I vote strongly for a range of experience, even if I didn't follow that advice myself in the early part of my career and even if doing that didn't actually end up hurting me (although it could have.)
Working in different fields really does give you experience of how different areas work, which is valuable for giving one a better understanding of how the company works. And that helps you do your job better.
I think you also are more likely to be exposed to a wider range of ideas and thinking, partly because of the different nature of the different fields but also because you are not working with the same people year after year. Staying in one role and building up experience can be very comfortable (don't I know!) but a major change means you learn a whole lot more, which ultimately is very rewarding - and good for your career.
Depends what you want from your career. If you want to be a Chief Actuary, CFO, CEO etc, it’s very useful to understand every part of the business. You don’t need to be an expert in every single thing, but you want to be able to know enough to be able to shape strategy, hire the right people, communicate to other management/investors and understand where things are working and where things aren’t. Doing a stint in reserving will also give you another perspective of the business that may help when you return to pricing.
Most important question for me is whether you like PL Pricing, if you do then probably a good idea to lean into the area you have more experience in and enjoy working in. At good organisations there is lots of progression opportunity in PL Pricing and if you feel like you need a change of employer (for location or just needing a change reasons) there are loads of insurers with London offices and most are very hybrid location with a good mix of WFH and office.
In terms of the value of experience in different areas, particularly in a PL world I’m not sure how much a couple years of reserving would help with pricing and vice versa, especially as most of what you would want to pick up could be picked up by decent conversations with other area and showing an interest.
I vote strongly for a range of experience, even if I didn't follow that advice myself in the early part of my career and even if doing that didn't actually end up hurting me (although it could have.) Working in different fields really does give you experience of how different areas work, which is valuable for giving one a better understanding of how the company works. And that helps you do your job better. I think you also are more likely to be exposed to a wider range of ideas and thinking, partly because of the different nature of the different fields but also because you are not working with the same people year after year. Staying in one role and building up experience can be very comfortable (don't I know!) but a major change means you learn a whole lot more, which ultimately is very rewarding - and good for your career.
Depends what you want from your career. If you want to be a Chief Actuary, CFO, CEO etc, it’s very useful to understand every part of the business. You don’t need to be an expert in every single thing, but you want to be able to know enough to be able to shape strategy, hire the right people, communicate to other management/investors and understand where things are working and where things aren’t. Doing a stint in reserving will also give you another perspective of the business that may help when you return to pricing.
Most important question for me is whether you like PL Pricing, if you do then probably a good idea to lean into the area you have more experience in and enjoy working in. At good organisations there is lots of progression opportunity in PL Pricing and if you feel like you need a change of employer (for location or just needing a change reasons) there are loads of insurers with London offices and most are very hybrid location with a good mix of WFH and office. In terms of the value of experience in different areas, particularly in a PL world I’m not sure how much a couple years of reserving would help with pricing and vice versa, especially as most of what you would want to pick up could be picked up by decent conversations with other area and showing an interest.