Hey everybody, first time poster. I searched for similar questions but I didn't find anything quite like my situation so thought I'd try posting, but I've never made a forum post of any kind anywhere before, so sorry if I do it wrong.
I am 34 and I currently live in Taiwan teaching English. I got a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic from a pretty good private university, but at that age I was quite unmotivated/irresponsible so my GPA was almost exactly a 3.0. I have a coworker from South Africa who is studying to be an actuary, and in South Africa you need a degree in a field related to actuarial work so he was getting a second Bachelor's degree online from the London School of Economics. I decided to try and follow in his footsteps so I began to study for a second Bachelor's in Banking and Finance from LSE, and in March I plan to take exam P. So for the past year I've been feeling pretty pleased with myself, confident/hopeful about my future, and just generally as though everything was going just right. But it seems like it's just when you're feeling particularly pleased about life in general that fate tends to sneak up behind you with a bit of lead piping, and such has been the case with me. Looking through these forums I've seen stories of people who have completed loads of exams and can't get a job, career changers who have a more quantitative/analytical work history than I do but who are still worried about their chances, people saying you need a good GPA or they just throw your resume in the trash, etc. I'm worried. So I have some questions that I was hoping that you guys/gals could help me out with please.
1. Should I continue to pursue a second Bachelor's or should I try to get a job that would give me experience that looks good on a resume, maybe something where I work with excel?
2. What kind of job could/should I get? I've been an English teacher ever since graduation and I have a humanities degree, what jobs would hire someone like me that look good on the resume of a potential actuary? How would I go about finding these jobs?
3. If I can't find a relevant job will the second Bachelor's help me when it's completed? I'm on track to get the equivalent of close to a 4.0, and LSE is quite a good school, but it is still online even though we take the same exams as the on-campus people.
4. Reading these forums 10 years ago it seemed like all you needed was 3-4 exams and a pulse, but the market got a lot tougher for obvious reasons. Do you think the improving economy will also improve the market for job seekers in the field?
5. I don't graduate for 3 more years, so how quickly should I take the exams? I've looked through P and FM, and honestly they don't look that hard, but would it look weird if I took 3 exams this year and then did nothing for two years? I'm confident I can do well on the exams but how should I pace them?
6. At what point in my exams/studies do I need to move back to America? I'm just worried about money here - as long as I'm in Taiwan I'm making money, but in America job searching I'll be burning through my savings, and English teachers in Taiwan do not have a lot of savings.
Sorry if this post seems long-winded but I'm worried about my future. :viola: I just feel like I'm pretty smart and I'd make a good actuary but I don't know if there's any way that I can show/prove that at this stage in my life. Actually having seen the exam material I wish that they would make the exams harder, it would reduce the pool of applicants and I'd have a better chance. And yes, I know that I should "take a couple exams and then get back to you", but what I'm wondering is what the most effective thing to do is WHILE I'm taking the exams, and whether or not with the exams I have any chance at all. Like I said, there are plenty of career changers but an increasing number of them seem to come from a financial/mathematical background, or at least have networking opportunities or friends in the field.
Well internet, what do I do? I throw myself upon your tender mercies.
I am 34 and I currently live in Taiwan teaching English. I got a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic from a pretty good private university, but at that age I was quite unmotivated/irresponsible so my GPA was almost exactly a 3.0. I have a coworker from South Africa who is studying to be an actuary, and in South Africa you need a degree in a field related to actuarial work so he was getting a second Bachelor's degree online from the London School of Economics. I decided to try and follow in his footsteps so I began to study for a second Bachelor's in Banking and Finance from LSE, and in March I plan to take exam P. So for the past year I've been feeling pretty pleased with myself, confident/hopeful about my future, and just generally as though everything was going just right. But it seems like it's just when you're feeling particularly pleased about life in general that fate tends to sneak up behind you with a bit of lead piping, and such has been the case with me. Looking through these forums I've seen stories of people who have completed loads of exams and can't get a job, career changers who have a more quantitative/analytical work history than I do but who are still worried about their chances, people saying you need a good GPA or they just throw your resume in the trash, etc. I'm worried. So I have some questions that I was hoping that you guys/gals could help me out with please.
1. Should I continue to pursue a second Bachelor's or should I try to get a job that would give me experience that looks good on a resume, maybe something where I work with excel?
2. What kind of job could/should I get? I've been an English teacher ever since graduation and I have a humanities degree, what jobs would hire someone like me that look good on the resume of a potential actuary? How would I go about finding these jobs?
3. If I can't find a relevant job will the second Bachelor's help me when it's completed? I'm on track to get the equivalent of close to a 4.0, and LSE is quite a good school, but it is still online even though we take the same exams as the on-campus people.
4. Reading these forums 10 years ago it seemed like all you needed was 3-4 exams and a pulse, but the market got a lot tougher for obvious reasons. Do you think the improving economy will also improve the market for job seekers in the field?
5. I don't graduate for 3 more years, so how quickly should I take the exams? I've looked through P and FM, and honestly they don't look that hard, but would it look weird if I took 3 exams this year and then did nothing for two years? I'm confident I can do well on the exams but how should I pace them?
6. At what point in my exams/studies do I need to move back to America? I'm just worried about money here - as long as I'm in Taiwan I'm making money, but in America job searching I'll be burning through my savings, and English teachers in Taiwan do not have a lot of savings.
Sorry if this post seems long-winded but I'm worried about my future. :viola: I just feel like I'm pretty smart and I'd make a good actuary but I don't know if there's any way that I can show/prove that at this stage in my life. Actually having seen the exam material I wish that they would make the exams harder, it would reduce the pool of applicants and I'd have a better chance. And yes, I know that I should "take a couple exams and then get back to you", but what I'm wondering is what the most effective thing to do is WHILE I'm taking the exams, and whether or not with the exams I have any chance at all. Like I said, there are plenty of career changers but an increasing number of them seem to come from a financial/mathematical background, or at least have networking opportunities or friends in the field.
Well internet, what do I do? I throw myself upon your tender mercies.
Forumosa
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