There is a rarefied atmosphere up on the fifth floor of the Irish Life Centre in the heart of Dublin city where Dervla Tomlin works. There are no honking horns, no screeching brakes. Far down below on street level, we can see the cars and the people rushing by in the early afternoon light.

If a quiet moment happens Tomlin can gaze down in peace at the silent chaos underneath. Otherwise her head is bent over financial documents, computing and analysing figures, charts and reports. She is an actuary with Irish Life. This is where the company's assurance costs, possibilities, profits, rates and financial trends and patterns are analysed and priced.

"You do have to be accurate and pay attention to detail but at the same time we're quite involved in trying to design new products and it's important that we think creatively and think of new ways to do things," she says. Products, she explains, mean packages, and these products include everything from pensions to savings plans for the customer. "I would have to say that I really do enjoy the variety and the challenge," she adds.

"We're selling products to individuals," she explains. "I work in the retail area." Her current title is head of actuarial and financial planning at Irish Life. "You do need to be numerate but it's not as technical, mathematically, as people might think. You have to be practical and like solving practical problems. I work in the life assurance area, so communication skills are also very important. You do have to be able to communicate clearly and in layman's language."

Her job is about pricing all the products, reporting on profits, estimating how much the company is going to make and the amount it will take to cover future claims. "If somebody buys life cover, it would be the actuary who would price it". The actuary also maps out "how it's going to be sold, what claims we would expect, all the terms and make sure that it offers value to the customer and that it is profitable for the company". Looking back at her school days, she recalls that actuarial studies were not uppermost in her mind. "When I did the Leaving Cert, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I did have strong numerical skills, but I was equally interested in a lot of other subjects, like English and history. I was leaning towards a job that was fairly practical. I decided to do maths and economics in UCD."

Besides, she says, there were no actuarial courses in Ireland when she did the Leaving Cert. "Now there are specific courses and post-graduate courses."

She graduated from UCD in 1988. From a group of 10 who did honours maths in their arts degree, three, including Tomlin, went on to pursue a career as actuaries. Tomlin became interested in actuarial work because it would "involve dealing with people, it had good career prospects and it involved practical problem solving."

She got a job with Irish Life and was sponsored to go to City University in London to do a one-year full-time course as part of her training. When she came back, she only had to complete about four exams in order to qualify and become a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. "You have to spend a couple of years both working and studying," she says. "It's quite pressurised but it's worth it."

When she started out in her career, Tomlin says there were more men than women working as actuaries. However the balance has shifted since then and now it's about fifty/fifty.

"The in-take would be fairly even," she says. She does admit, however, that for the moment "at the more senior level in the profession it's probably all men. But there's no sexism in the profession."

For anyone who is thinking of becoming an actuary, she says the average time after finishing the Leaving Cert is seven years.

One of the key approaches of an actuary is to look at the long-term pattern, she says. "We are taking on risks for maybe twenty years. You always look at the trends and what we would expect to happen."

The job, she says, "is much more pragmatic and practical than people think". And finally in answer to a question about a typical day for an actuary, she explains that "as a professional working in a responsible, challenging job, you don't have nine-to-five hours". But, she says, "I like the variety".