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Alas Ace Villote

Life of an Actuary

A lot of you may ask what made me decide to become an actuary as my profession. 
Honestly, finding the right answer to this question is difficult and it took me a while to fully understand my reasons why I chose this less taken path. 

One of the reasons was when I was still in High School I was very inclined in Mathematics, my senior that time has motivated me a lot to consider taking the Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics in UP Los Banos as my course and eventually to pursue the Actuarial Science track. 

At first, all I know was after college graduation, I will be working as an Actuarial Analyst in a consulting firm or in a life insurance company. This idea made me hesitant to pursue it as my long-term profession because I thought it is unattainable and would take me a very long time to become successful and achieve life fulfillment since it involves a lot of exams. However, right after my internship in a Non-life insurance company, I realized that it is somehow meant for me and I wanted to pursue my career in this kind of industry. 

Fast forward to the present, I am currently working as a Pricing Officer in the Non-Life Actuarial Department of AXA Philippines and this coming September 2020, I will be celebrating my 3rd year Anniversary with them and I really enjoy working right now because it gives me a lot when it comes the knowledge I need and the people I could rely on to survive the actuarial profession. Thanks AXA PH.
 
This company has made me become a better person by supporting me to achieve my goals in life. It gave me so much opportunities that really helped me progress in my career and in life. Through AXA, I have experienced attending my first ever convention conducted by the Actuarial Society of the Philippines (ASP), which I learned a lot about the latest trends in Actuarial Science and met a lot of people in the industry. Moreover, it continuously supports me to pursue my career by subsidizing my exams and enlisting me to different trainings and development programs like excel training, modelling, data science, trainings for non-life pricing, and many more. This helps me a lot to survive my daily work and routine in the office. 

Currently, I have already taken 2 of the Preliminary Exams and 1 of the VEEs for the US Society of Actuaries. I know it’s still a long way to go to become an associate/fellow, but I still believe I could make it someday.  In fact, just to share with you one of my exam’s dilemmas is that I always become indecisive because I fear that I will fail all the time, and this made me delay it to a later date and it happened so many times to me already. I know it’s a bad habit but it’s the reality and sometimes shit happens. However, no one should take it as an example and be like that since it’s a waste of time, effort, and resources. What I could suggest is to plan it ahead of time and become disciplined. 

My life as an actuary is not as easy as it may sound. It is full of ups and downs as I progress in my career. There were times that I feel like quitting since balancing your life, work and exams is not an easy job to do. Although, I am still a newbie on this path, I know eventually, I will be able to handle all of it with confidence and smile in my face. Right now, I still need to take more exams and to continue working to gain more experiences in the field of Actuarial Science.

Comments

3 Comments
  • Hot Mama
    Jan 25, 2021 22:29
    Life of an actuary
  • Kayexi
    Jul 08, 2020 19:54
    Wow! I love it!
  • John Carlo Motas
    Jul 08, 2020 19:28
    Very insightful! Thanks for sharing!