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GOOD WORKER
USA
4 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2003 : 19:20:08
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I would like to know if anyone knows where i can go to get certified in L.A. or Orange County areas?
I will go to Texas for it if i have to,but would rather do it here where i live. |
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Red
24 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 18:40:06
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David, need more information. What do you want to be certified for?
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GOOD WORKER
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 19:48:28
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| Catastrophie certification for Farmers.I also need a mentor with several years experience to work for about a year.I am extremely new to this field,and am eager to get started.I am in Aerospace presently,looking to switch careers.I am a quick learner and i am computer literate. |
David Hensley |
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SeizeOWisdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 20:04:05
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David, I am curious why you chose catastrophe adjusting as a career switch from aerospace. Perhaps you would enlighten us as to how you became aware of cat adjusting and what about it appealed to you as a career? What perceptions perhaps that you have about this job?
Thanks for any feedback you are willing to share. |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 21:40:43
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Whoa!, Hoss! I detected no offensive tone from the above post, only an honest query as to motive. I, too, would like to hear the story from the personal angle aspect about jumping from what appears to me as a far more stable and lucrative employment to ours that is fraught with uncertainty and constant concern about tomorrow.
The only bait I smell has the tinge of cheaper prescription drug costs. |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 21:52:32
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Yeah, Catdaddy, while some view a aspirant from Aerospace as fertilizer, others see him as plain ol' manure.
By the way, Clayton did one heck of a bang up job on the analysis of fee schedules. Thank you, Clayton! |
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GOOD WORKER
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2003 : 22:37:18
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| I am just looking for something that doesnt require working a full 12 months a year,and is lucrative.I am into the freedom of more time off during the year.I will find my nitch one of these days.Thanks for your advice guys. |
David Hensley |
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Gale
USA
231 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 02:25:37
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| I know of one CAT adjuster that is from Aerospace industry and is working so much in TX he has leased a house there for the better part of two years. Professionism and general smarts seems to be high in those coming from that industry. I can see why some should see them as a threat to their position. As some of post may indicate, professionism and general smarts are not as universal traits as would be desired. |
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jlombardo
USA
212 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 05:24:23
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| Nice to see everyone is back to normal......welcome "back" Jim......This thread started so nicely.......Guys, David is too young,(as am I) to remember the school drills of "Duck and Cover".......... |
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Tom Toll
USA
154 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 06:44:28
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| No wonder people are afraid to post here. A simple question from a man about where to get help to begin a career in Cat adjusting and he is questioned about why. Then additional remarks about why one is questioning him, then some humoruous remarks and then the usual attack remarks. Boys, the guy asked a simple question and a simple answer to that question would have been refreshing. Why do we have to know why someone wants to enter this profession. Thats none of our business, but as professionals, it is our business to answer questions, if we know the answer, of anyone who may post here. This is not the sparring match website, it is the commentary, question, and answer web site. |
Edited by - Tom Toll on 11/10/2003 06:47:11 |
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SeizeOWisdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 07:05:42
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Why ask why?
I'll try and explain.
A few weeks ago in Norfolk, I met a brand new spick and span Newbee adjuster who had left their job on the West Coast the day Hurricane Isabel hit, leaving behind regular pay, insurance and benefits. This adjuster, who was staying a few doors down from me in the motel, then bought a last minute one way plane ticket to Norfolk from LA, rented a car, bought a laptop, rented a motel room, and was ready to start out on their new career as a cat adjuster. And I might add, having never attended any licensing school, any estimating school, any insurance classes whatsoever, nor having worked in any way, shape, form or fashion with insurance.
Our newly minted professional cat adjuster, now in possession of 38 claim files with 38 'lucky' insureds, and an estimating program which allowed this adjuster to point and click on items of damage on the on screen dwelling graphic, was off and running. That first day, I asked the rather superfluous question which I posed here earlier, WHY did you want to join our ranks and what brought cat adjusting as a career option to your attention. (I will spare all of you the boring details, but the answer was interesting, at least to me, and might be of concern to others if we cared about the directions this industry is headed).
Less than 3 weeks later, this very same Newbee adjuster confronted several seasoned adjusters in the motel parking lot, and with tears in their eyes, kept saying over and over again, "why was I so stupid? Why did I quit my job for this? What was I thinking? How am I even going to be able to buy a plane ticket home with only $450.00 in my hands for three weeks of work? Why didn't someone tell me?"
A pitiful sight? You bet. A horrible situation. Of course. It always hurts to see newer adjusters who are hurt when they come in with their eyes half closed or who made decisions based on rumors or ill conceived ideas or empty promises.
So, yes, I asked a question here, and I think we all would better serve those interested in cat adjusting as a career, if we asked more, not less of these type questions. I think our profession as well as newer and newbee adjusters would be better served if we all asked of them more penetrating questions, and asked them to search perhaps a little deeper into an understanding for them of why they want to join this fellowship. There are and have been rumors and distortions for years about all the quick and easy and big dollars floating around in cat adjusting for anyone with the most minimal of skills, talent, intellect or knowledge who can pass a license test somewhere and hire on with a vendor more interested in warm bodies than quality service.
And we wonder why cat adjusters are held in such low esteem, why carriers continue to seek and utilize alternative methods of claims handling, and why the pie keeps getting smaller and smaller with each passing day.
So, from the standpoint of political correctness, perhaps I was wrong in asking the question I did, but if in doing so, I could spare one person the agony that our West Coast newbee in Norfolk endured, then I willingly stand guilty as charged.
But please never confuse a viewpoint contrary to one's own thinking as being anything other than contrarian. For those of us who think as contrarians you need not see our thinking as an attempt to be contrary.
Sometimes, the greatest success comes to those who buy when others are selling and those who sell when others are buying. I'm sorry, I'm just one of those stubborn old independent cusses who refuses to always follow the herd (mentality). I think that makes me a contrarian thinker while I am sure others see that as just being contrary. In any event, it is what I think and how I think, for whatever value that is to other readers. Thanks for listening. |
Edited by - SeizeOWisdom on 11/10/2003 07:39:06 |
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LAW1526
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 07:09:48
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Why did I leave the aerospace industry? After 13 years as a safety engineer moving from coast to coast with my family for The Boeing Company, Seattle, Wa, Lockheed Space Operations Company, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Ca and Cape Kennedy, Fl, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company Sunnyvale, Ca and Vandenberg Air Force Ca,.compounded with the misery of very three years government contract renewal wondering if I would have a job on the fourth year with who and where.
Now I work from coast to coast live in the state and town of my choice and control my own destiny. That’s why I left the aerospace industry.
I'm sure Goodwoker has his reasons and should pursue them for his own persoanl needs. Now can we help him?
I'm not familar with any certification schools in Ca. other than Vale. I did not attend Vale but have heard it's an excellant school to get started in the business. I undertand the school is locate around the Bakersfied area.
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 08:02:30
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Excellent post, Jim. Tom, motive is everything when it comes to making a life altering decision, And storm trooping is very life altering. I would rank it in a similar venue as marriage or dropping out from college when your grades are good. Ours is a peculiar lifestyle, far outside the box of the 8:00 to 5:00 normality. That we are so open about it here on CADO belies the very harsh realities of which we have grown accustomed.
So, Good Worker wants to work a little, make alot, and screw off a bunch. Good for him. This is a modified form of the 'Tahiti Syndrome'. Each of us experience this constantly in this biz as it is forced apon us by the vagaries of fate, not by our choice. When we're not working, we are in a growing panic because the bank account is shrinking and we don't know when it will begin to grow again. Were it not for the shared company of fellow souls here in the clubhouse, the misery would be far more acute.
Good Worker, my suggestion to you is that your professional job skills and daydreams of less stress might be better served in the adult entertainment industry or the alcoholic beverage industry where 'going down' does not involve aircraft impaling the earth. |
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olderthendirt
USA
370 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 08:07:58
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| CD direct personal attacks will not help and are out of place. Goodworker wants to test the waters. Jim using the term "Armchair Quarterback" will give you away every time! Maybe if someone identified the vendors that provide for Farmers and suggested he contact them. Also somewhere on this site it catadjsuting 101, worth his time to read. Those vendors are (at last I heard, Wardlaw; Eberals; Crawford(?); NCA (?) and one other I cannot recall. The Vendors contact numbers and web sites can be found on here. David if you do give this field a try, it is hard work, challenging, and fun. You can make a decent $ but you pay a price for it in wear and tear. Even those how have be in for a while can lose money on a storm or sit home praying for a phone call. We learn to live with the fact that it take a disaster to put us to work. Would most of do anything else. NO. |
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ALANJ
USA
159 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 08:55:28
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| We have talked about this over the years. We have all heard the excuses! But, gee there are people posting under fake screen names, who have no reason too. Does it make people feel more important to whip out the forked tounge when they use these names. I for one feel insulted. Someone ask a simple question and outcomes the mask advengers. Come on boys use your real name. Or are you ashamed of your post? And please do not respond to this with some two page lame excuse. Take credit or blame for your work. Just my humble opinion. |
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ChuckDeaton
USA
373 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2003 : 09:07:42
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Dirt, this person, GoodWorker, was a participant in/on "Chat" with Ms. "Cussette" Toll the other night and I made my standard offer as it relates to "Cat 101" haven't gotten a query as of this writing.
Also, I expressed my secret desire to work in the aerospace industry and live in California. Alas, no advice forthcoming on that front. |
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California Cert . Schools
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