Career path for an engineering major

[lillyram]

Trying to get advice on careers for my son. He is considering applying for an actuarial internship next summer, but not sure if that is right for him. He likes the idea of the work/life balance it would provide. He is currently a sophomore, engineering physics major (heavy physics and math) in a top engineering Ivy League school and doing extremely well. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to be an engineer though. He took an economics course last year and loved it. This year he's taking another econ/interdisciplinary class and loves it also. He wants to either double major in econ (with engineering) or minor in business. My question is, are his academic credentials too strong for actuarial path? Should he be looking at a quant career? (Although, anything too technical might bore him). His interests are pretty diverse. I thought an actuarial career would have more "real-world" connection, which he would like. There is, however, the salary ceiling for an actuary. I don't want him to sell himself short on the financial end. Also, I know that only a bachelor's degree is necessary for an actuary (along with the testing, of course). I know he wants more education. What about an MBA? Or is he better to get a masters in finance? I just want to give him some options to explore. Would it hurt if he took the first test for the actuary and interned next summer, just to explore? He could still go the quant route...(?)...or go for the MBA...(?) if he wanted. He has so many options - I want to help guide him. Thank you for the taking the time to advise me!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

We have many members with actuarial background and it seems they generally advise people against going their path. I take that they don't feel the job is stimulating enough.
Hard to say whether quant career would fit your son better if "too technical may bore him". Quant career is all about technical (coding, stats, math, dealing with huge dataset, etc).
He would be good starting from this reading list to get a sense of how things fit in
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/ma...uants-mfe-financial-engineering-students.535/

 

[lillyram]

Thanks so much, Andy. I will pass that on to him and I'll be back if we have any further questions!