Insurance Adjusting

My least-favorite employment stop-gap. Who knew the world would shut down for two years?

A view of the ACTEnviro company sign in San Jose

Key facts

  1. 7 Number of Texas Reciprocal Adjusting Licenses
  2. 3 Number of times the customer called my boss stating I did not show while I was inspecting their roof.

Post-Hoc Reflections

This was easily one of the most stressful times of my life and although I don't regret doing what I needed to do to get through the pandemic. I wish it had gone another way. I did enjoy drawing houses in Xactimate, and I did enjoy talking to some of the homeowners. This was easily the most social job I've had and my social skills definitely improved as a result. Although this career wasn't ultimately for me, I think it might be a good fit for people that want to explore the US and make a few dollars. I really did enjoy traveling the country and now that I'm stable I find myself missing the road trips.

Moving On

I wish I could say that there was a positive side to this. Unfortunately, when the Texas electric grid went down during the 2021 power crisis, I was adjusting on policies sold to people that couldn't afford a hotel either. The collective misery of the entire experience was horrible. It seemed every other month there was a new disaster and I finished off by returning to California, only to be assigned claims from the 2018 Paradise fire which at this point, were already three years past. The entire time I was shotgunning job applications hoping that someone would take me out of this misery. The gracious offer from ACTEnviro could not have come soon enough and I left immediately.

Lasting Impressions

Did the misery end there? Of course not. At the beginning the job pays so poorly that unless you become #overemployed you're making less than minimum wage if you are paying to stay at a hotel. Don't worry though, the spike of unhoused people during the pandemic meant that people were happy to call the police if you had the audacity to sleep in your car at a local gas station. It also seemed like every budget hotel in the south was being bought out at the time which lead to a variety of scams, and dirty shams.

Training

Training for the Texas adjuster's license was a very frustrating experience. I did not like it and althoguh the course material, and the test were easy, the whole time I was pissed I could have been at Dartmouth. Fortunately, my love for modeling software extended well to drawing houses in adjusting software. Yay???

The Plauge Made me Do It

I was a law student in late 2019 when COVID19 started to make the news as a significant issue. This was the final straw for me and I realized I was not meant to be a part of the legal community. It seemed that half of my peer group thought the virus was a result of political manufacture. As the months progressed, the coronovirus issue had been declared a full blown pandemic. In late 2020 I had obtained approval to work as an intern at the Dartmouth Tech Transfer office, but since the entire office was furloughed due to the aformentioned pandemic. I had to find a source of income for the summer, and to depart from the legal community with some grace. I sometimes wonder if I should have stuck it out since I still wish I could be more politically involved, but too little too late I guess.

Meet the team behind this project

  1. Image of Mocha
    Mocha Creative Founder
  2. Image of Stormie
    Stormie Lead Supervisor
  3. Image of Makenna
    Makenna Staff