What's an Actuary?

One of the most common question asked of actuaries (or in my case, actuarial students) is "what does an actuary do?" In my experience, only about one in five people have actually heard of the profession and only about half of those have a reasonable understanding of what we do. Occasionally, someone will try to guess. Here are some of the good (and not so good) guesses I've heard.

• Are you studying to fix aquariums? (Aquatuary?)
• Is that something to do with fish? (Maybe it's my pronunciation)
  
• That's like risk management, right? (These days everybody manages risk)
• Oh, I covered some actuarial maths in my accounting major. It's basically calculating present values? (Yep, actuarial mathematics is largely just multiplying by (1+r)^-n)
• You're basically accountants but really good at maths. (Never call an actuary an accountant!)
• You're studying to be an actor? (It's definitely my pronunciation)
• Oh, Edward Norton's character from Fight Club? (Actuaries aren't great fighters)
• You guys try to guess what will happen in the future? (That's right, we're in the esteemed club of financial alchemists. A technical trader currently occupies the presidency)
• I did actuarial but it was boring so I dropped it. I am now a finance major! (No comment.)
  

Check back soon. This list is destined to grow.