MASS Q&A Panel
Posted by Yanik Ratilal (Monash Actuarial Students Society) on
10 October 2018
The MASS Q&A Panel brought together experts for an engaging night about the latest in the industry.
The Monash Actuarial Students Society’s second Q&A Panel event, held on the 14th August, saw student members and industry representatives engage in discussions surrounding the latest news and trends in the actuarial profession, followed by networking and mingling. The panel consisted of recent graduates as well as those experienced and well-versed in the actuarial space. With such diversity of thought, members were introduced to varying perspectives in the areas of the changing role of the actuary, the direction of actuarial education and what could be expected by both students and current actuaries moving into the future.
Having only been instigated last year in 2017, the outcome of the inaugural event proved to be highly successful; members mentioned how they would not have been exposed to these discussions solely through their own studies. The Q&A Panel event was as popular as it was the previous year – the Sponsor representatives in attendance noted on how they were pleased to be included in the talks and networking.
The MC and panel moderator for the night, the Society’s President Jesse Sondhu, guided the discussion taking questions from the audience throughout the topics. Thoughts were shared around the next big thing for actuaries, including the branching out to new areas such as data analytics and finance. Amongst recent rumours and changes regarding amendments to professional accreditation by the Actuaries Institute, the panellists gave their view on what should – and perhaps should not – occur in the present and near future of actuarial students’ education. The panel members also gave their perspective on the buzz surrounding machine learning and applications of artificial intelligence to the actuarial industry. There was consensus that a major portion of an actuary’s role, that of communicating results and findings to clients, would not be at risk anywhere in the foreseeable future.
With such success in combining the informative and academic aspects of the actuarial space into an engaging and palatable format for students is another way that MASS has achieved what it stands for: connecting actuarial students with members of the industry to broaden their horizons.
Find out more about the Monash Actuarial Students Society