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One foot in with one foot out gives you a super-slim chance of getting work in Texas. Texas currently has way too many adjusters clawing their way for a chance at just doing daily work. You may want to change your objective if you really want to do daily claims.

Good luck.

Just a thought.................

Get back with SF and Allstate and see if you can get on their staffy storm team. Also, Pilot uses cat adjusters for all kinds of work with Allstate: vacation relief in branch offices, daily claims where there is a "surge" not big enough to be called a storm, all kinds of deployments.

Happy Trails

I am one of the very few that has a full time daily claims job and also works CATs. I work for an independent in Southern California but was allowed to leave my job to work Ike, Sandy, Irene, and the Christchurh NZ earthquake. I have also worked numerous California wildfires as part of my regular job. I worked Katrina before staring this job. I have been blessed to do CATs because sometimes we are slow and the claims get divided between one less adjuster if I leave for a CAT. I doubt if there are many job situations like mine and I am the only person in my company to do it. Certainly I can't imagine it would have been well received if I had asked for it when I first interviewed but now that I have left a few times my boss is used to it.

Most companies are going to want you to do one or the other.

The skill set and especially the culture are very different. My coworker is a fine adjuster and we consider him the "senior" adjuster because of his professionalism and attention to detail. One of our carriers asks for him by name, and really doesn't want anyone else handling their claims. He is a former staff adjuster for a large carrier. He routinely handles daily claims over $500k, as I do. He tried to do some Sandy claims and threw in the towel. He just couldn't adjust to the different way of doing things.

If you read my comments on these forums, you might think my way of looking at things is strange. I might go into great detail about why a BB gun shooting a window is excluded under a DP1 form but a gunshot is covered. You might think I have a legalistic approach. You would be right- that's how daily claims adjusters with more than two years of experience do their jobs. Daily claims adjusters with less experience have a supervisor to analyze that for them. As a daily claim adjuster I write denial letters, fight with the DMV to get a driver's address, take recorded statements, go to small claims court, sit in depositions, look up insurance regulations, and write subrogation demand letters. I routinely hire experts but I usually get to pick them myself.

As a CAT adjuster I get dirtier but see less fires. I take fewer recorded statements but the stories I hear are sadder. Instead of driving by places I know, I am driving to places I have never been. I do less adjusting but more estimating. Instead of files with 14 reports that take a year, I am doing 14 reports due yesterday. Instead of asking my secretary to make coffee, I have the police are knocking on the door of my motel looking for a previous resident.

It really is two different worlds.

My boss told me when I was hired that he normally wouldn't hire somebody who didn't have staff experience. One reason he mentioned for hiring me is that I can spell. I think another reason might be I mailed a thank you note the same day of my interview.

But when I work CATs I am likely to have a file examiner that thinks I am an idiot. In some ways they are probably right. This business really requires a lot of humility.

If you recognize that most CAT adjusters could not handle daily claims and most daily claims adjusters could not handle CAT claims you will be much further along in understanding what you need to know.

Most daily claim companies would be very leery of hiring someone with 100% CAT experience, for good reason. You have to give them a reason to give you a chance.

I think if you take the approach "I know a lot about estimating for insurance claims, but I don't know anything about daily claims" you will be far more likely to get a job offer.

Also you can explain that you sold your motorcycle and bad weather makes your arthritis act up, and furthermore you never want to go on a CAT again. That would make you more attractive to a daily claim company.