Alisa Swann
Position:
Actuarial Student
Employer:
Security Benefit
Job description:
I work in a actuarial department in
valuation. Working in valuation involves working with accountants and
calculating the reserves that the company needs to set aside to
fulfill regulatory requirements for insurance companies andto make
certain that the company will be ale to fulfill its obligations to our
customers in future years. Security Benefit sells mostly annuities
and mutual funds, and a small amount of accident and sickness
insurance, vision insurance and dental insurance to cafeteria plans
for public school systems. For more information on Security Benefit,
you can check out our
website.
Salary range:
40,000 - 50,000
Job satisfaction:
Overall I am happy with my job. SBG is a
small company and I enjoy the people that I work with. At times my
job can be tedious, however I like the mixture of light programming,
interaction with people from other departments in the company (mostly
explaining how or why things are calculated in particular ways), and
calculations. I spend a significant amount of time studying for
actuarial exams, and enjoy learning the material. (Going into an
actuarial career means taking an exam every six months for between 5
and 10 years.) The exams cover material on finance, investing,
economics, risk theory, statistical analysis, and a variety of other
mathematical, statistical and business subjects. Unfortunately the
work load is highly cyclical (but very predictable). The largest part
of my job is financial reporting, and I spend the first week of each
month putting together the monthly corporate financial report for the
month that just ended. In January and February we are very busy
putting together an annual financial statement that has to be filed in
each of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Guam.
Employment history:
I spent 6 years in graduate school out in
California after graduating from UGA. While in graduate school, I
studied applied mathematics and population biology, and received an MS
in both areas. I accepted my current position at Security Benefit in
the spring of 1999, and at the time I am writing this, have been here
for just over a year.
Suggestions for students:
[from 1998]
First and foremost, the more fluent you are with computers,
the better. Now that I have stated the obvious, I will go
on to address students specifically looking to go to grad
school. I think that for students who have a reasonable
idea of what they want to study in graduate school, they
should focus most of their effort on finding an advisor, and
applying to the school he is at as opposed to first choosing a
school and then selecting an advisor at that school. After
finding an advisor they think they would like, I would
recommend going to the library and getting a few papers
by that person and then finding out if he has any students
currently working with him that would be willing to
comunicate with you what he is like as an advisor. I think
that finding the right advisor is the most important key
to success in graduate school.
Miscellaneous comments:
[from 1998, when in graduate school]
I have been very happy as a graduate student. I feel that
UGA prepared me very well for graduate school. The good
parts about graduate school are that you have a very flexible
schedule, and a lot of freedom to explore whatever subject
areas interest you. The bad points are that it requires a
lot of self motivation and it really makes you face how
very little you actually know. Graduate school can be an
extremely humbling experience. ;)
E-mail Alisa: Home or
Work
Date of last update: May 14, 2000
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