Bruce Schobel first heard the word actuary at 18, when a stranger delivering the prize money he’d won in a math contest encouraged him to pursue the profession. The encounter stuck with him when he entered MIT to study mathematics, although his advisors discouraged a career in actuarial work, warning that it would be elementary and stodgy. As an undergrad, Schobel not only passed three actuarial exams on the first try–a rare feat–but earned the highest scores possible.
While working at the Prudential Insurance Company, he completed all 10 required exams by age 24–about five years ahead of schedule. He was considered too young for a promotion, but he was ready for more challenges. A 1979 encounter with Robert J. Myers, then the chief actuary for the Social Security Administration (SSA), offered Schobel his break. Before long, he served as staff actuary for the National Commission on Social Security Reform (a.k.a. the Greenspan Commission), whose recommendations for solving a short-term financing crisis became the Social Security Amendments of 1983–the program’s last significant changes.
Next, he served as senior policy advisor to the commissioner of Social Security and helped write speeches for President Reagan–a job his MIT studies with theorems and proofs prepared him for. “Persuading people requires rigorous arguments, and I think a lot of my success has to do with my mathematical training,” he says.
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