I have a license as a Claims Adjuster and I'm licensed in 10 separate states. I haven't had the opportunity yet to use those licenses, but that's not what my plans included when I was out there studying for the test, buying the other licenses, and doing all I could to take as many online courses as I could in order to be both auto certified and properly certified. If you want to get a good gig after you get your licenses you have to do a few things; you have to get more licenses, you have to study both sides of the game (auto/property) and you have to know people! You just can't waltz onto the scene thinking it's all going to be OK and everyone is going to want to hire you.
First, if you're into becoming an independent Claims Adjuster, you need to know that you're probably (probably) not going to be hired right out of the chute; nope, it takes either a catastrophic event, or you have to know someone high enough in the ranks of a good company that will take a chance on you. EVERYONE wants their hires to have a minimum of two years of experience. How do you get two years if no one will hire you? It doesn't make sense; it's the biggest Catch-22 out there. You have to have experience, but you can't get the needed experience. Over and over and over you're told to wait, just wait, as soon as a good enough hurricane comes through, you'll be picked up. Not necessarily. Those with experience will be picked up, and if it's really big you may get a few weeks experience before they cut you for not knowing your job!
From April to August of this year, I spent the entire end of spring and summer with my head in the online studies for all things auto thinking that was the way to go. I was going to be a desk adjuster. I was going to work from home. I was going to be hired, and I was going to make $100K in my first year. That's what they were telling me. That's the spiel they give you when they think you'll spend money to take their online courses. Luckily for me, I didn't have a lot of money to spend, so I didn't waste money learning. I took free courses. One course I took through Pilot would have cost $400 but they take it out of your first paycheck if they ever hire you. They never hired me.
Not only did Pilot not hire me, no one hired me. I remained unemployed, which didn't really bother me, as I was writing books, and I'm still technically unemployed because I haven't started my new role yet. The role I've accepted isn't even in claims. It's in insurance, but not on the side I wanted to be on. So, what does all this have to do with being ghosted? EVERYTHING. Through the summer as I was applying for many different roles, I interviewed with more than twenty independent companies, and six of them literally never got back to me after the interviewing and the assessment phase. I did the whole hour-long interview at their convenience, and I did their thirty-five to forty-minute assessment; sometimes I was required to do video interviews as well. Six company hiring managers never bothered to reach out and tell me that they weren't hiring me; the others did.
Not being contacted after you make the effort to not only interview but to do an assessment or project is so very rude! It's not only rude, it's unprofessional. It's unethical and it's immoral in my opinion. It's as if they think (and they do think) that we (the candidate) have nothing better to do than to sit around waiting for them to call us, and invite us into their "family"...we do have other things to do. If you're not going to hire us, let us know. Tell us, we're adults, we can take it. Rejection is normal, it's part of the game, but to not be spoken to is tantamount to being ignored; purposely ignored. It's genuinely unacceptable from a social or civil standpoint, and it's flat rude!
I thought perhaps these and other companies had gotten wind of what one of my ex-employers had to say about me, and maybe that's why they never called me back. It's true you know, ex-employers have rights we don't have. They can add false statements to your HR file and you may or may not even realize they've done it. I was lucky! One of the companies that did get back to me told me what he found on ADP regarding my former role, and I had to call the company and demand that they remove the false statement. It took another four weeks to force it, and I had to call their corporate office, threaten them with a lawsuit, and call the Department of Labor in my state. If you don't know why someone hasn't called you back, you may not even think to look in your old files; but there it was...absolute lies.
The truth is, I had turned the employer in for stealing from the federal government to pay state funding; I proved it. I was terminated and they tried to say it was because I didn't know my job in the role I was working at the time. To this day, I have to believe that anyone who checked from 2023 back to 2016 when it the note was placed in my file (with the state job I held) that the person investigating my background just thought I wasn't worthy. I was! My employer was a liar and a cad! These HR firms don't allow US (the candidates) to add to our own performance reviews, but they certainly allow carte blanche to the employers to do so! It's wrong.
This week I decided to write to the most recent man (I won't say his name or his company) and let him know that I don't appreciate him not getting back to me in a timely manner. I applied for the role in August. I had an interview in early September. I was pushed to the next level. I waited four days to have the next interview, it lasted over an hour. I was pushed to the next level, and they asked me to do an assignment to prove I knew my stuff. They got around to sending it to me two days later. I did it immediately and I sent it back. They got around to grading it three days later. They emailed me to say I needed to speak to the hiring manager, but he was going to have to call me toward the end of the next week. I waited.
When we talked he had another man on the Zoom, and the three of us talked for over an hour again. They were most impressed with my abilities and thought I would be a wonderful fit, but they wanted me to speak to their director. She wasn't going to be in for another week or two, as she was getting married. I waited. It's October 30th by this time. Seriously...I waited. I did everything they asked, and I was available each time they needed me to be. She finally called, and we talked for another forty minutes. She loved me. She then stated that she hadn't made the decision and that I'd need to get back in touch with the first guy I had spoken with. I sent him an email just in case she did not. NOTHING...CRICKETS!!
I waited a week. I was then told that he had taken his family on a vacation and would return the following Tuesday. I waited. Thursday rolled around, then Friday. NOTHING. This week hit, and I decided to write to him again, I asked him for the position explaining that I had been patient, that his director had recommended me, and that I had done all that I was expected to do. No answer. My thoughts were that perhaps he died on vacation. Surely, if he had died, someone would have contacted his director, so I called her. She told me she did in fact recommend me, that the man had been in touch with her as recently as the day before, but that she thought he may have offered the job to his...wait for it...NEPHEW on his wife's side of the family.
This is the sort of thing that will send shockwaves right through any of us! We don't have the time, the energy, the withal, or the desire to be used by those who have the authority to hire us but choose to abuse their status only to ghost and ignore people who have the talent they sought in the first place. It is not right. It is not fair. It is not ethical. It is not moral. It is not professional, and it should be reported to HR or his director, their Operations staff, and even as high as the CEO of the company because it's giving the company itself a black eye, not to mention that it shows an extreme lack of character on the part of someone they trusted with the role of supervisor. If he thinks he can supervise me with those flaws, he's got another think coming. I appreciate myself too much to be so blatantly abused.
Either way, God is great. God is always great. I found another role, and in fact will start it soon. It's a role from home, as the other was, but it's in service not in claims. I'll continue to do the best job I can, and I'll be humbled in that role. I believe we are served when we serve. I believe we are blessed when we bless. I believe the way we treat others clearly outshines our status, our power, or prestige, or our position. No one will remember how many Gucci bags you owned on Earth, but they will remember how you treated others; it's that important.
Photo Credit: Business Insider
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