My background

OK, a little background on me...

I grew up in Miami, Florida. I went to my local state school (I'm Cuban-American and Cuban parents are really weird about their kids going away to college) and majored in physics and mathematics. When I graduated, I became a high school math and physics teacher. This turned out to be a really bad move on my part. I did it for six years at three different schools. I was a little slow; I didn't really like it but it still took me six years to figure out that the career just absolutely was not for me. At least I managed to get a master's degree in physics during that time, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. My concentration was theoretical physics; I wrote my thesis in intermediate energy nuclear physics. Not much call for that in my current line of work, but it at least has some "wow" factor when people see it on my resume.

Since 1996, I have worked in the actuarial, risk management and benefits consulting field. Currently, I work for a major consulting firm that does benefits outsourcing for very large corporations. What does that mean? Well, a company like (just pulling an example out of a hat) IBM wants to concentrate on making computers and providing IT services. They don't want to have to worry about calculating your pension benefits or manning a telephone center to take phone calls from retirees who want to change their address. That's where we come in; we take over some or all of the company's HR and benefits functions and IBM can get back to making computers.

Personally, I work in the defined benefit area as a manager. More on that later.