine different perspectives, processes and people gave me a much broader view of how to approach my roles. In my last two jobs, during the latter stages of my career, I pivoted from simply doing my work to training, teaching, and mentoring anyone willing to listen to this old relic, a throwback to the days of microfiche, mainframes and green-bar paper.

When I first started as a student, I was quiet and introverted, with a high level of confidence but also nagging self-doubt. I was afraid to ask questions and tried hard to think of something brilliant to say. I marveled at those who could process information quickly and respond to any question almost instantly. In the end, I became all those things: a confident, skilled subject-matter expert who could answer almost anything immediately.

In addition to the technical and analytical training, I would tell my younger cubemates, or candidates for designations, the following:

• You earned the right to be at the table.
• You don’t have to feel like you need to say something brilliant, but I don’t believe you should shy away from sharing ideas.
• Ask questions. I believe the smartest people are those who ask the most (or at least the best?) questions.
• Never say “because that’s what the model says.” (Yes, I said that once. It was a great lesson for me, lol.)
• Get involved. I was honored and privileged to moderate sessions at SOA meetings and to serve on SOA committees.
• My last and favorite piece of advice came from Dr. Shapiro: “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it” (when I responded to his question with “I understand it, but I can’t explain it,” he called me an anomaly, which I, of course, looked up in my Webster’s dictionary).

Now it’s time to say goodbye. I am a part-time Medicare counselor for the State of Iowa, and in my free time, I play trumpet in several ensembles around my hometown of West Des Moines, Iowa. My wife recently taught me the Chinese tile game Mahjong; I must still be a quick self-learner because on my second time playing, I got my first Mahjong. I’m not bragging, but that, apparently, is a big deal for someone new to the game. At the table, one player quipped, “It makes sense—he’s an actuary.” It looks like I still have that actuary bounce in my step.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries or the respective authors’ employers.

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