Hasta Luego!!

This marks the last post in my blog.  All-in-all, I love the actuarial work I have seen so far and the company I work for. I’m graduating at the end of my third year from UC this week, traveling to Europe, then beginning my career as an actuary at W&S. It saddens me that I’m leaving UC but I’m looking to the next step, which is becoming an ASA. 

Once again if you’re interested in becoming an actuary feel free to shoot me an email (zachm09@gmail.com)!

Establishing a Relationship with W&S and UC :)

I had a meeting with a head manager from W&S and the Mathematics (Actuarial Science Track) advisor and Assistant Dean, Dr. Mitro. The meeting will hopefully help connect future prospective actuaries from UC to W&S. One topic of interest to prospective actuaries my manager highlighted is that it is very important for students pursuing an actuarial career to pass the first actuarial exam in the second year. This allows them to have a passed exam on their resume in the Autumn Semester of their third year, when companies are interviewing students for an actuarial internship the summer after the student’s third year.

If any students have interest in learning more about actuarial sciences, I would encourage them to contact me at zachm09@gmail.com. I would be able to answer most questions students have about the field, and I could help set up an informational interview for the student at W&S. Being a SOL, RA, and an ATO has made me a passionate Bearcat – I’d love the chance to help UC students, especially those interested in actuarial sciences.

Study Hours!!

Starting this week, I get to take study hours at Western & Southern. I've never heard of an internship where you get to take study hours -- W&S only started letting me take them after I accepted my offer to work full time for the company. I'll be taking FM in October and it's nice to have study hours because it keeps the subject-matter fresh in my mind. As an actuary you have to study a ton on your personal time, but I currently do not do this because I'm a full-time student and I work as a Resident Advisor, along with working full-time at Western & Southern. (Actually I'm working the front desk at my resident hall right now -- happy 4th! ha).

Anyways I get a total of 75 hours of study time for the FM exam and can use up to 2 hours a day. If I pass I get a significant raise to my salary, and if I fail I get another chance to pass it and I'll still get company support (they pay for everything and I get the study hours over again). Basically if I fail 3 times in a row, I get fired and I have to take 2 exams a year. So I'm given a lot in terms of study hours, but a lot is expected of me as well.

On Vacation

I will not be blogging this week as I will be spending time with my family in Florida! I'm very thankful that my managers gave me time off!

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!

Today at Western & Southern I accepted an offer to become an Actuarial Analyst starting August 30, 2012! My final day of class at the University of Cincinnati will August 3rd and my final day of my Actuarial Internship will be August 7th. 


I never could have achieved this without the love and support from my family, friends, mentors, and a lot of other people along the way. THANK YOU to everyone who believed in me and took the time to share their knowledge or wisdom with me in some way.


My advice to any student would be to take risks -- especially ones that will help you grow and develop in any way. Some risks that I taken in the past 3 years (since high school graduation) have been moving and working completely on my own to Spain for two months after high school graduation; taking undergraduate / graduate level statistic courses at the beginning of my second year at UC (lowering my Math GPA); committing to work over 65 hrs/week as Student Orientation Leader last summer instead of pursuing actuarial exam progress; and deciding to work full-time as an actuarial intern at W&S, while being a full-time student and also being an RA at UPA.


These risks allowed me to graduate in 3 years and position me for a career at W&S but more importantly, they allowed me to learn so much, develop, and discover who I am really am. Getting this job offer makes me feel so blessed and relieved: all my risks have finally paid off.

Responsibilities at Internship To-Date

My internship has been nothing but a blessing. I will be an actuarial intern at W&S for two quarters: spring and summer. Since today marks the end of the Spring Quarter, I thought I would write about my work to-date.

Summary of Responsibilities:

My first and foremost responsibility at this point is to assist in the conversion from Lafayette’s software for organizing reinsurance treaties (Quasar) to Western and Southern’s (TAI). Lafayette was acquired by Western and Southern about 6 years ago, but they operated independently until this year. A few months ago, Lafayette’s operations completely moved from Lafayette IN, to Cincinnati. Since Lafayette moved to Cincinnati, converting Lafayette’s practices to match W&S has been a major project for the majority of departments within the W&S Insurance Company.

My role in the reinsurance conversion includes:

• Understanding the structure and fields of data on the Quasar operating system; ability to extract and reference data as needed.
• Organize all data in a methodological, easy-to-understand way in Excel. Reorganize and manipulate this data as our understanding of this data continuously grows and changes.
• Understand the structure and fields of data on the TAI operating system and the method for importing the data into TAI
• Create a quick and easy way to pull Quasar’s relevant fields of data from where it is stored in Excel to the specified format and structure needed to import the relevant data into TAI
• Discover and consolidate Quasar’s current treaty entries, as Lafayette was required to create several different treaty entries on Quasar per paper treaty.
• Run error-checking tests on the TAI system by repeatedly importing data into TAI and fixing discovered errors
• Update head managers of the Actuarial Department on the conversion’s progress, possible future challenges, etc.

My next most important responsibility is performing monthly valuation reporting for Western & Southern’s traditional line of business. While monthly reporting work can be tedious and lackluster, it’s work that is universal for any company in any field of insurance. I assume that any actuarial position in the insurance industry would include this work, making it as valuable on my resume as it is to the company. My role in the valuation department’s monthly reporting work includes:

• Update fluctuating parameters in ARCVAL, the software used by Western & Southern for valuation, financial reporting, and making projections for various lines of business.
• Run calculations on ARCVAL and generate reports, or print-vals, to be exported into Excel
• Embed relevant data from print-vals into comprehensive financial reports on Excel
• Create and implement macros using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate and expedite monthly reporting for the traditional line of business. 

Finally I also am working on a case study concerning market value adjusted annuity policy-holder behavior. These Responsibilities include:

• Run queries in Access to pull all Market Value Adjusted Annuity policy data that is nearing the end of its surrender charge or guarantee period.
• Analyze policy holder behavior and determine the shock lapse rate and any other interesting characteristics of the data

Social Responsibility at W&S

I think all-in-all, Western & Southern is a great corporate citizen. My company has committed itself to being a great corporate citizen by providing great health care, job security, and by participating in charity events. Since they take a firm and consistent stance on being a great corporate citizen, both their employees and the surrounding communities experience more security and stability. Further, Western & Southern’s corporate image steadily improves. As all parties benefit, this forms a natural alliance. Of course, the extra time and resources used creates more costs for the company. Overall, I really appreciate being a part of a company that looks beyond themselves to help others.

Three major examples of how Western & Southern acts as a great corporate citizen is by providing a nurse for their employees, by having an absolute no lay-off policy, and by participating in community service, such as the MS Walk. Western & Southern is committed to the well-being and health of their employees: by having a nurse available for W&S’s staff, employees can receive medical attention and expertise when their symptoms begin to decline, instead of after the individual’s health plummets. Further, job security does not just offer a steady income, but peace of mind as well.  Finally, W&S contributes to charity events. Just last week, over 300 W&S workers participated in the “MS Walk.” Hundreds of others contributed the campaign as well. Having only worked for Western & Southern for a month, I have already seen many ways the company is a great corporate citizen.

Having high standards of corporate citizenship has a great impact on my employer and society, but at a cost. I have heard more than once that W&S isn't always competitive because our costs are too high – we have too many workers, and not laying people off has a price. I believe it’s all worth it: I’m really blessed to work at a company that strives to do the right thing and to continue to do the right thing over and over again.

Ethics at the W&S

The main ethical standard is honesty. Western and Southern believes that acting with integrity shows our clients, customers, and employees our high standard of customer service. It is this honesty that allows Western & Southern to continue to offer products of quality. This customer service and policy of integrity is recognized as a valuable resource in the company allowing individuals assistance in a variety of issues that may arise.Actuaries also have a professional code of conduct that is specific to the actuarial profession. This code of conduct is instilled "to require Actuaries to adhere to the high standards of conduct, practice, and qualifications of the actuarial profession, thereby supporting the actuarial profession in fulfilling its responsibility to the public" (SOA Webiste). Knowing and following this code is required in order to become a licensed Actuary.

Links to Articles on Interview / Resume / Cover Letter Tips

After my last post, I thought I would provide some references for job-seekers to reference!

Interview Tips: http://msn.careerbuilder.com/msn/category.aspx?categoryid=IV

Resume Tips: http://www.rockportinstitute.com/resumes

Cover Letter Tips: http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/cover-letter-tips/jobs.aspx

My Resume: http://box.com/shared/e7366147cc57f180a801

Mock Interview with Co-worker and Senior Actuary

Today I had the opportunity to do a mock interview with a co-worker at Western & Southern Life Insurance Company, Isaac. About two weeks ago, I was eating lunch with him and he told me that he was the hiring manager at Lafayette Life Insurance Company, before they were acquired by Western & Southern. Per my request, he looked over my resume and cover letter then, and he was also willing to do a mock interview with me today.

Overall, he said I interviewed very well with a few things I could work on. First off, he said that I could be a little better with my eye contact – I tend to look slightly up and to the left when I think about how to respond to a question. Secondly, he said I shouldn’t be too forward about the possibilities of being hired on my first interview, as I somewhat asked what my chances were of getting the position. Finally, he warned me not to come off too confident, as it could seem arrogant.

This was great advice, as it applies to my current goal of finding a career as an actuary. Two things that could improve all aspects of my future goals is improving my eye contact and remembering people’s names. Further, my future goal of becoming an actuary doesn’t end with finding my future career: becoming an actuary will require extensive study time after work for next 5 years of my life. Isaac helped me realize that making “significant” progress as an actuarial college student isn’t the same as making significant progress towards being an actuary. His advice will help keep my confidence level in-check during my next career interview in May.

There were also things I did do well during my interview. After giving a horrific interview my freshman year in the attempt to become an RA, I really took the time to refine my interviewing skills. The most important thing I learned is to always answer a question through a personal experience. My number one tip would be not only to bring a resume for everyone you might interview with, but bring one for yourself too – that way when you draw a blank on one of the behavior type questions, you’ll have your resume sitting in front of you and you can quickly scan it for an answer.

Rarely will you be interviewed by someone who hasn’t at least glanced over your resume (and cover letter). I’ve spent a ton of time on both and the critique was light. Once again the main point Isaac made was to not to come off too confident. Secondly, Isaac recommended switching my second paragraph detailing my transferable skills, and my third paragraph which talked about my relevant actuarial experience. Obviously I took Isaac up on his advice, and made the appropriate changes.

All in all, I got some very important pointers, which will hopefully sharpen my appeal to future employers. Further, I’m glad that I got some practice before my big interview with an insurance company in May. I also now have a better idea as to how I will be perceived by senior actuaries in the field. Hopefully I will continue to sharpen these skills that ultimately will make a major impact on my life for years to come.

One Month In!

My job has become more difficult as I went past the into-phase, mostly because I have high expectations for myself. It can be very frustrating not being able to get a firm grip on something... for example, I am currently in the process of converting an acquired life insurance company's reinsurance treaties from that company's system of organization to Western & Southern's system of organization... at times I just feel as though I am not contributing to the conversion. Basically I am looking at a lot of 'random' output from the old system and trying to organize the data (as they were organized differently on several different levels) into a format that we can put into the new system. One of my managers that is heading the process specializes in reinsurance and it's difficult for him to understand what all the exported data from the old system is... It's even harder for me to make progress as I am still unfamiliar with the specifics of reinsurance. 

Obviously I've never heard about reinsurance in the classroom, but even though I have quickly gained a general understanding of subject matter, at times this proves inadequate next in the scope of a treaty. Imagine how many  nooks and crannies are in a financial contract: there are a lot of specifics and small details that change with changes in the policies. Even though I picked up a strong preliminary understanding of reinsurance, having not seen all the different terms and their meaning anywhere prevents me from realizing that a certain field in the output data is that nook orthat cranny.  Further the software used to organize the treaties has an interface a lot like a mainframe. All in all it will just take time to wrap my head around such a large project, and I want to be amazing right away.

As far how the classroom has played a role in my work, it is much less directly involved than I ever would have imagined. The only course that has played a direct help has been App Dev Using VBA. VBA is like programming in excel. To put it simply, it allows me to make a command that will have excel automatically repeat a process instantly. I use it all the time and having an understanding the programming behind excel has greatly improved my general spreadsheet application ability as well. 

Of course, I come across accounting and finance principals all the time. I can't think of an instance at work where I saw a process that I could have pulled out my textbook and said "look, I just did this paragraph here." Still I'm taking this coursework for granted. Learning an array of accounting and financial concepts has given me an understanding of basic accounting and finance in general. This general understanding contributes to how I have been able to quickly pick up concepts in insurance and healthcare, even if they are not directly correlated.

As a statistics major, I would have thought that a portion of my work would have been statistics anyways. My actuarial job always requires me to think analytically at a very high level. Even though I'm not using any direct methods right now from my stat classes, my mathematics major has no doubt greatly developed my analytic ability. In result my math major also contributes indirectly every day. Further, even though I'm not using any high level math, I know higher level math is a part of future actuarial exams I have to take. The only prior coursework I would change would be to take a C+ programming course. 

Having been a SOL, Resident Adviser, and having work experience completely using a second language, this job hasn't developed my generic communication skills yet. I have learned how to make data on my spreadsheets more presentable, if that is considered a communication skill. Color code, simplicity, and stick to the concluding data (eliminates distractions). This career isn't one that requires expert communication skills. Still the chief actuary at W&S definitely highlighted that communication and writing skills have been bottlenecks to the careers of many actuaries.

All in all, I wish I was performing better. I'm meeting the expectations of my supervisors, but it's hard to feel successful, when I don't seem to have a peer group to compare to. There are two very successful young actuaries who are only 3 or 4 years ahead of me, but the other 50+ are on a completely different level. I wish there was another intern I could compete with.

Work Expectations and Starting Out

Expectations: 

•  I have to work 40 hours per week. Each day I have to be at work from 9am - 3pm and I can fill in the rest of my 40 hours at anytime I want.
•  A major expectation I have in my work place is to manage my time extremely well. Since much of the work I do is independent and long-term projects, I have to be sure that I continuously make progress in ALL my assignments.
•  I have to wear a suit and tie everyday to work.
•  I have 3 supervisors: I report to two of them 1-3 times a day (each) and report to their boss about one time a week.

Other Information:

•  Western and Southern is a very conservative company and it's reflected in my expectations. While I believe that W&S goes very far out of their way to hire people with the highest standard of morals -- people that are incredibly willing to go out of their way to help you -- I find that I am expected to share and ask about personal lives with caution. 
•  I had an orientation which introduced me to the company. It was half a day long and included a tour, company history, some expectations, and current structure.
•  I rarely busy, but I always have something to do. Other people would probably say that I'm always busy, but actuaries have very low stress jobs, so even though I do a lot each day, I am almost never stressing over a deadline. If I can't figure something out, most the people around me have the time to help me too.
•  I love working both as a team and independently. In my job I do mostly the latter, and I wish I did work more work in a team. It seems like most actuarial analyst (actuaries in process of passes of their exams to become a licensed actuary) work mostly with others when they have someone check over their work, or when they are having another actuary teach them something. It seems like being an actuary is 60% work and 40% learning. 
• I love everything so far! -- I'm so lucky to have this job!!!

Me and My Job!

Hello, welcome to my blog! This is my first post, so I thought I would tell you a little about me.

Name: Zachariah Muhlenkamp

Graduation Date: August 2012

Major: Statistics

I am working as an Actuarial Intern in the Valuation Department of Western and Southern. W&S is a fortune 500 company based in Cincinnati, that develops life insurance products (i.e. life annuities). An actuary is a person who compiles and analyzes statistics to calculate risk (typically associated with insurance), to help determine what a customer should pay so that the company will be likely to make money. I work in the valuation department, which is a sub-group of the actuarial department. The valuation department typically requires a greater knowledge in accounting and finance as we determine how valuable the products W&S offers are to the company as market conditions change over time. For example, in 2000 W&S may have sold your father a life annuity. Perhaps your father agrees to give W&S $100 a month until 2015, when he is 65 years old. Then your father will receive $150 dollars each month for the rest of his life. As an actuary, I would determine when your father is likely to die, and what is the chance that my company would make so much money on the deal. However, I wouldn't ever look at just your father's information, instead I would look at the information of all the people like your father, who bought the same annuity as your father and I would only determine if the company will make money overall. 

I'm so excited to gain some actuarial experience! Some of my goals for my internship include:

1) Have career options at the end of my internship (I am graduating the same time my internship ends).

2) Increase my overall knowledge of insurance and actuarial sciences

3) Sharpen skills that will make me more valuable as an actuary