Latest / The Art of Adjusting® Podcast / Episode #8 - Where Do I Start?

Transcript

Episode #8 - Where Do I Start? · The Art of Adjusting® Podcast

• 0:14
  William Auten: Hello and welcome to the Daily Claims Podcast where we talk about life as an insurance adjuster from the perspective of property, auto, liability, and workers' compensation adjusters.
• 0:25
  William Auten: My goal is to bring interesting topics in the world of claims to people who are working as an adjuster now and to people who are considering a career as a claims adjuster.
• 0:33
  William Auten: Now, that last category of individuals is going to be targeted in this talk today.
• 0:38
  William Auten: We're going to be talking about how to get started and how to find a mentor.
• 0:43
  William Auten: If you're interested in getting into the claims business, the reason I'm covering both of these topics is because over the past week I've gotten so many questions on how to get started and where to find a mentor.
• 0:53
  William Auten: So that's what we're going to cover today.
• 0:55
  William Auten: So where do you start?
• 0:57
  William Auten: Well, I think the first thing that you should do is assess your own skills to see if they align with the job of a claims adjuster.
• 1:04
  William Auten: And what I'll do is outline some of the skills that you need.
• 1:08
  William Auten: And then I'm going to give you a list of skills that you may have that may already align with the role as a claims adjuster.
• 1:15
  William Auten: So I've always regarded this job as actually kind of easy to do.
• 1:20
  William Auten: It's not terribly complicated.
• 1:22
  William Auten: If you can read and understand maybe a contract, that's going to be an important skill set.
• 1:27
  William Auten: If you can communicate by a written word well, you'll go far because a lot of this job is being able to communicate what the damage is or how someone was hurt or how someone caused an accident.
• 1:39
  William Auten: And being able to verbalize that in writing is a very important skill set.
• 1:43
  William Auten: Another important skill set is the ability to dig and ask questions, to find out what happened as an adjuster.
• 1:50
  William Auten: You're confronted with people who are sometimes dishonest, and you got to get to the bottom of what they're alleging to find out if they're being truthful.
• 1:57
  William Auten: So skills in taking statements from people to ask the right questions are also appropriate.
• 2:03
  William Auten: You have to be a little tech savvy in the claims business.
• 2:06
  William Auten: These days, you have to be able to conduct recorded statements.
• 2:09
  William Auten: You have to be familiar with taking good photographs.
• 2:12
  William Auten: You have to be able to measure and sketch a room or a roof.
• 2:15
  William Auten: You need to be able to prepare an estimate if you want to be a property adjuster.
• 2:19
  William Auten: If you want to work on the auto side on collision estimates, you'll have to have some skills there.
• 2:25
  William Auten: A lot of the skills that most people learn in high school and college are readily transferable to the claims business.
• 2:30
  William Auten: So if you've had to learn and do homework and work on deadlines to pass tests, then you're probably gonna do okay as a claims adjuster.
• 2:39
  William Auten: Now it's not always fun in games.
• 2:41
  William Auten: Claims adjusting can be stressful, particularly when there are a lot of claims and you're under pressure to get them done quickly.
• 2:49
  William Auten: You'll also be under pressure when someone thinks that you're being unfair to them, even if you're just following the rules of the policy.
• 2:55
  William Auten: So there can be a lot of mental stress associated with dealing with angry policyholders or angry claimants who may disagree with your assessment of the loss or the damage or the injuries, or if you're working as an independent adjuster, that would be the decision of maybe your client as the insurance carrier.
• 3:13
  William Auten: So now I'm gonna go over some professions and describe to you how I see them fitting into a job as a claims adjuster.
• 3:20
  William Auten: For the first one, if you have a construction background either in the field or in the office producing estimates, you're probably gonna make a pretty good property adjuster because you'll know how buildings go together.
• 3:32
  William Auten: You are going to know how to create an estimate and you should have a pretty good sense of what things cost in terms of labor hours and materials.
• 3:41
  William Auten: On the flip side, if you're in the construction industry and work in the safety aspect of that business, you might make a good liability adjuster and be able to investigate construction site accidents, which is something that we do a lot at my company.
• 3:55
  William Auten: So, how about a law enforcement background?
• 3:58
  William Auten: Over the years I've gotten a lot of inquiries from police officers or retired police officers who want to get into the claims game.
• 4:04
  William Auten: They happen to make pretty good liability adjusters.
• 4:07
  William Auten: I know some that are property adjusters too, but they make good liability adjusters because they're used to asking hard questions to get to the bottom of things, especially when they think someone is not being truthful and they know or they should know some of the laws that are applicable, and as an adjuster, you often have to deal with statutes that affect liability and coverage.
• 4:26
  William Auten: So that's why I think a law enforcement background is a good background for a liability adjuster.
• 4:32
  William Auten: Now, anybody who has a medical or a nursing background would be a good fit for a liability adjuster because you'll be able to assess the injuries associated with a claim.
• 4:41
  William Auten: At my firm, we often use nurse reviewers who are able to take medical records and create what we call a nurse chronology.
• 4:48
  William Auten: And what they'll do is they'll go through the medical records and arrange them chronologically from start to finish and summarize what these medical records are saying.
• 4:56
  William Auten: Medical records can be pretty confusing sometimes.
• 4:59
  William Auten: So to have a medical professional review those and summarize those is incredibly valuable for a liability adjuster.
• 5:06
  William Auten: So if you are a nurse or have some medical background, you could do the nurse reviews, or you could dip your toe in the water and become a liability adjuster and investigate these claims yourself.
• 5:16
  William Auten: So how about a paralegal?
• 5:17
  William Auten: A paralegal is actually a great candidate for a liability adjuster because you will have some sense of the legal process.
• 5:23
  William Auten: You'll have some sense of the claim process, particularly if you worked in an office that dealt with injury claims, and that's primarily what we do.
• 5:31
  William Auten: We handle liability claims, both property damage and injury claims.
• 5:35
  William Auten: We actually use a management system that's designed for use by law firms because what we do is so similar to what law firms do in terms of file management.
• 5:43
  William Auten: Now we don't do any filing of legal motions, we don't appear in court unless we're called to testify, and we don't actually legally defend anybody, but we do represent insurance carriers in the capacity of an insurance adjuster.
• 5:56
  William Auten: But as I said, the management of those files is very similar to the way a law firm handles it.
• 6:01
  William Auten: So a paralegal would be a great fit for a liability adjuster.
• 6:04
  William Auten: So how about a notary?
• 6:06
  William Auten: Somebody with a background as a notary would be a good candidate for an adjusting job as well.
• 6:10
  William Auten: My friend Soleil Devine from TikTok came into the business after being a notary.
• 6:15
  William Auten: I believe she probably still is a notary, and actually having your notary as an adjuster is a very valuable attribute because you can notarize documents that need to be signed by policyholders or claimants.
• 6:26
  William Auten: Becoming a notary means that you have to pass a written test, which means that you'll have to study the laws regarding notaries.
• 6:33
  William Auten: And if you can do that and accomplish that task, then you'll probably do well as an adjuster.
• 6:39
  William Auten: Studying for an adjuster's license and obtaining that license will come easier for you.
• 6:44
  William Auten: Now, anyone who considers themselves a writer, either an author of books or a writer of blogs or news articles, would be a great candidate for an adjuster as well.
• 6:53
  William Auten: And the reason for that is that communication skills are extremely important in this job.
• 6:58
  William Auten: So if you're a good writer and you have good grammar skills and proofreading skills, then a job as a claims adjuster might be a good one for you.
• 7:04
  William Auten: Now this tracks with the next career that I'll talk about, which will include anybody who has a news or media background.
• 7:11
  William Auten: For similar reasons to a professional writer, you would be able to communicate a story to the public or to the masses in a way that creates interest and gets the facts across accurately.
• 7:21
  William Auten: That would tell me that a job as a claims adjuster might be good for you.
• 7:25
  William Auten: And that kind of skill set applies to just about any role as an adjuster.
• 7:29
  William Auten: You have to be able to communicate both to the people you're reporting to and with policyholders, agents, attorneys, contractors, and whoever else you may be dealing with on that claim.
• 7:39
  William Auten: You'll have to write a lot of letters.
• 7:40
  William Auten: In my job, we write letters every day.
• 7:43
  William Auten: We send tons of letters out and they have to look good.
• 7:45
  William Auten: They have to read properly, they have to have good grammar.
• 7:48
  William Auten: If you have a skill set that involves a background in the news or media, you'll probably make a pretty good adjuster.
• 7:55
  William Auten: So let's talk about photographers.
• 7:57
  William Auten: So photography and video are both great skills to have as a claims adjuster because, and this is especially if you're an independent, your job is going to be to tell the story to the insurance company and a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
• 8:10
  William Auten: Well, how about video?
• 8:12
  William Auten: That's pretty valuable too.
• 8:13
  William Auten: And if you have skills in those areas, you'll go a long way to becoming a good, reliable insurance adjuster because good photos, and I'm kind of an amateur photographer myself, good photos go a long way to impress your clients.
• 8:26
  William Auten: So let's talk about accounting skills.
• 8:28
  William Auten: If you have any accounting background, a job as a property adjuster will likely be a pretty good job for you.
• 8:33
  William Auten: And here's the reason why.
• 8:35
  William Auten: On commercial policies, there's a provision that pays for business income losses.
• 8:39
  William Auten: Those losses require a review of a profit and loss statement and all of the financials of that business in order to determine how the policy will react on a coverage level to that loss.
• 8:50
  William Auten: When a business income loss becomes very complicated, and some of them do, we will sometimes hire what we call a forensic accountant.
• 8:57
  William Auten: This will be a CPA who has a background in business accounting and investigative accounting.
• 9:02
  William Auten: We'll use them if we believe that a policyholder may be attempting to make a fraudulent claim or if there is a lack of business records to substantiate the loss, maybe because they were lost in a fire, for example.
• 9:14
  William Auten: So if you have an accounting background, it's very likely that you could be placed into a position where all you do is handle business income losses, and that can be a very interesting job.
• 9:23
  William Auten: One of the things I love most about property claims on the commercial side is being able to review the business financials of a policy holder to actually see how they operate, and then to be able to work on a way to replace the income that they lost because of a fire or flood or whatever.
• 9:38
  William Auten: So now let's talk about the automobile business.
• 9:41
  William Auten: If you have a background in automobile repair, then an auto claims job might be a good fit for you because you'll know how to build an estimate to repair an auto and you'll know how to evaluate a total loss to a vehicle.
• 9:54
  William Auten: And when it comes to the automobile industry, don't discount automobile salespeople.
• 9:59
  William Auten: If you're in sales, and this kind of goes for any sales job, not just automobile sales, but if you have skills as a salesperson, you will likely be able to read people fairly well.
• 10:10
  William Auten: You'll probably be able to empathize with people and communicate with them in a way that is amenable.
• 10:15
  William Auten: And that's an important skill set.
• 10:17
  William Auten: We talk in this business a lot about soft skills and how you treat other people that you're working with, even when they're adversarial to you.
• 10:24
  William Auten: As an example, because we handle liability claims, we're dealing with a policyholder on one side and a claimant on the other side.
• 10:31
  William Auten: Now, those two individuals are adverse to each other.
• 10:33
  William Auten: The claimant is making a claim against the policyholder, blaming them for an injury or property damage.
• 10:39
  William Auten: As the adjuster, you're the person in the middle, and you have to balance that relationship.
• 10:43
  William Auten: So now let's talk about agriculture.
• 10:46
  William Auten: There's a type of adjuster called a crop adjuster.
• 10:48
  William Auten: A crop adjuster handles claims that occur under a crop insurance policy.
• 10:53
  William Auten: This type of policy is purchased by agricultural producers and farms, and it's subsidized by the federal government.
• 10:59
  William Auten: It protects these farms against losses to their crops from natural disasters such as hail, drought, floods, or even the loss of revenue due to declines in the prices of agricultural commodities.
• 11:11
  William Auten: So if you have a background in farming, a job as a crop adjuster could be a good fit for you.
• 11:15
  William Auten: In fact, I know a lot of people who are crop adjusters and farmers at the same time.
• 11:20
  William Auten: So now let's talk about people who have a background in heavy equipment.
• 11:23
  William Auten: This is similar to auto, but if you have a background in maybe heavy iron equipment like loaders, skid steers, cranes, those pieces of equipment get damaged.
• 11:31
  William Auten: And when they're damaged, they need to be repaired, and if they're insured, then a claim will be made and that will have to be adjusted.
• 11:38
  William Auten: An appraisal of the damage will need to be conducted, and I can tell you here in New York there is definitely a shortage of heavy equipment appraisers in New York State.
• 11:46
  William Auten: I would also suggest that because these claims don't happen very often, a good heavy equipment appraiser could probably carry on that job as maybe a second job to supplement their income.
• 11:57
  William Auten: The other skill that you may have if you deal with heavy equipment or over-the-road trucking is that you might make a good liability adjuster or risk manager that deals with accidents that happen involving tractor trailers.
• 12:08
  William Auten: When I first started my career, that was a big component of my job to investigate large tractor trailer claims that would involve scene inspections.
• 12:16
  William Auten: So we'd be on call and actually we'd have to go to the scene of the accident and monitor cleanup efforts.
• 12:22
  William Auten: We would assist with making sure that the driver was not only safe, but that they were also tested for drug and alcohol use as soon as possible after the accident.
• 12:31
  William Auten: So if you have a background in heavy equipment, a job as a claims adjuster might be a good fit.
• 12:35
  William Auten: So let's talk about aviation.
• 12:37
  William Auten: Airplanes are big, expensive things and they get damaged too, and they have insurance policies on them.
• 12:42
  William Auten: And when a claim is made, someone who has expertise in the repair or cost evaluation of an aircraft is an important skill set.
• 12:50
  William Auten: Planes also get in accidents, and if you have an FAA license of any kind, you'll probably be pretty good at determining how to assess why an accident occurred.
• 12:59
  William Auten: Now the FAA and TSA will both investigate accidents and issue reports on those accidents, but if you have a background in aviation, you'll know the proper channels to go through to get those reports and to assess who may actually be at fault for an aviation accident.
• 13:13
  William Auten: Now, this might be a little unrelated, but kind of related in that drones are becoming more popular in the claims business, both for the inspection of roofs and the inspection of loss sites of various types.
• 13:25
  William Auten: So if you have skills as a drone operator and you're licensed to properly operate that drone, you might make a good adjuster, both on the property side and the liability side.
• 13:34
  William Auten: So now let's talk about real estate.
• 13:36
  William Auten: I've had a lot of realtors ask about becoming an insurance adjuster, and I think it'd be a great fit because you know a lot about homes, about their values, and you probably would make a very good property claims adjuster.
• 13:48
  William Auten: As I said, with auto salespeople, you would have those soft skills as well, and those are necessary in the claims business.
• 13:55
  William Auten: The last career I have here on my list is home inspections.
• 13:58
  William Auten: If you're doing home inspections now, your job is actually very similar to the job of a property adjuster because you know you're going to a property, you're documenting what you see, and you're issuing a report about what you see.
• 14:11
  William Auten: And if you're good at issuing those types of reports and you can be trained to write damage estimates, you'd make a great property adjuster.
• 14:17
  William Auten: So that segment of this talk hopefully will warm people up to the idea that claims adjusting can be a career that is suitable for a wide variety of people.
• 14:26
  William Auten: And if you feel the same way based on what I just said about those careers, the next step for you is going to be to look at training.
• 14:33
  William Auten: Because while claims adjusting isn't impossible to learn, you still have some training behind you.
• 14:39
  William Auten: So you have to understand what to do on the job.
• 14:43
  William Auten: When I started in 1996, getting that training was very difficult.
• 14:46
  William Auten: You had to self-study, you had to go find books and you had to read them, study them, and then take the state exam to get licensed.
• 14:53
  William Auten: Training was also available through some larger training schools, one being Vail, that's V-A-L-E training centers.
• 15:00
  William Auten: I think they had three locations, one in Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that is, and they had one in Tyler, Texas, and I'm not sure where the third one was.
• 15:10
  William Auten: I may have been mistaken.
• 15:11
  William Auten: It may have been only two.
• 15:13
  William Auten: Crawford and Company, they're a large independent adjusting firm, they also had their own training program.
• 15:18
  William Auten: And some of the other independent firms would also have their programs too.
• 15:23
  William Auten: And of course, insurance carriers would sometimes have their own internal training, but a lot of them actually sent their people to the Vail training centers, and that's where I got my training.
• 15:32
  William Auten: Now, most, if not all, of the students at a school like Vail would have been sent there by their employer, and the bill would have been paid by their employer.
• 15:41
  William Auten: When I was there in my program, I remember there was one guy who was footing his own bill, and I always wondered how he made out.
• 15:47
  William Auten: And he was taking, as I recall, all of the courses that they offered the property, liability, auto, and I think workers comp.
• 15:55
  William Auten: So if you're out there listening and you were at Vail in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1996, and you were the guy that footed your own bill, get in touch with me.
• 16:03
  William Auten: I'd love to see how you're doing today.
• 16:05
  William Auten: So today things are a little bit different.
• 16:07
  William Auten: Vail still offers training, Crawford still offers training, and a large number of insurance companies and independent adjusters offer training for their employees.
• 16:17
  William Auten: But the internet has exploded with training opportunities for adjusters.
• 16:21
  William Auten: Our own website, adjustermanuals.com, offers several training modules, and we're constantly adding to those training modules.
• 16:28
  William Auten: So go there and check that out.
• 16:30
  William Auten: Our goal is to design training that can take someone from zero to a claims job and everything in between.
• 16:36
  William Auten: And then once people are actually employed as adjusters, we hope to be able to offer training that will help them advance their careers as well.
• 16:44
  William Auten: When it comes to training, one of the biggest recommendations that I can make is to visit a website called the Institutes, all one word, dot org.
• 16:52
  William Auten: That's the institutes.org.
• 16:55
  William Auten: This is the organization that offers the CPCU, which is widely regarded as one of the premier designations in the entire insurance industry, not just the claims business, but the entire industry.
• 17:06
  William Auten: That course is pretty intense.
• 17:08
  William Auten: There are several modules that you would have to study, and the exams are known to be very difficult, particularly the legal aspects of claims and the financial accounting part of the CPCU.
• 17:19
  William Auten: Both those seem to have a reputation as being the hardest, and I can attest to that because I am also a CPCU.
• 17:25
  William Auten: So that's kind of the top of the food chain when it comes to education in the insurance business, to my mind.
• 17:30
  William Auten: I'm not suggesting that you start there.
• 17:32
  William Auten: In fact, I would not tackle the CPCU until you've had at least five years in the business, or maybe three, to start your education with the institutes.
• 17:41
  William Auten: And if you do want to become a claims adjuster, I would recommend either the AINS, which is kind of an insurance primer.
• 17:48
  William Auten: It basically goes over all the fundamentals of the insurance business, how insurance is sold, how it is packaged, how it delivers on claims, both on the first party side and the third party side.
• 17:59
  William Auten: It talks about what agents do, what brokers do, and it's a really good underlying course.
• 18:05
  William Auten: I do recommend it, but it's not necessary.
• 18:07
  William Auten: So the AINS is probably the lowest entry-level class that you can take at the institutes.
• 18:13
  William Auten: If you're looking for a career in claims, I definitely recommend the AIC.
• 18:17
  William Auten: The AIC is the Associate in Claims.
• 18:20
  William Auten: So the AIC is geared only toward claims people or potential claims people, and it consists of two core courses that give you the basics of how to handle claims and then one elective course.
• 18:31
  William Auten: And you can choose that course to be focused on auto, liability, property, or workers' compensation.
• 18:36
  William Auten: And then there's finally the ethics part of the AIC course as well.
• 18:41
  William Auten: So in total, that makes four courses.
• 18:43
  William Auten: I believe I obtained mine in 1999 or 2000 and I got it done basically in two years.
• 18:49
  William Auten: The CPCU took a lot longer because there's a lot more courses and yeah, life got in the way.
• 18:54
  William Auten: So I finally got my CPCU in 2012.
• 18:57
  William Auten: And just so you know, CPCU stands for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter.
• 19:02
  William Auten: Now, if you were to take my advice on all of those available training components, you're going to be a really good spot to obtain a job as a claims adjuster.
• 19:10
  William Auten: Those courses are not free, you're going to have to pay for them, but you don't have to pay for them all at once.
• 19:15
  William Auten: So you don't have to sink five or ten thousand dollars into your education right away.
• 19:19
  William Auten: This can be done over time.
• 19:21
  William Auten: If you get some basic training under your belt and get employed, your employer will probably pay for the remainder of your training.
• 19:27
  William Auten: So at a minimum, I would start with some online courses.
• 19:30
  William Auten: Ours are very affordable, and as far as licensing courses, we offer those as well.
• 19:35
  William Auten: So now let's talk about licensing.
• 19:37
  William Auten: Right now we're working with a company to provide licensing for five states, including Arizona, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
• 19:46
  William Auten: To access those courses, you'll have to join our Adjuster Manuals Facebook group.
• 19:51
  William Auten: We have a link in there, and when you use that link, it will take you to a webpage that, when you sign up for the course, through that webpage you'll receive a 10% discount.
• 20:00
  William Auten: The cost of the courses will vary by state, but they're somewhere between I think$120 and$250 for the licensing.
• 20:06
  William Auten: And the benefit of going through that program is that there is a pass guarantee.
• 20:12
  William Auten: So if you go through that course and then take the test and you fail the test, then there is a money back guarantee.
• 20:18
  William Auten: So these courses are monitored by me.
• 20:20
  William Auten: So as you go through the course, I'll be able to see how you're doing on sample tests.
• 20:24
  William Auten: And if I see anybody struggling, I can hop in and give advice.
• 20:28
  William Auten: So get on Facebook, go to the Adjuster Manuals Facebook group and do a search for licensing.
• 20:33
  William Auten: Our link will come up and you'll be good to go.
• 20:35
  William Auten: So why do we offer only five states?
• 20:36
  William Auten: Well, that's what's available now.
• 20:38
  William Auten: We're working on other states.
• 20:39
  William Auten: What I would suggest is that if you live in one of those five states, then get licensed in that state.
• 20:45
  William Auten: Otherwise, what you can also do is get your New York license through that website.
• 20:48
  William Auten: And the New York license is then reciprocal to 21 other states.
• 20:53
  William Auten: And I'm gonna include a list of those states in the show notes here so that if you live in any of those other states, your New York license will allow you to get your license in any of those states.
• 21:02
  William Auten: New York is kind of weird.
• 21:04
  William Auten: If you live in another state and you have another license from that state, that license, no matter where it is, is not reciprocal with New York.
• 21:12
  William Auten: But New York is kind of on an island all its own when it comes to insurance claims.
• 21:17
  William Auten: Most people find New York and Texas to be two of the most valuable licenses because they are reciprocal with so many other states.
• 21:23
  William Auten: So hopefully that answers any questions you might have about licensing.
• 21:27
  William Auten: If you want a license in a state that is not covered under the five states that I've listed, or any of the reciprocal states, do an internet search and you'll find training available for other states.
• 21:37
  William Auten: And if you can't, contact me, we'll figure something out.
• 21:40
  William Auten: So let's say you've analyzed your current career and decided adjusting could be for you.
• 21:45
  William Auten: You've got some training under your belt, some basic training.
• 21:48
  William Auten: Let's say you've taken an online course or two and you're fairly comfortable that you can pass the exam.
• 21:52
  William Auten: So you take your license exam and you pass.
• 21:54
  William Auten: So now all of a sudden, you are a licensed adjuster.
• 21:58
  William Auten: What do you do now?
• 21:59
  William Auten: Well, now you gotta go get hired.
• 22:02
  William Auten: Getting hired as an adjuster is not that different than getting hired in any other job field.
• 22:06
  William Auten: It's going to be hit and miss.
• 22:08
  William Auten: If you're looking for a job as a property adjuster, the best times to attempt to find work is usually during storm season down south.
• 22:16
  William Auten: That's going to be hurricane season during August, September, October, and even November.
• 22:20
  William Auten: And in the Midwest, you're probably going to want to be applying in the spring or summer months when tornadoes and hailstorms hit.
• 22:26
  William Auten: Now that's more important if you want to become an independent property adjuster.
• 22:30
  William Auten: If you want to become any other type of adjuster, the best thing to do is watch the job boards.
• 22:34
  William Auten: One of them that I've followed for years is called GreatInsuranceJobs.com.
• 22:39
  William Auten: You can go to that website and follow them on Twitter because every time a job comes up, they post it on Twitter.
• 22:44
  William Auten: And if you watch that for about a week, you'll realize, hey, there's a lot of jobs out there.
• 22:49
  William Auten: Now they may not all be in your backyard, but you keep watching and you never know.
• 22:53
  William Auten: Additionally, most recently I've listed 22 job boards on the Adjuster Manuals Facebook group.
• 23:00
  William Auten: So if you go there, there's literally 22 websites that are listing claims jobs across the country.
• 23:07
  William Auten: So go there and check that out.
• 23:09
  William Auten: So now it's time to start job hunting.
• 23:11
  William Auten: You got your license, you got background in whatever other career you may be coming from, or maybe you have a college degree.
• 23:17
  William Auten: Whatever your work experience is, you're going to want to put that on a resume.
• 23:21
  William Auten: Resumes are important.
• 23:22
  William Auten: They're important for any field that you go into.
• 23:24
  William Auten: I have reviewed many people's resumes for them.
• 23:27
  William Auten: It is something I offer to do free of charge for now.
• 23:29
  William Auten: So if you have a resume that you would like me to review, you can simply email it to me at insuranceadjustersalary at gmail.com.
• 23:38
  William Auten: I'll put that email address in the link in the show notes.
• 23:42
  William Auten: If you're going to send me a resume, please in the subject line type resume review request.
• 23:48
  William Auten: So I'll know what you're looking for.
• 23:50
  William Auten: As I said, right now I do this free of charge.
• 23:52
  William Auten: As more and more people send these resumes in, there may come a time where I have to charge for it, but I don't right now.
• 23:58
  William Auten: So get on board and send me the resume.
• 24:00
  William Auten: The reason it's important to have a guy like me review your resume isn't because I'm a resume expert.
• 24:05
  William Auten: And in fact, I wouldn't recommend necessarily that you go to a resume expert.
• 24:09
  William Auten: I think that a review by someone who's been in claims for 27 years would be a better bet.
• 24:14
  William Auten: I'll review it for grammar and I'll review it for spell checking errors and formatting errors and things like that.
• 24:19
  William Auten: But more importantly, what I can do is tailor some of the language in your job descriptions so that they kind of ring a bell with the person who might be hiring you.
• 24:27
  William Auten: I've had pretty good success with this.
• 24:28
  William Auten: People report back to me that they got the job when they submitted the resume that I reviewed for them, and this was after months of searching prior to having me review it.
• 24:36
  William Auten: So it works.
• 24:38
  William Auten: You have to remember I was vice president of claims for 10 years.
• 24:41
  William Auten: I know a little bit about what I'm talking about here.
• 24:44
  William Auten: So if you are a person who is seeking employment as an independent adjuster, one of the things that I could recommend is to visit a website called catadjuster.org.
• 24:55
  William Auten: You can create an account there and you can post a profile.
• 24:58
  William Auten: And that profile is kind of like a mini resume.
• 25:00
  William Auten: It's not even that mini, it's actually very detailed.
• 25:03
  William Auten: You can put all of your licenses in there so that potential IA firms know where you are licensed and whether you're available for work.
• 25:11
  William Auten: You can post on there whether you are currently deployed or on storm duty, and when you get back, you can tell them you're free.
• 25:18
  William Auten: Now, I don't know if you know the difference between a daily adjuster and a CAD adjuster, but a CAD adjuster is someone who goes and travels across the country to go where the storms are.
• 25:27
  William Auten: A daily claims adjuster will stay home and work claims from their hometown.
• 25:32
  William Auten: Either way, if you're an independent adjuster, particularly handling property claims, although liability adjusters are on there also, you can post your profile there even with a picture so that we know what you look like.
• 25:43
  William Auten: Finally, one of the things you can do is seek out independent adjusting firms.
• 25:47
  William Auten: Most of them will have a website.
• 25:49
  William Auten: Most of those websites will have a page where you can sign up to be on their roster, meaning that you inform them that you are in a specific town in a specific state.
• 25:57
  William Auten: And if they have any claims in that area, you'll pop up on their radar and they will likely send you a claim.
• 26:03
  William Auten: And if you can establish a relationship with them over time, you will be the adjuster for that area that they rely on.
• 26:09
  William Auten: And before you know it, you've got a career.
• 26:12
  William Auten: So I hope that gives you all an idea of where to start.
• 26:15
  William Auten: That's the most common question I'm getting, particularly on TikTok this week.
• 26:20
  William Auten: The other question I'm getting is how do you find a mentor?
• 26:22
  William Auten: Well, if you are listening to me right now, you've found at least one, I hope.
• 26:26
  William Auten: And I would suggest again that you go to the Facebook group, Adjuster Manuals.
• 26:30
  William Auten: That's a group where it's growing.
• 26:32
  William Auten: It's only about two weeks old as of today, but get in there.
• 26:35
  William Auten: We're posting questions and answers.
• 26:37
  William Auten: We want people to interact with each other and we want people to ask questions.
• 26:41
  William Auten: You can post experiences that you've had trying to get a job or while you're on the job, and it's already a pretty lively group.
• 26:48
  William Auten: Another thing you can do to find a mentor is to be really active on social media and connect with other people that you know are or who are adjusters.
• 26:56
  William Auten: LinkedIn is a great place to connect with people that are in the claims business.
• 27:00
  William Auten: Now, claims people I've noticed on LinkedIn tend to be a little quiet and reserved.
• 27:05
  William Auten: Some of them not so much.
• 27:07
  William Auten: So join groups and associations like the CPCU Society.
• 27:10
  William Auten: If you want to go that route, the CPCU Society has a huge claims community.
• 27:15
  William Auten: I think the claims community in the CPCU Society is the biggest internal community that they have there.
• 27:21
  William Auten: It's so big that sometimes it's hard to even keep track of all the questions and answers that pop up there.
• 27:26
  William Auten: But there's other groups and associations also.
• 27:28
  William Auten: There's usually a claims association in just about every major city.
• 27:32
  William Auten: And if there's one near you, you can join it.
• 27:35
  William Auten: The fees are usually pretty low, sometimes free, sometimes they're$10 or$20.
• 27:40
  William Auten: They usually have events, sometimes monthly, and you can attend those events and you can interact with other people in the insurance business.
• 27:46
  William Auten: You can get to know repair contractors.
• 27:48
  William Auten: There are a lot of fire and water mitigation contractors that attend these claims association meetings.
• 27:55
  William Auten: Get to know them, get to talk to them, and they will probably be able to send you interactions that could get you associated with people that could hire you as an adjuster.
• 28:04
  William Auten: I would say get on Clubhouse.
• 28:05
  William Auten: There's a lot of insurance groups on Clubhouse.
• 28:08
  William Auten: We have the Art of Adjusting Room and every other Tuesday, and it's an open forum.
• 28:12
  William Auten: You can hop in there and come up on stage with me or Chantel or whatever guests we have and ask a question and interact with us.
• 28:19
  William Auten: There's no shortage of podcasts out there regarding claims, including this one.
• 28:23
  William Auten: Listen to those, listen to the guests that they have, and if they offer opportunities to reach out and contact them, do it.
• 28:29
  William Auten: Reach out, call them, or email them and say, hey, I listened to your podcast, it was great.
• 28:34
  William Auten: Do you know of any jobs here or there or anywhere?
• 28:37
  William Auten: Or hey, you talked about roof claims and I had a question about what happens when this type of shingle falls off the roof or whatever question you have, just start talking.
• 28:45
  William Auten: The short story is be visible.
• 28:48
  William Auten: If you're looking for a mentor, that mentor is not going to find you unless you show them that you're out there looking for help.
• 28:53
  William Auten: In my experience in this industry, people are willing to help other adjusters who have questions.
• 28:59
  William Auten: So if you take those basic steps that I've outlined to get started to find your job, and then if you take those steps to find mentors in your career, you're going to be in great shape.
• 29:09
  William Auten: It might be a hard go at first.
• 29:11
  William Auten: It took me, I think, two years to get my first job as an adjuster with multiple interviews.
• 29:15
  William Auten: I had a four-year college degree.
• 29:17
  William Auten: I did not have my license yet.
• 29:19
  William Auten: It was not uncommon back then because licensing, first of all, was not required for someone who worked at an insurance company.
• 29:25
  William Auten: I did get my license within a week or so of being hired by an independent adjusting firm.
• 29:30
  William Auten: But like I said, it was about a two-year search.
• 29:33
  William Auten: I also had a construction background.
• 29:35
  William Auten: As I said, I had a college degree, but of course, it didn't have anything to do with insurance claims.
• 29:40
  William Auten: The point is, if you've been searching and you're still hunting for a job, don't give up.
• 29:44
  William Auten: I can tell you that jobs are out there and they're going to keep opening up because the average age of an adjuster is somewhere between 45 and 55 years old.
• 29:52
  William Auten: They're all going to start retiring, and when they do, those jobs are going to open up and they're going to need new people.
• 29:58
  William Auten: The industry is constantly going to need new people, so don't give up.
• 30:02
  William Auten: And if you're struggling, reach out to me.
• 30:04
  William Auten: Let me know and I'll help in any way I can.
• 30:06
  William Auten: Thanks for joining us again on the Daily Claims Podcast where we talk about life as an insurance adjuster.
• 30:12
  William Auten: Hit that subscribe button real quick and tell all of your adjuster friends to check us out as well.
• 30:16
  William Auten: Join Chantal Roberts and Bill Auton on the Clubhouse app every other Tuesday where we head up the art of adjusting and discuss all kinds of exciting insurance topics for anyone interested in becoming a claims adjuster.
• 30:29
  William Auten: You'll need to get on Facebook and search for the Adjuster Manuals Facebook group.
• 30:33
  William Auten: You'll find helpful posts for anyone new to adjusting, including training opportunities and licensing coursework with a pass guarantee.
• 30:41
  William Auten: If you're working for an insurance carrier and need independent adjusting services, go to www.autin.claims.
• 30:49
  William Auten: And for anyone interested in working as an independent liability adjuster, go to www.autin.claims slash fqs and scroll down to the skills assessment button to fill out your information.
• 31:03
  William Auten: We'll get back to you right away.