Thinking about packing up and moving to SLC. Should I? (Salt Lake City: health insurance, home)

[cobaltking]

I graduated from college almost 3 years ago with a B.S. in Economics. I even 3 actuarial exams passed, and I cannot find a halfway decent job for the life of me. I'm currently in my home state of Oregon, where there are 0 opportunities.

It seems like Salt Lake City has a lot of finance jobs and relatively low unemployment... I was thinking of just up and moving there in June if I don't have a better job by then (which is a 99.999% chance). Do you think I'd be able to land an entry-level analyst position of some sort within a couple months there?

[UTES]

Keep in mind the SLC area has a relatively high proportion of people with BS/BA degrees. Simply put, it's an expected minimum in most professional level gov jobs here.

The gov office I recently left (after 10 years) only hired analysts/economists at the Master's level and above. I was an analyst at one time myself.

I'm hoping not to sound negative - but you've got your work cut out for you. It's possible (always possible) to get in at a lesser job and work your way up to where you want to be. That's how most of us in gov work did it. Not as many people as you would think get the gov job right out of the gate they wanted. It took both my wife and myself about 5 years to get to a level we liked.

Bill

[markg91359]

I think its a bad idea to move to any new place without a job lined up in this economy. You don't say so, but I assume you have no family or support network in Salt Lake City. What will you do if a job fails to materialize? I suppose you could work in a fast food restaurant because a fair number of jobs in these places are available at minimum wage.

Why don't you plan on spending several weeks here and interview or apply for as many jobs as you can?

The official unemployment rate is lower here than in many places in this country. However, in my experience, this is somewhat deceptive. Utah is a family oriented culture and when jobs become scarce, families send older children (or spouses) to college or trade school. Hence, they no longer show up in official unemployment statistics because they aren't "looking for a job". Also, one spouse will simply tell the other spouse to "stay home" until the economy gets better. Hence, that spouse disappears from the unemployment rolls and the numbers look better than they actually are. Utah has a host of low wage jobs and statistics count a part time fast food worker as employed, the same way they count a middle manager at a Fortune 500 company. I can promise you we have far more fast food workers and convenience store clerks than we do middle managers.

I don't want to seem unduly pessimistic. However, moving to an area without a job is never a good idea. The economy here maybe a bit better than some places in this country, but Utah is not Shangri La and no one better deceive themselves into thinking that it is.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by cobaltking

I graduated from college almost 3 years ago with a B.S. in Economics. I even 3 actuarial exams passed, and I cannot find a halfway decent job for the life of me. I'm currently in my home state of Oregon, where there are 0 opportunities.

It seems like Salt Lake City has a lot of finance jobs and relatively low unemployment... I was thinking of just up and moving there in June if I don't have a better job by then (which is a 99.999% chance). Do you think I'd be able to land an entry-level analyst position of some sort within a couple months there?

If you're interested in health insurance there are quite a few here that are occasionally looking for actuarial help:

Select Health which is the health plan for Intermountain Healthcare (jobs are posted on the Intermountain site) is one.

Another is the University of Utah Health Care which has it's own health plan. (make sure you look at the Health Care employment site as I haven't seen any actuarial positions on the regular University employment site)

Aetna has a Medicare health plan through it's acquisition of Coventry in the area.

Regence has a health plan in Utah but I'd guess most of their actuarial work is in Portland.

There is a new health plan that popped up as a part of the ACA named Arches health plan. I haven't seen any job postings (or even a career page on their website) but as they're brand new they may be interested in hiring some newer actuaries.

At any rate I work in health insurance (though not in Utah) so that's what I know about. Just throwing some ideas out there for you. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Edit: Wanted to add that BYU has an Actuarial Science major so there may be more competition for actuarial jobs in the SLC area than what you'd normally expect. Just wanted to throw that out there as a bit of a warning just in case you find you don't get many responses to resumes.

[cobaltking]

Originally Posted by UTES

It's possible (always possible) to get in at a lesser job and work your way up to where you want to be. That's how most of us in gov work did it.

As long as I can get something better than pumping gas, which is what I do now... I can't even get an interview to be a bank teller here despite over a year of cash handling experience and my B.S.

Originally Posted by markg91359

I think its a bad idea to move to any new place without a job lined up in this economy. You don't say so, but I assume you have no family or support network in Salt Lake City. What will you do if a job fails to materialize? I suppose you could work in a fast food restaurant because a fair number of jobs in these places are available at minimum wage.

Why don't you plan on spending several weeks here and interview or apply for as many jobs as you can?

Yeah, I've been pretty hesitant about doing this... but I've been pumping gas for almost a year now and I can barely stand it anymore. I have some money saved up, so my plan is to live at a hostel and throw applications and resumés everywhere. If it fails... I could probably get my old job back...

I don't want to seem unduly pessimistic. However, moving to an area without a job is never a good idea. The economy here maybe a bit better than some places in this country, but Utah is not Shangri La and no one better deceive themselves into thinking that it is.

Yeah, I don't expect SLC to be Shangri-La or anything... I'm just hoping for it to be significantly better than Oregon. Enough so that I actually have a shot... and can actually get an interview for something that makes more than minimum wage in less than 200 applications.

Originally Posted by mezman

If you're interested in health insurance there are quite a few here that are occasionally looking for actuarial help...

Edit: Wanted to add that BYU has an Actuarial Science major so there may be more competition for actuarial jobs in the SLC area than what you'd normally expect. Just wanted to throw that out there as a bit of a warning just in case you find you don't get many responses to resumes.

I'll keep those in mind. I applied at Intermountain healthcare a while ago... and was rejected. Even if I can't specifically get an actuarial position though, as long as I got an analyst position at a bank or something, I'd probably help me get an actuarial position down the road...

[mezman]

Originally Posted by cobaltking

I'll keep those in mind. I applied at Intermountain healthcare a while ago... and was rejected. Even if I can't specifically get an actuarial position though, as long as I got an analyst position at a bank or something, I'd probably help me get an actuarial position down the road...

Just keep in mind that actuaries are generally used at the corporate HQ level for most companies (as far as I know anyway). The only bank that I know of based in SLC is Zion... if anyone knows of others feel free to correct me. Though Goldman Sach's has a presence in SLC and they might be interested in your analytical abilities as well.

Be sure to research insurance companies (health, life, disability, ect.) that might be based in SLC as all insurers use actuaries and other analysts.

I would also look into seeing if you can find whether any employers based in SLC have defined benefit pensions as those require actuaries as well. I'm sure the LDS church has one but it's unlikely you'd be hired unless you were LDS. The state might have a pension fund as well so I'd look into that and see if they are looking for any analysts for that type of work.

I wouldn't limit myself to banks if I were you unless you have a strong passion for that type of work. There is a lot of interesting actuarial work outside of the banking world.

At any rate, good luck.

[kaytidid]

Originally Posted by cobaltking

As long as I can get something better than pumping gas, which is what I do now... I can't even get an interview to be a bank teller here despite over a year of cash handling experience and my B.S.

No worries...we have to pump our own gas here!

[momotoo]

I realized lately no one can define what is a good city for jobs. It depends on how you see yourself fitting in. It's not like your gonna be working ten jobs at a time so you need to go to a city with lots of jobs so you can secure ten jobs.

You only need one job, just think about it like this : "I only need one job" - doesn't it already sound easier.

Many people will tell you, don't move anywhere without having a job waiting for you - are you people kidding me ? it's almost impossible securing a job in a different state before moving unless you have like 10 years of experience or you just graduated from a top University. A lot of people move to other cities without having a job waiting for them, it's totally fine.

You can find the job your looking for as long as you BELIEVE you can once you arrive to your new city.

[momotoo]

The most important part is to be in a city that accepts everyone; because when people feel comfortable, and appreciated
they are able to excel, the opposite of what happens in red states where many people are not welcomed.

[neverstopexploring]

I agree, if you have the resources and the will to take such a huge leap of faith then SLC isn't a bad place to pick. Having recently taken a leap of faith myself I wish you good luck.