I came across a series of 35 questions in the book "Succeed On Your Own Terms," designed to provoke thought on where we want our lives to lead. The first three questions had to do with work.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your current job?
A: Any opportunity to teach, mentor or plan is right up my alley. The blessing of actuarial work is that enough aspects of it are complex that there are plenty of chances to explain things in layman's terms. Get me in front of a room and I'll be fired up to teach about our products. I love using 1-on-1 weekly meetings with my direct reports to gauge where our projects are, where they're going, and to dream a bit.
Q: If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
A: I thought long and hard about this one! Quite a few scenarios popped in that were so unlikely as to be a waste of time. After about an hour of meditation in fits and starts, I settled on: I'd take one more actuarial employee (or "student"). As long as the workload didn't increase, I've got a plan all drawn out as to how the responsibilities would be divided. I could get out from under much of the entry-level work that falls to me when my only student is swamped. Frankly, I think that the job Tyson's been managing is head and shoulders above what I faced as a third-year employee. He handled it gamely but actuarial training is too precious to risk burning one out.
Q: A year from now, how will you know if you're succeeding in your current job?
A: Honestly, as long as the compliments are creaming the criticisms, that customer satisfaction is worth more at this stage of my career than any raise. I'm not so foolish as to believe that my talent stands out in a department of stars, but I would be pleased if people remembered me as a person they wanted to have on their team.
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