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Edward at this time many people with years of experience are looking for work. Your chance of working will have to wait until a major weather event requires new people.

Welcome to the business, however i hope you have banked alot of money,or still have your day job because w/o experience all you can do is be patient and hope a major catastrophe hits and some carrier or vendor will start receiving more loss notices than they have adjusters and call upon you. As Ray has stated it is a slow season, as was last year, and there are adjusters with 20+ years of experience looking for work. If they are currently searching for work you likely dont stand a chance on getting any with it being slow, and having no experience. Hopefully next year will be completely the oposite and lucrative for everyone.

You have received some very good (and kind) advice, Edward.  It wasn't all that long ago, that you would have had many many responses within moments admonishing you for not reading prior posts and archives to find your own answer.  However, the traffic on this site, and other adjusting web sites, has slowed to a crawl.  That should give you some idea of work opportunities (or lack thereof) for the new as well as the old.  If you haven't already, go to the archives.  That will keep you very busy, in some instances entertain you, and likely tell you more than you ever wanted to know.  

You will find advice and opinions from newbie adjusters(who disappeared in '06 and have not posted in many months), contractors/teachers/preachers turned adjusters(many of whom have not posted in many months) , life-long adjusters that still have their wits about them (some of whom still post here & there, including me depending on your opinion as to whether I still have my wits about me , and other experienced adjusters that fall into the categore like Clint Eastwood said about detectives in The Line of Fire: "borderline burnouts with questionable social skills" (maybe this includes me). 

Like you were told, have a good stash of cash laid away, if you decide to do this on an IA basis.  A salaried staff job would be your best bet to begin with.  

THANK YOU EVERY BODY FOR THE ADVICE.  I READ SOME OF THE ARCHIVES I GUESS I WAS HOPING FOR A DIFFERENT RESPONSE.  THE SCHOOLS YOU GO TO TO GET YOUR LICENSE AND CERTIFICATIONS FAIL TO EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT IT IS THIS HARD TO FIND EMPLOYMENT.  AGAIN THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP. IF ANYONE COMES UP WITH SOME WORK AND THEY NEED AN APPRENTICE PLEASE KEEP ME IN MIND.

Its been so long since there was a call out, I had to sell half my wits to eat.  Mind you many claim I never had more then half of them to start with. Personality disorders are a giveme for anyone who wants to leave home for 6 months and work 12 hours a day. 

Peter,

How much are they paying for "wits' these days?  Might be a good thing to know, but I'm afraid that mine might go at about the price of Ramin noodles! (grin)

~M~

The training schools provide a service, but they're not going to tell you how hard it is to get into the business, if they did they all would probably be out of business.  Also be aware of those schools/vendors advertising that "If you take our class, we will put you to work". I'm sure for a few, this is true. But for many,  they are just $600.00 more in the hole.  When I first got my license, it took me a good year to get some work.  Usually it takes major catastrophe event before a newbe can get work.  When you do get work, do your best and hopefully they will remember you for the next one.    Anyone who wants to get into this business and who is not independently wealthy, I reccomend that you don't quit your day job.

Welcome to the next roller coaster ride. We were very busy 2004- early 2006, then very slow except for a core group of adjusters who managed to stay on the "A" list.

Some of these catastrophe vendors you will be applying for have 4,000 people on their list of adjusters and that is an actual quote from the #3 size vendor, not the biggest one.

Get some daily claims under your belt, and learn the estimating software by using it daily.