Would you rather be a spreadsheet monkey or a R S A S P ythonSQLHivePigSparkScala monkey ? I think the monkey term applies more to the actuarial side of things . Programmatic nonExcel based approaches RARELY involve the tedious copypaste nonsense that spreadsheets do . Data scientists have solid programming backgrounds including management , many actuaries do not and often choose the gitrdone approach that leads to extremely fuckedup processes . There are a bazillion data science jobs . Now that the ObamaCare bonanza is over , the actuarial job market is extremely tight . There are easily 5 data science jobs in my city for every actuarial job , and I live in a pretty good market . It ' s a wayy better job market , the pay is comparable if not better , and the work is probably more interesting .