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Stacy get into the archived files on this topic and read the last 5 years post.

The chance of you going to a pay for school and then getting into local day claims is about 1 in 1000. Also going to a school and working this year may only happen if a monster hurricane hits the USA before November. If you are in your twentys and have a 4 year degree apply to an insurance company who will train you for several years with pay days twice a month.

I learned alot from the classes at USStaffing. I don't regret taking them at all.

I have not to date received any day claims though. They don't promise them either though.

They don't even promise you will be on their roster after class.THey screen their adjusters while they are in class. I am on the roster but no work yet.

Crum & Forster would not have hired me as an Adjuster Trainee without my BBA from UNT. Farmers Insurance Group would not have hired me without the four-year degree. Firemans Fund Insurance Company would not let me work as a temporary employee without a four-year degree. I do not know any major company that will hire you as an Adjuster Trainee without a four-year degree.

Also there are very few IAs that work 9 or more months a year for one of the vendors. The first hurricane I worked as an IA was Ivan for two months. In the Montgomery, Alabama Cat Center there were no adjusters without a company adjusting background or experienced as an IA. The same vendor hired me to work Katrina and Wilma and that was for four months. During the first two weeks of Katrina there was 75 adjusters that quit and left the Cat Center I was working out of. If you get hired for a hurricane how do you feel about being kept out two months before you are sent home? I cannot pay my bills for a year or two on four months work.

I agree with Ray Hall when he stated that going to an Adjuster School and then being hired to do Day Claims are about 1 in 1,000.

Ranger,

No offense but I know 3 staff adjusters that all work for different companies. None have degrees.

They work for State Farm, Allstate, and The Hartford. As with most jobs, you just have to find a way to get your foot in the door

As a rule, the majors are requiring a degree. I have 12 years experience as an agent, and 5 years as an adjuster. I can get to the interview, but I'm usually beat out by a young college grad. But that is the world we live in today.

JWG

The main company that I get assignments from have four Claims Examiners and two have degrees. They were long time GAB adjusters before they went to work for this company. When I got my BBA I inteviewed with Allstate and The Hartford both of whom insisted I have a degree before the interview.

My first adjuster job was with Crum & Forster and I would estimate 75% did not have degrees and they were hired before the degree requirement went into effect. When I went to work for Farmers Insurance Group they had to have a copy of my college transcript before they would hireme. While at Farmers they hired an estimator from a large restoration contractor. As soon as this estimator got 80 claims behind - he quit.

While I was working for a large independent adjusting firm there was an adjuster that had eight years in the army and had been working State Farm assignments for two years for this IA firm. State Farm did make him an offer.

I do not know of anyone who paid for training (such as US Staffing) and did not have a degree and then was hired by a large P&C as a Staff Adjuster. I do know of a person that was a level 3 adjuster with Firemans Fund that started out as a policy typist 16 years ago and talked her way into becoming an adjuster traininee after four years.

I got out of claims for a while when I bought a disaster restoration franchise. There was one of the other franchise owners that had owned his business for 25 years and was in his late fifties or early sixties. When we had our Christmas Banquet he announced his date and said she worked for one of the P&C companies and he was selling his franchise to become a claim adjuster. I thought this man at his age did not stand a chance. He started riding, without pay, with a friend he had that owned a medium size IA firm in Dallas. He had been riding and learning with this friend when the California earthquake happened and I know he worked for at least two years in California.

You have competition from hundreds of adjusters that have nothing but hurricane Katrina experience and are wanting to work daily claims. If you have a friendship with one of the adjusters from State Farm, Allstate or The Hartford maybe they could help you get hired with their company.

I feel your pain! what to do or not to do! I would highly recommend you get as much free info on being a CAT adjuster, that's out there and don't pay 1,500 and no work prospect at all. I have a four year degree, four year military veteran and I have been to State Farm (3x) with one full interview and no job, Nationwide (4x interviews and no job), Allstate (I applied to about 5 different jobs and I just had a phone interview today).
I would encourage you to stay strong and keep applying. Go to the major carriers website and see what they have to offer. Allstate - http://www.allstate.com/careers/job-search.aspx Nationwide - http://www.nationwide.com/nw/career.../index.htm MSA - http://www.msagroup.com/joinourteam/ Progressive - http://jobs.progressive.com/ BOAT U.S. - http://ww2.boatus.com/employment/default2.asp METLIFE - http://www.metlife.com/Applications...61,00.html
Crawford & company - http://www.crawfordandcompany.com/ ZC Sterling - http://www.zcsterling.com/careers.asp hopefully this will get you started. If you need some more help let me know!

Well, alot of advice here. Some of it is true, I don't know about the rest. To answer your question Stacy, U.S. Staffing is a very good place to start if you are lookng at becomeing a CAT adjuster. Of course every school has it's ups and downs. They are very strong in the adjusting 101 department and have very knowledgable instructors, they are however lacking in the Xactimate deartment as most of those instructors are 1 year adjusters. Beware of any company that promises to put you to work or add you to their roster though. No one can promise you work unless they are getting plenty of work themselves. You might also try Claims University. They have a great adjuster boot camp. If you do take an Xactimate clas, be sure to take one that is longer than 2 days if Basic, or longer than 5 if basic and advance. I have written many CE certified courses for Xactimate and you can't teach much in only one or two days.

As far as daily claims are concerned, I am affraid that, unless you are already experienced, you probally will not be able to get any. I said probally because I know of someone that went through a school and is now working daily claims, amazing. As far as a staff position, I hate to say it, but some of the others are correct, with no experience, you better have a degree. Also if you get into CAT adjusting and later decide to get into a staff position, be sure your credit isnt crappy. As a CAT adjuster you will have your good years and your bad years and this could effect your credit. And though you may have all of the experience necessary and get them to look the other way on no degree, and yes they do this, if you have bad credit, forget it.

As far as using a staff position to train you to be a CAT adjuster, it doesn't work. Staff adjusters deal with bout 2 claims a day at most. They get to go home at the end of the day or work for home most of the time. They have days off and they get to see their family. A staff adjuster that comes into the CAT side, learns quickly that they are no longer in Kansas (even though they may be). I have trained staff adjusters who were coming into the CAT side, and some lasted and others didn't. There is a lot of preasure on a CAT adjuster and different rules apply. I am not saying that the staff training isn't benificial, I am just saying it is a diferent beast. Staff adjusters do have a little edge over those that have no experience whatsoever though, but they have to be able to unlearn some things and learn new.

Whatever you decide to do though, be sure to keep your money paying job for now caue it looks like another dry year for the newbies out there.