You would be better served telling your son to find a boss that he thinks will mentor and train him. Regardless of environment the manager makes the difference in how well you’re trained and mentored. If he takes an office job with a shite manager his career will start on the rocks.
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At my current office, I have my own refrigerator, my own bathroom, my own break room, my own gym, my own pool. A drive-to office has to compete with that (or pay me a shit-ton more, especially with gas prices these days ($6+/gallon here).
I don’t know what that means lol. Ok? Looks like what my coops im me.
I did figure out that we don’t use the ok circle thumb gesture anymore now that’s been coopted but the racists.
Well, really, in a room full of actuaries and we are arguing soft stuff like this?
I’ve been there. We were one of the first companies to go paperless in my industry, and it was three months of discomfort for me. Yes it’s easier to just go to the filing cabinet and pull a file, and handwrite notes. Until it’s not, because it’s easier to actually just pull up the CRM and type in the notes. It just took three months for me to be more comfortable doing the CRM than the paper. And then, the benefits were worth it.
We had a 75yo working with us who had a hard time moving over. I had to explain that if someone called when they weren’t around, I couldn’t read his handwritten notes in his paper file that was in his desk 500 miles from me. His solution? Keep the paper notes and the CRM. Geeesh people. Don’t be that guy.
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“CRM”?
I’ve been WFH for over 10 years.
There are two things I have not been able to replace from my time in a cube-farm:
- The pop-up discussions that happen when you bump into people on the way to/from the john/meetings/etc.
- The serendipitous learning that happens when you overhear what other people (other actuaries, underwriters, finanance folks, etc.) are doing when working at their desks.
Just about everything else – the social interactions, the collaboration, and the supervision – can be handled via technology if people adapt to such (and, with the pandemic, things have become much better in that regard).
That second bullet point is where I see a particular downside to 100% WFH, especially when considering actuarial students on staff. Whether that cost is greater than the intangible benefits is debatable.
Customer Relationship Management.
Apparently, the lobster is one of those mythical actuaries that interacts with real people on the outside. 
I’ve heard stories and seen grainy photos…
I can see that many people want to WFH, and prefer it, but that wasn’t the point.
My point was that people are more effective when they are together.
SpaceLobster’s trying to contend that people are more effective working in isolation than when they are together in an office. I think that idea is preposterous. My experience has been different than his, so he “Ok, Boomer”'ed me.
I dunno, my work in office days I NEVER get as much done as my WFH days. I really like being around others and having those spontaneous conversations, but I also waste a ton of time every day. So when I actually really want to get something accomplished, I make sure I don’t go into the office.
I am in the office 3-4 days per week recently.
I am almost certainly less productive when I WFH. And I’d like to keep it that way.
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I get more work done at home, due to fewer distractions, and not having to waste time with a commute.
I learn more at the office, for the reasons mentioned above.
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I don’t think this is an absolute truth of all people.
However, I agree with your advice to your son to find a company where he would work in the office, for the other reasons you stated, mainly training.
Oh, yeah, for sure, I’m far more productive at home because I have a lot of experience. I would not have done well starting out WFH, not in this career anyway.
No, WE are more productive. Generally it’s easily just as productive.
What’s preposterous is lack of quantification, even when presented with viable alternatives that half the world has been using for 2 years. That’s where the boomer thing comes in.
People can and do manage and train remotely just fine. If other people can’t do that, it’s not the tools that are the problem. And suggesting that having to commute, spend all that money and their employees personal time to do so, so you can see me instead of on a video conference, that wasteful of resources and ee’s personal time.
Doesn’t matter what I think though. The market is telling everyone this quite loudly. The problem is correcting itself.
Sorry, at Lake Wobegon Mutual, SpaceLob and his peers are more productive WFH.
I think if you polled parents of school age children, a clear majority of them would agree that their kids’ learning suffered during school from home over the pandemic.
Look, it’s JSM supporting my point. Who would have figured? FWIW, JSM I think you are in the majority on this topic.
I don’t know if I’m in the majority. But I work to live, not live to work. I suppose if I liked working, I’d claim that I’m more productive WFH, but then I’d also like working, which is the saddest human state.
I’m good and experienced enough that I can make 5 hours of work a week seem like 40 hrs of work.
I’d say I’m equally productive at working, whether from home or at an office.
My PERSONAL productivity (cleaning stuff, working out, enjoying my pool, NOT eating a 1000+calorie lunch daily), though, has soared.