Posted By JHoward23 on 13 Aug 2010 02:48 PM
I just graduated college with an insurance degree, and got married 2 months ago....I have a few questions that I wanted to ask current adjusters. Are you away from home a lot, and for how long on average are you away from home? Are you gone 4 days out of the week, etc... And in a few years we plan on having children, any adjusters with families; how often do you see your children? Is the money worth the travel? I'm new to this and the amount of time spent away from home is a concern of mine.
I'm going to give you a little different perspective about traveling and CAT adjusting. This is the god's honest truth.
I've been in the industry for almost 25 years and started CAT adjusting in 1992. I worked so many CATs I can't even count anymore. I have NEVER and I mean NEVER been away from my home for more the 3 1/2 weeks at one time and that was immediately after Katrina when I went 3 1/2 weeks twice. I just closed my last Katrina file about six months ago and I live in NJ. For about two years straight, I worked in LA/MS for 4 days and was home for 4 days, like clockwork. I have three boys, all in their late teens/early twenties now and I have rarely missed an important event in their life. I coached baseball for about ten years and was a scoutleader until last year. Yes, I was the dad that traveled but with good planning and a focus on detail and expenses you can live a fairly normal life.
On average on any CAT, I am normally away from home about 2 weeks upon inital assignment and afterwards, I am home about once every 7 to 10 days for 3 to 4 days at a clip. Yes, I will work from home and I bust my hump when I'm onsite, but you can get home. I have excellent customer service skills, rarely if ever have a complaint and if I was a betting man, I'd wager my income is right up there with the best of them. I work by myself and when I'm at the CAT I rarely drink, party and carouse and I've never had or needed an assistant. My goal is to make as much money as possible. You just have to be able and willing to hop on a plane if necessary and incur the expenses of traveling back and forth. In most places of the country, you are but a 2 to 3 hour plane flight from home. You just have to learn to think of it as a car ride. Some people just don't want to fly.
I did this even when handwriting estimates in the early 90's and you also either had to visit or call into the CAT office for messages 3 or 4 times a day, or the CAT manager wanted to see your mug every day. Ten days into a CAT when he realizes you're a great adjuster, you're handing in 5 to 8 claims a day, he could care less whether you came into the office. His hands are full of guys that are sandbagging claims, haven't made first contacts or not returning calls to the customer. You wouldn't have to worry about any of that because electronic file transfer has eliminated those issues.
Not criticizing, but when I am onsite a CAT, I am always amazed to learn that someone hasn't been home for months. I met a man in Louisiana once who hadn't been home in five months and he lived in Houston. I thought that was sad. I couldn't do that and I'd chose another profession for sure.