Actuary Hate

Anyone experience this? Maybe we’re just too content and comfortable?

there was an old poster named Sheba who tried his best to put actuaries down. Then he gave up and became friends

at my old job (non insurance) there was a director that disliked me from day one. After I found out he tried and failed at actuarial exams

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I used to report up to the chief marketing officer. He got paid on sales. The actuaries were responsible for maintaining profitability, so from time to time he’d want to sell things with zero margin, and we’d say no. And then he’d get all pissy and passive aggressive. He’d schedule a meeting from 5-6PM on a Friday. Once he called my boss up to his office and pretended to be on the phone when my boss walked in, so he could say ‘hey Fred, gotta let you go, Tom’s here. Yeah, you know, f***ing actuaries’ or something like that.

Anywho, during my exit interview I explained why this was a conflict of interest and a horrible environment. I can’t say it was the only reason, but he wasn’t the CMO but for another month after I left.

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A former coworker didn’t seem to specifically hate actuaries, he was a dick to most everyone. He told me once he was an actuary, which surprised me. Turns out he went to some kind of 1-2 day seminar and apparently he thought that was basically like getting credentialed. Cool story.

exam seminar?

[red]close enough the way they’re giving away credentials these days[/red]

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easier credentials = less hate, so there’s that

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I’ve definitely gotten the whole “actuaries don’t really know how the real world works” sort of thing before, but it’s always just some preconceived notion

Well there was that one author of that Bullshit Jobs book who said actuary was a useless job. But he’s dead now so he can’t make fun of us anymore.

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And I bet we predicted it

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there was an author (Black Swan), Nassim Taleb, who didn’t think too highly of the actuarial profession

he spoke at a SOA event once, and one of the audience gave him a run for his money

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Only an actuary who works for the Mafia can predict deaths that accurately.

He who shall not be named?

I thought that’s why insurance companies had compliance departments.

Have you seen how I’m doing in this year’s celebrity death pool? :sunglasses:

every non-actuary I know that I meet who knows what an actuary is has nothing but good things to say about actuaries.

I would love more detail if you can remember it. It’s always funny to watch wildly unqualified speakers.

Can’t say I’ve ever experienced hatred, but I get a lot of conflict from our sales team because they like to complain we make it difficult to sell everything they want to sell. So I get calls from one frustrated person in particular who just likes to whine about it. I just nod and tell him I hear his concerns and wait for the next call a week later.

My ex hates actuaries. He’s a senior investment guy working at an insurance company and the actuaries always think they know better than him because… not an actuary.