Actuary, Accountant, or Engineer
Which career is the best in terms of pay, job security, exit opportunities, etc. Providing the interest for all is similar. Thank You
P.S. Preferably people who have experience in these specific fields.
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stupid questions deserve stupid answers. i will let all the unemployed/college kids field this one.
I apologize I am getting very different answers everywhere I go
As IP stated, is it best to research this topic by yourself, as you are probably not going to get the best responses on this site, given that there aren't that many engineers or even actuaries on this site.
In my view, for a move in finance, you are better off as an actuary and accountant, and not an engineer. Engineers have a great starting salary, but not as much potential for vertical movement, but also great job security - engineers always find jobs. Actuaries make more money, I believe, and accountants fare somewhere in the middle, except for pay, which they are last.
Again, research this by yourself, or go to a career center, to get the most accurate info.
Some people tell me CPA's don't make that much however, I hear that there are CPAs that make over six figures
How about private equity like Bain or KKR do they accept cpas?
My brother is pursuing the actuary route. From what I've gathered, his program has a 100% placement rate given you pass 1-2 of your exams before leaving school, so it seems that job security is high. That could be specific to his program though. Other than that, it sounds pretty terrible to me. There are a minimum of five exams you have to pass just to gain admission to an actuarial society and the industry is relatively esoteric. In terms of exit opps, none, unless you start your own consulting shop. Just movement up the actuary chain, which sounds about as nerdy as it gets.
Actuaries on the pay and exit opps.
I would honestly take accounting. But that's my opinion. You should shadow somebody in each field and figure out which would make you happy.
(1) It is hard to know if you can pass all ~9 actuarial exams without having attempted them. A lot of actuaries just stall out part-way through.
I understand that there is a small to moderate surplus in the actuary job market, though I am just going from second hand information.
(2) Engineers, depending on the specialty, can suffer from decaying personal capital. What I mean is that some specialties (e.g. SWE) change so rapidly that you risk being replaced by a fresh graduate.
In general, to make big money in engineering, you basically have to be the smartest guy in the room. I know I am not the smartest guy in a room full of engineers. But if you think you are, by all means, go work for GOOG/AAPL and make a killing. They will pay you a ton, because the absolute best engineers are orders of magnitude more valuable than just "very good" engineers.
(3) Accounting is not going away. The skill set is extremely transferable; I have worked for former accountants in both ER and IB (and actually at a F500 internship too). The salary progression is very reasonable, even if you just stay at a Big 4. Setting up your own practice can be very lucrative as well, if you have the right client base. You can assume some duties of a financial adviser.
You can carve out interesting niches in accounting. For instance, tax accountants can come up with creative ways to save organizations millions. A skilled hedge fund accountant will be desired by major hedge funds; while they aren't making "PM money" they do very well.
From what I gathered (including my accounting professor) I hear that engineering leaves your options on the table for any career because 1. People know engineers are smart and the skills that they possess and 2. You can go and get an MBA which gives you some knowledge of business. Idk maybe I am wrong but that is what I heard.
My cousin is an electrical engineer and he told me that engineering models are very similar to trading and risk models. Also, he told me that once you do an engineer's work you feel that anything else is a walk in the park lol.
Like I said before I can be wrong, what do you think?
As a degree, I think engineering is fantastic. As a career, less so. I assumed you were asking about engineering as a career.
I would never start my career planning to get a MBA. They're really expensive, and are most useful when changing careers. Better to pick the right career to start.
This is a good post. Basically, engineering is a largely winner take all game where a select few will reap a disproportionate amount of the rewards (and fame) and most will be relatively obscure. Engineering can also have time decay if you are specialized in an area that goes away. It is some similar to finance in this sense, in that talent to reward has a nonlinear curve, so incremental skill can bring exponential rewards, largely due to the massive scalability. On the other hand, accounting has a very even distribution, where almost everyone is certain to make a stable living, but there are very few big winners. This is because accounting functions have to be duplicated and are thus not significantly scalable. Becoming the CFO of a public company probably represents the maximum upside for an accounting career. I do not have a good understanding of the actuarial career path, but it sounds incredibly tedious. If you have the quantitative chops to get through those exams, I could certainly imagine that those skills could be utilized more lucratively in the financial world.
So you would not recommend engineering?
Actuaries seem great, but I think it is only as good as your effort. I know a handful of smart math, econ, engineer guys who cannot seem to pass the exams. A family member works for Zurich and said their actuaries are rock stars.
Computer Engineering, Accounting, or Actuarial Science? (Originally Posted: 09/05/2012)
Hello everybody I would just like to know what does everybody think of these majors in terms of getting a job for an investment bank as well as job security, versatility, pay, and analytical skills? The reason I ask is because I am considering majoring in one of these fields, I love all equally I am just not sure what it is I would like to do. Perhaps somebody can give me some insight.
Thank You.
If you are dead set on IBD - do Accounting (try to do some Finance too)
If you are dead set on Trading/anything Markets related - do Computer Science or Actuarial Science (I would pick CS over Act Sci because you get to learn programming)
I would say a 'markets' role has more versatility within an investment bank but IBD has the best exit opps. Analytical skills - neither at junior levels. lol Job security - its an investment bank so neither especially in times like these. If you suck you are out.
Pay - both pay about the same at junior levels. Theres a classic phrase about how the top banker will earn more then the top trader or maybe it was the other way around...
What do you mean by "exit opps?"
Exit opps are things you can do after doing your current role. e.g. if you work as a Trader then you can work in a Hedge Fund, start your own business etc. Those are exit opps. See mergersandinqusitions.com for more info :)
Hey guys. I am actually pursuing Computer Engineering in university, and privately appearing for the Actuarial Science examinations. The reason why I did not want to bottle myself down with an actuarial science degree only was because of the analytical skills that an engineering degree equips one with. Moreover, the programming skills learnt in computer engineering will help me out in modelling computer generated simulations in my actuarial career. Hope that this answers the queries of a lot of people.
They could care less about CS but like a math major the intensity can help you stand out.
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