I was a claims adjuster for Progressive in RI and then for Liberty Mutual in IL. I LOVED being a claims adjuster.
I work well in a controlled enviroment, knowing what is expected of me. Disneyworld is very similar in that respect.
I am sure it really depends on your office in regards to how much you are watched vs. how much you are trusted. In any large company you will find that with vary with different offices.
They do monitor your phone. You are expected to be available to take calls when at your desk. Again, depends on the office on how vigilant they are about your time off and on the phone, your breaks and lunch. The office I worked in was great. They trusted us and we proved we could be trusted.
When I first started working there we were trained to handle the claims completely. By that I mean we actually were trained to appraise vehicles as well as Bodily Injury claims. We would have to leave the office to appraise vehicles and meet with customers. We would also do all the investigation regarding fault.
When I left the office they had seperated the department up in to adjusters that only did the Bodily Injury claims and adjusters that only did Physical Damage claims (meaning no injury.)
Now the company also has the drive in claims offices that have the adjusters onsite. My best guess, since those were after I was there, is that there is an adjuster off site that actually does the investigation of the claim and the appraiser at the drive in office does the appraisal of the damage and forwards it to the actual adjuster. In other words the guys at the drive in office are mostly just physical damage appraisers. I could be mistaken, that is just my best guess at this time.
I LOVED the job and I loved working for Progressive. The only reason I left was that we moved 1/2 way across the country and at the time the local office did not have any openings.
The training that Progressive does is very extensive and thorough. When I was there we did in office training and then went to Arizona for two weeks for basic adjuster training, then home for two weeks, then back to Arizona for two weeks for physical damage training. I am sure that is different now but it was fun at the time. They have training locations in Phoenix, AZ, Ohio and Florida.
As for the reasons I really enjoyed being an adjuster. It is very analytical. It's 90% investigation. Figuring out what happened in the accident, who did what in the accident and assigning fault. It's not clear cut and sometimes there are people who are 5 or 10% at fault. Progressive was not, and as of last year,still is not a company that nit-picks the 5-10% stuff.
Liberty Mutual was one that did ding people for small percentages of fault, only paying 85% of their damage or something.
I loved taking all the puzzle pieces and putting the "story" together. For that reason I also think I would really like being an accident reconstructionist!!!
Let's see ... what else. Their salaries pretty comprable in the market. When starting out I made approx. $36K. That was in 2003/2004.
If you have any specific questions please let me know. You can PM me or send me your email.
As you can see I really liked the job!! I liked it a lot at Liberty Mutual as well, they just did things a little differently as do all the companies. I only left to be a SAHM.
I'm not too concerned about the cussing, but the spitting and the aggression is what I am trying to get away from. I had two too many blood exposures last year.
