Student Programs Survey: Hours & Raises

[lllj]

technically we're only allowed to take hours from home if it's a full day or half day. if taking say, 2 hours in a day, you're supposed to be in the office, but not enforced - company is very flexible with working from home in general, so if i were going to study 2 hours of the day and i didn't have a lot of meeting scheduled or anything, i would likely work from home the rest of the day.

[FormLetter]

It would be easier to gather data on study programs if the format of the information was standardized by the person collecting it.

[jdb004]

For some reason market P&C fellowship exam raises aren't as big as SOA fellowship exam raises. As we've been told many times before, P&C wins in the end.

The best student program that i'm aware of is NY Life, where exam raises are percentages of salary.

In my experience:
* Health & Life Fellowship exams $600-1500 per hour of exam. Depending on the quality of the company you work for $3000-7500/ exam.
* P&C Fellowship exams $500-900 per hour of exam.
* All Associate exams $700-1200 per hour of exam

If you are working in Health or life and your fellowship exams <$4500 in raises you are getting ripped off.

[jdb004]

Not only can a good student program mean the difference in 20-30k, it is a huge motivator and a good sign that your company understands the value that Actuaries contribute.

There are some very terrible student programs out there. Assuming you've complained and the company has refused to make inflation/market adjustments, it is most likely in your long term best interest to leave.

[TDM612]

In your experience, do these places with >$4500 fellowship exam raises also have large raises when you actually reach your fellowship as well? And if so, what would you say a decent average is? It would be amazing if a student program gives $5000 per fellowship exam, on top of a $5000 raise and $x bonus at the designation.

At my current company that I've been at for only several months now, we have really terrible exam raises, for which I worried about from time to time. However, I wonder if the actuarial program works in conjunction with how much the company pays out in base salary/bonus as well as the total compensation (benefits, promotional raises, etc.). A part of me felt like crap about the exam raises, but then again I was compensated with an extremely competitive base salary/bonus with strong benefits. The slope at which I'll be growing at will be much less steep due to the exam raises, but I'll have started here at a high intercept for my level. Have you ever seen this to be the case anywhere, or are there a plethora of companies with strong compensation, benefits, and exam raises?

[LifeIsAPoissonProcess]

Originally Posted by TDM612

In your experience, do these places with >$4500 fellowship exam raises also have large raises when you actually reach your fellowship as well? And if so, what would you say a decent average is? It would be amazing if a student program gives $5000 per fellowship exam, on top of a $5000 raise and $x bonus at the designation.

My previous consulting gig was $9k per FSA exam. This was offset by the inability to write spring exams due to high workload, and limited study time in the fall.

Students are smart enough to capitalize on inequities in the student program. I was at a job once that gave out significant one-time bonuses, but the underlying salary was not up to market. Our top performers would pass multiple exams on the first try, then find themselves significantly underpaid.

[Actuario]

Is this thing still on? Is there a better thread somewhere? I could contribute.

[kn005]

There are a lot of lousy student programs out there and i think unfortunately mine is one of them. You get less than $3300 in raises on each of the prelims and no bonus...smh

[Jim Bob Cooter]

Originally Posted by kn005

There are a lot of lousy student programs out there and i think unfortunately mine is one of them. You get less than $3300 in raises on each of the prelims and no bonus...smh

3300 for a prelim is great. I got less than half that.

[manaknight14]

Originally Posted by Jim Bob Cooter

3300 for a prelim is great. I got less than half that.

Likewise. We do get a bonus here, but it's quite puny.