Maybe just minutes after completing the last blog about how things start out, work, and progress within the independent claims adjuster world, I was privileged to see things progress quite nicely, and quite rapidly! I'll explain.
I was writing a blog about how some captive companies want to hire someone to do their work, but they want them to have experience before they hire them. This makes tremendous sense, it really does. No one, including myself, would argue that hiring someone to do work you need to be done would be better served; you hire people who have the experience to do what is required. EXCEPT...you can't always get this accomplished in the world of independent adjusters. Let me explain further.
XYZ company puts out an ad saying they are hiring, and they want you to have 2+ years of experience before you can expect to be hired. They also say or claim that a fair amount of education may make up for the required experience of on-the-job training. There you go, I have a Ph.D., I'm pretty sure that's going to take me places. Nope, not really. The company still wants me to have over 2 years of experience before they hire me, but they felt it was only polite to interview me to see if I would fit in with their program. OK, I can live with that, but did they even stop to think that a person with a higher degree may or may not accept the money they are willing to offer in terms of salary and compensation? Few of us do. We don't need to accept less because we have put in the years.
As an independent adjuster, I can choose to (a) work for myself as a 1099, and have an EIN for taxes (which I do have) (b) work for a company as a staffer and be a W2 work fewer hours, make less money, but the benefits are good, and there are perks in that you can usually have weekends off and not work past a certain hour of the day. (c) you can work for a company as a captive 1099, still needing the EIN, but you can only work for that company. There are companies who have you work W2 for them during an event, a CAT, or catastrophic event such as a tornado, hail, hurricane, or wildfire; they pay your taxes, and usually, have you sign a contract saying you'll only work for them during this deployment or job, and you tend to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day. Sounds rough, but at a VERY minimum of $24/hour for someone with ZERO experience (but you do need to be licensed) the newbie is bringing home about $2000 a week after taxes. That's serious money.
Immediately following my last blog, the one where I was saying that the company wanted me as a staffer but wanted me to have more time in, and they wanted to only pay me $55K a year; something I would consider if working 7 hours a day and only 5 days a week; I got another phone call. The second call was not an interview, as I had already signed up with them as an independent adjuster. You see, when you get more licenses they know it automatically, as they have an AI bot that updates your file. When you hit 6 state licenses including your home state license, these companies begin to sit up and pay more attention. I added Alabama today to my list of licenses and that popped me up to 6. I got a call IMMEDIATELY from a group that exclusively works with State Farm. They wanted to put me on Stand By and ask me to take the Estimatics test for certification. OK. They even sent me the study guides. Thank you.
While talking to the lady who put me on Stand By status, she let me know that if I had 10 licenses State Farm pays $26/hour rather than $24. What? That's an additional $2 x 40 hours = 0r $80 plus $3 x 44 hours = 132 so $212 a week more just for having 10 licenses. I can do that. I added New Mexico and Michigan today, and had I known that she wanted me to have 10, I would not have added Alabama, but I would have opted for Kentucky and West Virginia, as combined they are the same cost as Alabama. Ding and Dang! You learn as you go. This time next week, I'll have 10 states. Currently, it's 8. Now, that being said, there are 16 states you don't need a license to work in, and a person can't easily come by Hawaii, California, or New York. Just sayin'
I am now officially on Stand By and will be called to the assignment or "deployment" rather soon. Before I am, I'll have 10 states under licensure, and be paid $26/hour minimum. If the deployment allows it, I could be paid more. After the deployment, after I have racked up a bit of experience, I'll be paid $28-30 an hour plus time and a half. After a full year of deployment or experience following a good deployment, I can demand or expect to be paid $33 an hour as a minimum. It's not lawyer or doctor money, but I'm doing this from my house, in my jammies, eating when and what I want, not being responsible for someone's life, or any other major stressors. I'm able to work a deployment then take off 6 months and write. I can travel. I can travel and do the job from wherever I am! That's INDEPENDENT folks. That's the ticket I'm going for.
I don't mind being hired as a staffer if someone wants to do that. I'm good with taking the time to learn, but if I'm hired as a deployed remote desk adjuster and they are willing to train me, I'm in for that as well. I just have to put my life on hold for the summer and possibly the autumn months. Then again, I have AC and I've got plenty of options as far as my wardrobe is concerned. THANK YOU, Jesus. I am really pretty excited about the whole thing -- who knew? I certainly didn't. I do now, and I'm not going back to "regular" work again. Nope. Not doing it.
Photo Credit: Marketplace.com
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