I would argue though that being an actuary doesn’t automatically make you bad at anything outside of Excel.
I’m not a data scientist, but I’m sure if I decided to go down that route my skill set would put me in a good position.
I have a very good grounding in statistics and probability.
I use R/Python quite heavily, regularly building models from scratch. I work with GLMs, Copulas, Monte Carlo simulation etc.
I deal with big volumes of data and have to write efficient algorithms to deal with it.
Most of my skills didn’t come from the exam path, but doing the exams also didn’t make me bad at all those other things.
Just being an actuary obviously doesn’t mean you have those skills though, which is what I was getting at with my “hit and miss” comment.
I agree, I just think it's statistically a net negative signal if conditioned only on years of experience. I would expect a generic technical BS or MS in a DS-relevant field to be more qualified than someone who passed actuarial exams, if the two are at a similar point in their careers.
That said, competent employers shouldn't be relying on unconditional signals, they should be interviewing and testing and getting more information on the candidate. For such employers, the signaling value of the actuarial credential ought to be neutral.
I agree that the median actuary would do poorly in data science, mostly because they don't have the programming ability for it. But the median actuary isn't trying to be a data scientist, so that's not who you care about if you're hiring for a data science position.
In most cases it’s been people who couldn’t pass exams, or were missold on what actuarial work actually involves and ended up moving early in their career when they wouldn’t have strong business acumen at all.
The one person who made the switch who I would consider a good actuary went back and did a masters in data science and applied for entry level roles. He had a couple million in the bank and decided he could afford to start over again.
He’s doing well now, he’s in a relatively senior position at a tech company. Financially he’s worse off than he would have been if he continued down the actuarial path, but he enjoys data science work a lot more than his old job and isn’t limited to insurance/pensions/finance.
I'm well aware that data science is as awash with mediocrity as any other field, but not being able to function outside of Excel makes you mostly useless as a data scientist, not merely mediocre.
I also agree with you that actuaries should not compete with data scientists, and should mostly stick to product, actuarial finance, reserving, etc. unless they desperately want to do data science, in which case they should switch to data science.
> in my opinion it’s just a way for the SOA to try and increase their revenues by jumping on a bandwagon.
It's worth noting that this is exactly what you'd predict if you buy my original thesis about the exams.