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If you're tired of contracting and want a hard working job with a period off, try substitute school teaching, or being a fire watcher in a National Forest out west, or local politics.

Or, could it be you want in for the gold in the pot at the end of the rainbow? Aahh! Well, just so you know, chasing us Leprechauns ain't easy nor should it be easy. It takes a little something we like to call, 'Paying ones dues!'

Sonny, boy, it took me a lot of years and specific effort and training to go up the adjusting career ladder. It should take you and any one else the same. By being brusque here, I am actually doing you a great favor. As other distinguished souls on these forums have advised, it's best not to have a brain surgeon work on you whose only training and experience is that he/she had a good nights sleep at some over priced motel.

Please, come back and see us after you have worked as a company staff adjustor for about 5 years, then a local staff independent for another 3 years, and then has a self employed local independent for 4 years. Then, you will have gone a long way towards paying your dues to properly join our ranks.

If you or anyone else out there is offended by this advice or my 'tone', Good! That means the message is sinking in and will stay in your brains long enough to fester into positive action, one way or the other.

Ol' Ghost

David,

Wow! I'm thinking poor Ol' Ghost got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. :)

You've got a good background to break in to cat adjusting. Also, your post consists of complete sentences, good spelling and punctuation! Wonder of wonders! Beyond that you have to be generally computer literate, know one or more of the estimating programs, have a good working knowledge of insurance policies, and be able to handle the insureds. You have to be free and willing to travel and to go months without pay.

What you need is some training, a license and a cat. Yes, you'll be a rookie begging for a job. But if the cat's big enough you'll be deployed. Go to pilotcat.com and take a look at their online info and application.

Good luck,

David

Again, if you had paid some dues, you'd know that true adjusters are not Gods, nor Angels. We are more like the clean up squad at the end of the elephant and horse parade with the shovels and brooms. When the Diety has a hissy fit and drops a load of hail, or points a finger of destruction, (Tornado), at a trailer park, or gets really irritated with the egos of California again and shakes the siding off the walls, that's where we start driving before the dust settles.

Can you be a Priest without being ordained first? No. Can you be school teacher without getting a degree and a teaching certificate? No. Can you be barber without a state license? Not where I live you can't.

Please, if you have the ambition, go forth at the start of the yellow brick road in Munchkin Land. It's a longer way to OZ than you think and there's always an evil witch out there to test your resolve.

Oh, and by the way, I don't sleep in a bed anymore, haven't in about 6 years.

Ol' Ghost

Posted By Ol' Ghost on 03 Mar 2009 12:50 PM
............. Oh, and by the way, I don't sleep in a bed anymore, haven't in about 6 years.

Ol' Ghost  

So, in what have you been sleeping those six  years  or so? That might  shed some light on the development of your advice to the prospective entrant to the industry.  I do hope you realize that no amount of discouraging will keep new folks becoming adjusters. It's a fact of life that folks will always be coming into and leaving the industry.  Anybody that has done what David has done should be encouraged with the usual cautionary facts/statements.  Is adjusting the easiest field to make money in?  Definitely not. Is it the most difficult and unforgiving?  Not at all.  To each industry its own pros and cons. 

David,
You have a good start at being an adjuster. You lack policy interpretation, which can be tricky because even vendors differ on what their policies cover at a particular disaster. I have only been in the business a short time, but have a great mentor. Besides knowing policies, he is an expert in Xactimate & MS/B IntegriClaim. If he can't solve a problem, then it can't be solved. He also has his hand on the pulse of the industry. I have avoided the pitfalls that alot of new adjusters encounter. He has advised me which vendors are having problems. He claims that is how he started in the business. And before you ask, he told me he only mentors people he knows.

My advice is to find an experience adjuster willing to take the time to mentor you through all aspects of adjusting. There are several good adjusters that post on this website. There are several that are good at blowing their own horns. Choose wisely.

Now, now, Larry. We must always coddle these children with their delicate male egos. Our great truths should be couched in the form of a kiddie book like, 'Curious George', or 'Polly Pig and the Bee', or a personal reference favorite, 'My First Picture Dictionary'. (' See the DOG? He will bite you.' 'See the box of DOUGHNUTS? They will make you fat.' 'See the CLAIMS MANAGER? She will fire you if there is no Statement of Loss in the file.')

Yes, that wonderful oh-so delicate contractors male ego! I see it all the time out here in the field. Driving around in the dually, diesel, King Ranch Ford crew cab pickup with the bumper guard, littering the road with all the crap falling overboard as he bounces over the chug holes and curbs. The master in his domain.

Then, his world comes crashing down around his head. First thing to pop into that brain is...Is...IS, I wanna be an ADJUSTER! "Well, HELLS-BELLS", he thinks, "I kin write an estimate, I know all there is to know about construction. Why, those dumb ol' insurance companies must be plain desparate to hire the likes of me. That's what I'll do, I'll be one of them storm trooper guys that make all that money, then disappear." He sends in his $299.00 plus three boxtops from a Cracker-Jack box for his Texas Adjusters Licence, throws the ironing board, plush office chair, and ladder in the back of the truck, then annonces to the Celestial Universe, "I Am READY!"

So, here you are. Ready for brain surgery, yet all you can do is open the aspirin bottle. Please, Ladies and Gentle Men, it does take a few things extra to achieve the level of expertise for what we do out in the world. Being a storm trooper, or as some with more sensetive feelings would intone, catastrophe adjusters really is supposed to be the pinnacle of the adjusting profession. We are where the most experienced and broadly seasoned folks have risen. Granted, in the big wipeout storms, even the slightly decomposed deceased are hired by the Pilots and Eberls and Crawfords and Pasco's. And as quickly, they are reinterred. It is we who have earned the credentials that are the last to leave the storm and among the first to be invited to the next storm.

That is where I want you to be. Yes, mean Ol' Ghost is not off hand rejecting you. Ol' Ghost does care about you. But, Ol' Ghost and all the other seasoned folks want you to succeed the proper way. When you succeed the right way, we all benefit.

Ol' Ghost

You guys are a hoot! You don't have anything useful to say, but I enjoy how you say it!

I've done a number of things in my life, and they all went better or would have gone better with a mentor. To suggest that it's somehow more noble or manly to figure things out on your own without help is ridiculous. I frequently suggest newbies get on with Pilot because they provide a lot of support. If they can't figure out how to do the job even with all that help they won't get called back. Some other newbie will be there in his place at the next cat. But at least they got a fair chance to succeed.

Even though this website is called, "CatAdjuster" it's overpopulated with guys spouting vile negativity at anyone that wants to be a catadjuster! Sure, tell 'em it's harder than they think, but to call them a 'whiner' because they're looking for a little advice is not what I'd expect from an oldtimer with 577 posts.

OK - I've got to go back to work. I'm still cleaning up newbie messes. Maybe with a mentor they wouldn't have done such a bad job?

 

The first recorded modern usage of the term can be traced to a book entitled "Les Aventures de Telemaque", by the French writer François Fénelon^[3] In the book the lead character is that of Mentor. This book was published in 1699 and was very popular during the 18th century and the modern application of the term can be traced to this publication.^[3]

This is the source of the modern use of the word mentor: a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person. Some professions have "mentoring programs" in which newcomers are paired with more experienced people in order to obtain good examples and advice as they advance, and schools sometimes have mentoring programs for new students or students who are having difficulties.

It is disappointing at times to see some of the responses on this forum. Somebody justs asks a sincere and legitimate question and they get these riduculous comments. Many adjusters I know used to be contractors and visa versa. My best advise is to leave your ego back where you found it. Cat work requires the ultimate in professionalism and the same should be shown on this forum. Save your sarcasm and jokes for personal emails. Knowledge of building is 1/2 of the process, knowledge of insurance is the other. Which did you start with? I personally learned as much from contractors in my early years as I did from all the classes and books that they give you to make you proficient in this business. Work a big cat and you will learn that compassion and listening will be a couple of your most valuable skills. Many people stray from this forum for this very reason. I wonder where many of you would be had someone not answered your questions. And to Mr. Contractor, the business of restoration is a far cry from new construction and remodeling. Go to work for a restoration contractor and do everything possible to learn everything you can about insurance coverage. Good luck

Posted By vallerih on 31 Mar 2009 06:30 PM 
Many adjusters I know used to be contractors and visa versa. 

Instead of being disappointed, maybe we should recognize that this is just more of the same old same old.  A lot of these same inquiries either get ignored for a few days, or somebody pipes up & tells the initial poster to go to the archives and read the hundreds of posts about "getting started".    This time around, though, it garnered a few responses.  If someone is offended by a little sarcasm and joking, what can be said for their compassion and listening skills.  

You know Bob,you are always the utmost professional. You readily share your knowledge on this site. I always enjoy reading your posts even though I don't respond much. Many kudos to you. You have got it and don't have the ego to go with it. Keep on going on, my brother!

A mentor can be, maybe should be, a willing trusted teacher, but a mentor might also be an unwilling teacher. Tony Robbins calls them models. Some of my mentors are totally unaware of their mentorship. I watch them; I learn. A man can teach another to fish by showing him how to bait a hook...or he might just fish and try to hide his best trick...but he can't fool all the people all the time. Sooner or later he'll give up his secret.

Randy Cox

Posted By vallerih on 01 Apr 2009 09:27 PM
You know Bob,you are always the utmost professional. You readily share your knowledge on this site. I always enjoy reading your posts even though I don't respond much. Many kudos to you. You have got it and don't have the ego to go with it. Keep on going on, my brother!