Academic and Career Development

The most valuable skill I learned during these weeks was the informational interview. I performed two informational interviews. One was an in-person interview with an actuary who recently graduated from UW-Madison and works at Northwestern Mutual in downtown Milwaukee. The other interview was over the phone with another badger alum with over 35 years of experience in the industry and is the Assistant Vice President and Actuary for Genworth Financial in Richmond, VI. I found both to be extremely valuable in that I gained important knowledge about the actions I should be taking to become an actuary through their successes. Along with the knowledge, I also gained valuable connections that I can utilize in the future when looking for internships and careers. I believe all of the interviews went well even though I was pretty nervous for both. Just the idea of leading an entire conversation with your own questions is kind of nerve-wracking. This was very helpful to be able to hone in on my interviewing skills that will be put to the test with internships and job interviews approaching for me. I hope to continue to expand my network of connections and tend to them for future opportunities. 

Values

What I value more than any material good or object is my family and friends. They've always been here for me through the ups and downs of my life and I know I can always count on their support whenever I need it. I value my time with the special people in my life and I know that I'm going to treasure the memories I've made throughout my life. Money can buy cars, houses, fancy things, etc but it can't buy happiness or memories. My goal is not to accumulate as much money as I can, but to work hard at a job I genuinely enjoy putting my energy into everyday so that I can support my loved ones and be able to live a life where I can continue to make memories and build lasting bonds.

I know all of us in class right now value knowledge more than the general public, considering we're all in the Wisconsin School of Business. Knowledge is the best way to get yourself ahead in today's society. If you want to know more about something, there are so many resources today that you can utilize to expand your knowledge and set yourself apart. I foresee my value in knowledge fitting into my career as an actuary because my career will be full of constant studying to further my knowledge of actuarial concepts. Even once I have passed all the required exams, I will continue to expand my mind and knowledge in other outlets, such as learning how to play more instruments like the piano or learning other languages. My career will also allow me to gain valuable knowledge from experienced actuaries at my future firm that I can apply to my own work.

Academic & Career Goal

My academic and career goal is to pass a Society of Actuaries exam towards fulfilling requirements to become an actuary. Passing one exam opens up the door to getting an internship over next summer and being able to start gaining experience as an actuary. I've been trying to reach this goal since last year and have already had two failed attempts to pass the first exam. However, I'm registered for a third attempt this December and I know that if I study hard and utilize my resources, I can successfully reach my goal. My strength in positivity has allowed me to stay positive through the two failed attempts at the exam and has only motivated me each time to work harder to complete this goal.

One action step I will take to reach my goal is to talk to BBA faculty in the actuarial science department to discuss with them the best ways to study for the exam and any other methods to prepare to increase my chances of passing. Another action step I will take is to conduct more informational interviews that I learned and practiced through the Compass program to talk to more professional actuaries to learn the ways they studied and prepared so I can create my own study plan based off their successes. I've conducted two information interviews with two different actuaries and they were both very helpful in their own ways. 

Strengths

One of my strengths that I'm proud to have is my strength in adaptability. I have always had a good ability to adapt to changes in my life. When I was 13 years old, my family and I moved to Wisconsin from New York City and that was a huge change for me. Yet, I was able to adapt pretty well to the different surroundings and different school and managed to make many friends that I still have today. While we all have made this adjustment as well, I feel like I adapted especially well transitioning from high school with full support from my parents to college, living on my own supporting myself. My strength in adaptability has been beneficial to my academics because I am able to manage balancing my academic demands with social commitments, extracurricular activities, and part-time jobs. The course load for an actuarial science major is difficult, along with marching band, club commitments, my job with the ticket office, and attempting to maintain a social life all make my life pretty hectic. I’m still able to adapt well to additions in my busy schedule and leverage my ability not to feel overwhelmed.

Another strength that I'm happy I have is my positivity. I try to always look on the bright side of things because I know that I can't change what has already been done and there's no point in being negative and putting myself down over something I have no control over. The thing I do have control over is what I learned from the experience and how I can grow from it and my positivity allows me to see the silver lining in every situation. I use my positivity in my academics as well to help me keep my head up after a bad exam grade to motivate me to do that much better next time. This was especially true after my two failed attempts at the SOA exam, where my positivity has allowed me to learn from my failure and instead of feeling sorry for myself, I'm doing everything I can to better prepare for next time.