The one thing that I’ve learned that we can count on remaining constant is CHANGE. It never stops, it never rests, it just keeps changing. Most people tend not to change too often, nor do they really care to change. It interrupts comfort zones, or more plainly stated, perceived comfort zones!
In today’s insecure economic climate, it has forced significant changes in lifestyles, career paths and in extreme cases, standards of living. As published by the Associated Press, the amount of unemployment benefit applications has fallen to a mammoth 5.4 million people, but also circumvented the fact that while layoffs are decreasing, overall hiring is not picking up. The economy is not growing fast enough to support much hiring, and projections for the balance of 2012 are dismal at best.
When hard times hit, you don’t reinvent the wheel, you reinvent yourself! Do you really need to leave your trade, passion or natural skillset behind in the pursuit of happiness? Absolutely not. This is your time to transition yourself into an opportunity that employs and capitalizes your strengths and allows you to “earn” the benefits.
The first step towards reinvention is realizing and understanding your core competencies. Once you have a basic apprehension of your strengths, and ideally your challenges as well, you can explore what options are available to you. There are many channels accessible that provide funding to veterans, dislocated and under-employed workers for additional training and education. Call your Chamber of Commerce, visit your local Workforce office, find a local recruiter, or reach out to your industry contacts you’ve developed over the years and forge a new partnership. Options are everywhere!
With the erratic and devastating weather patterns that keep persisting, there is a colossal opportunity for you to be innovative with your trade, especially if you are currently in the roofing, contracting or construction industry. Each time a major storm or natural disaster strikes an area it drains the adjusting professionals. Not only in numbers due to deployments, but in augmented workloads.
Maybe it’s time to stop the rigorous manual labor routine with minimal return and explore the adjusting industry. Use your gifts to your advantage. You have the fundamental customer service skills and building knowledge it takes to competently address the insured, assess and scope damage, and proficiently write up estimates. Oh, you don’t want to work for someone else? That’s simple, don’t!
There are more insurers outsourcing their claims needs to independent adjusting firms to minimize costs for their organization. With this emergent need coupled with the waning population of adjusters, this is your time to take advantage of an industry in-need and spur yourself into an understaffed, recession-proof industry.
Reinvention is an art. Trade innovation is creative. You are the architect. It’s time to re-build, remodel and reinvent you.
–JBM