It’s my opinion that we can’t click with everyone, but we can sure earn their respect. Everyone’s in this game for results. Respect your Storm Manager’s job, and earn his/her respect by showing results.

18 months ago, in October of 2009, aspiring claims adjuster Darren Moser did what everyone told him he couldn’t do – find a full-time job with no previous experience a full 13 months removed from any major storm. How did he do it? One word – Tenacity. But I’ll let him tell the story – here is Darren’s post from the Well-Adjusted Social Network 18 months ago…

If you’re looking for a fully interactive, instructor led Xactimate course but don’t want the expense and inconvenience of travel and lodging, I’d like to strongly encourage you to check out our newly developed LIVE Online Xactimate Training program.

Led by one of our dynamic team of Adjuster/Instructors, this 3 day (4 hours per day) program eliminates the frills and gets straight to the heart of high-impact Xactimate usage as a claims adjuster. Class size is small, typically 5 to 8 students, and is highly interactive and engaging. At the end of 12 hours you WILL have dramatically improved your Estimatics skill – a skill of absolute paramount importance to your success in the field.

If you’ve decided that you’re only taking a post with a six-figure salary handling lollipop residential property claims within 5 miles of your house in Harvey, North Dakota, you’re going to be a little frustrated by the lack of offers. Now, that’s an exaggeration, of course, but the reality is that many folks place far too many restrictions on what they’ll deign to do on their first assignment with the unfortunate consequence that they never receive a first assignment. Flexibility is key.

Like most folks (including myself at the beginning of the coaching process), he is not really sure what he wants, but he’s quite sure it’s different from what he’s got now. Most folks don’t really know what they want in life, I’ve found, and as a result end up getting more of what they don’t want than what they want. The beginning of the coaching process is the beginning of a serious attempt to answer the question “who the heck am I and what do I really want?” The answer to this question is really, really important

When I first got into CAT adjusting, I was completely new to the industry. My first storm manager gave me an ominous warning; “Adam, I’ve never fired a CAT adjuster, but I’ve seen many, many new adjusters fire themselves.” It didn’t take me long to figure out what he was talking about. CAT adjusting is fantastic, rewarding, challenging, lucrative work, but it’s not easy money. There are lots of skills to master, and it takes perseverance and character.

With an extremely high number of hurricanes having made landfall, Florida is historically the busiest state for catastrophic claims adjusting. Florida residents interested in working as a staff or independent claims adjuster must first obtain the Florida adjuster license. Non-residents of Florida considering a career in catastrophic claims, particularly residents of states not requiring an adjuster license, should strongly consider obtaining a non-resident license in the “hurricane state”. Follow these 3 steps to obtain and maintain your adjuster license in Florida: