What to Do When You Have an Adjuster License but No Work

New adjusters often find themselves wondering how to translate their licenses into actual job opportunities. 

This episode highlights the importance of proving competency through certifications and real-world experience to successfully secure work in the independent adjusting field.

• Understanding the challenges faced by new adjusters
• The misconception that a license guarantees employment
• The nature of IA firms as dispatching companies
• The need for certifications to demonstrate competency
• Alternative paths to gain relevant experience
• Strategies to effectively prove skills to IA firms
• Recommended resources for securing work in adjusting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Hey, pathfinders, welcome back to the Independent Adjuster Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is your host, chris Stanley. What I want to talk about today is, now that you've got your adjuster's license, how to get work. This question comes up in email a couple times a week, maybe more depending on the week and how busy it is. But people want to know I've got my adjuster license for two, three years how do I get work? And it's a valid question. They've been told by somebody that, hey, if you get your license and you apply to these companies, you can get a deployment making 20 or $30 an hour in a cubicle, and that does happen sometimes. That is a reality that can happen. Or they've been told hey, I got my license, I took some basic Xactimate training across two days online and I want to go make six figures as a catastrophic property adjuster. I heard about that. I got my license in the Xactimate training but nothing's happening and I've had my license for a long time and I just I don't know what to do. There are some things you can do and that's why we talk about the eXp free career path into independent adjusting here on the podcast, because we believe that people can get started without experience, but they're caught in this loophole.

Speaker 1: 1:24

When you just have a license, when you just have a license, you literally are legally able to write a claim or a check, most importantly on behalf of an insurance company. It's not saying you know how to do the job. It's not saying that you should hire this person. It's not saying you know how to do the job. It's not saying that you should hire this person. It's just saying you fulfill a legal requirement, which is good. It's a good starting point. The legality needs to be taken care of, but a lot of positions in our industry is daily. Auto IAs, for example, in most states are handling claims as auto damage appraisers and don't even need a license. So how does somebody get work then, with or without a license, if a license isn't even required to do claims sometimes? And so it just puts in perspective that the license is there as a checkbox that needs to be filled, but just as much as a social security number or a birth certificate for a job might need to be filled. It doesn't mean you're going to get hired because you have that document right, and so we've got to make ourselves desirable as candidates to these IA firms, and I think one of the big misconceptions are what is an IA firm?

Speaker 1: 2:28

An IA firm is nothing but a dispatching company. In essence, they are like Uber People are requesting rides from them, the insurance companies are requesting claims to be handled on their behalf, and Uber is finding drivers right. The IA firms are finding IAs to handle the claims for them, and so that license doesn't mean that you're really good at doing your job, and so they're not sure they want to send you this claim as a test to see if you know what you're doing. So most of the time, they won't even onboard you and just say you don't have enough experience. That might be what you've heard.

Speaker 1: 3:00

If you reverse engineer this, though, you have to prove to people that you know what you're doing. You have to prove that you're knowledgeable enough that you know how to do the job to where they'll trust you with that claim, and this sounds like oh man, now. I got to sign up for IAPATH. I got to sign up for Matthew Allen's what is his call? The Fast Track to Deployment. I got to sign up for MoCAT's certification to prove I know what I'm doing. Yes, you do, and that kind of makes people feel weird because they're like, hey, you guys are all sudden the gatekeepers, you're holding us all back from getting to work, which is, looking at it, really weird and backwards, because other than that, other than a certification that these IA firms recognize and accept, they will not give you the work unless it's a really big catastrophe and they're just desperate, right. And so you're waiting through the tens of thousands of people who have licenses ahead of you, with more experience, been licensed longer, and you're just sitting at the back of the line hoping you make it in the door before the door shuts. But these certifications like IA, path for auto, matthew Allen's fast track to deployment and MoCAT's certification for residential and property, they're not gatekeepers. They are literally your bridge across avoiding the gatekeepers.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Okay, and that's one of the easiest ways to get started, but it may not be the only way you could find someone to shadow. If they're willing to let you train. I shadowed behind my father-in-law for six months without pay. If that's easier than paying Matt Allen or MOCat or even iPath to get started, it might be a better way for you personally if you can find someone to do that. But that was a lot of work and a lot of time and, frankly, a lot of money that I could have been earning doing other things right. So don't think of these things as gatekeepers.

Speaker 1: 4:40

But you do have to some way somehow prove you can do the job, demonstrate competency, and so be thinking through that, like, now that you've got a license, you've got to prove competency. How do you do that? In our industry it's typically through certifications. There are some trainings you could take that will help move the needle a little, but training typically is not enough. You typically need a certification, you typically need a mentor, you need a place to get help from. So if you're interested in that, for auto IAPATH that's what we do we have an entire year-long mentorship. That's the EXP free career path for independent adjusters. That guarantees you're going to get work without experience and you can get started in as little as 30 days getting work. And so our program you can find it at iapathcom. It's broke down in how, what's all included. But the important point is we're there to help you go from license to actually getting work and we'll be there with you the whole time. And if you can't afford it, hey, that's fine.

Speaker 1: 5:42

Think through how can I prove my competency? What trainings can I take that are lower cost. What can I piece together and how can I demonstrate to these IA firms that I know what I'm doing? How can I get experience with the software when I can't rent the software? You got to get really creative. So some people will go work at a collision body shop to get experience with CCC1. So they don't have to because they can't afford a training program or a mentorship program, and so that's one way to do it.

Speaker 1: 6:11

You could go try to get a job at an insurance company to earn training and certifications on their dime. So there's some other things you can do. But if you're looking to just go straight into independent, it's really hard to do that without some certification. That is industry accepted, accepted pretty much industry wide. Really hard to get started without that.

Speaker 1: 6:31

So once you have your license, here's the key Prove you're competent, learn how to do the job and then prove to other people they know what to do, because if you haven't done, that's why you don't have work. You've got to prove you know what you're doing, because these people have millions of dollar accounts with XYZ insurance company that you see commercials on TV, and why would they trust you with that? I don't know, $4 million a year relationship, because you could ruin it with one claim. You could ruin it with one deployment. And so these IA firms are hesitant to trust you with their work because that's their money, that's their bottom line, that's their reputation, and so you have to prove that you're going to be a good steward of that reputation and you have the skillset to give them a good product. So you got a license but you don't have work. That's why no one believes you actually know how to do the job.

Speaker 1: 7:20

So figure out how you can show people, figure out how to know how to do the job and then figure out how to show people that you know how to do the job. If you need help with auto iapathcom, need help with property and you want an online version that you can do in your own time at nights, weekends, whatever check out adjustertvcom and Matt Allen's Fast Track to Deployment. And if you're looking for an in-person residential property training, then I would look at MoCat. They're out of Missouri. Calvin and his team over there have a great program. So those are the three main ones that I know about, but there are other ones that have been around a long time. But talk to the firms. Find out who they recommend. Find out what they suggest you do. If it's their own training, there's probably a reason they want you to take it, but it's not industry-wide accepted. So just remember that as you go through. But ask them what certifications do they recognize other than their own? All right, until next time, keep walking your path and claiming your life.