Reinsurance vs Insurance vs Consulting

[Me]

I tried to search and see if there was already a thread on this. I didn't find anything, but I apologize if I'm being redundant.

When I got out of college, I interviewed around my metro area with both insurers and consulting firms. I have a pretty good feel for the general differences between the two (hours, salary, emphasis on exams, travel...). I didn't interview any place that was exclusively reinsurance (some of the insurers had a reinsurance division).

Now I'm interviewing again. Could anyone give me a feel for the general differences between working for a reinsurer and the other two? Personally, I know I'd much rather work in insurance than consulting -- I find my wages to be more than sufficient and I greatly value time with my family. What I don't know is where reinsurance would fit in that spectrum. [FYI, I'm on the SOA side and I'm going to the May FAC.]

Thanks for any input.

[Westley]

Hours and "lumpiness" of schedule - really busy, then inactive, then really busy - re is closer to consulting than to primary. In some (limited) cases re is worse than consulting.

Westley described it well.
I've done all three on the P&C side. It really depends on the offices you work for how busy you are. When in (mainly excess of loss) reinsurance I worked 70 hours a week from Nov 1 - Dec 31. In consulting in Canada, I worked 50-70 hours a week from Nov 1 - Feb 28, with other sporadic busy periods through the year. In insurance I have worked 40-80 hours a week from July-March because of staffing shortfalls. All were/are interesting and help me build my skillset as an actuary. My advice would be to go to a reinsurance job where there is a larger actuarial group (>5) and there will be more balance, and more people to learn from.

[joeorez]

I am probably in the minority on this one, but here goes anyway:

It seems to me that someone who does either reinsurance or consulting, ought to be an expert in the underlying primary insurance. If you agree with that, then you should be spending time building up your knowledge and experience in primary insurance first.

Having said that, I know there are many actuaries who have excelled in reinsurance or consulting without having worked in primary insurance.

It also seems to me that the big primary companies are great places to learn the business, with more formal training programs, periodic job rotations, lots of study time without the urgency of work projects, etc. Like anything, that is a gross oversimplification, and I'm sure everyone has counter-examples. Reinsurers and consulting shops are not known for their training and rotations.

Joe