I work as an actuarial recruiter. Essentially this means I sit by the phone all day and convince mathematicians who deal with risk that they should quit their job and move to a different job, possibly in a different city, where, who knows? Their commute in miles to work may be changed by .5 miles, causing their car to age at an infintesimally but certainly quantifiably faster rate. Or, the mineral content of the water may be .00001% more likely to cause acne.
Ah, they are not all a bad lot. Perhaps not the most out-going of crowds -- Q: How do you recognize an out-going actuary? A: He looks at your shoes when he's talking to you.
I was talking to this young
Asian girl this morning; she is a three exam student from a large city in
China who is currently squirreled away in a rather small mid-western town. She said she is looking for a position in a larger city with a bit more
culture and diversity; of course, she didn't use those words precisely...
"They look at me here like I have 2 heads or something -- I'm Chinese , I'm not an alien!"
So I asked her where she would rather see herself. She railed against the
monotony of the
small town and her
duties in financial reporting and valuation. She said, wishfully, "
Chicago,
New York,
Los Angeles." I asked her what she would rather be doing besides financial reporting and valuation, and a
dreamy tone took over her high-pitched, accented voice. She spoke breathily as though she was a high-school girl in the 50s swooning over
Elvis:
"Risk Management."