When I got my adjusting license in October and started talking to potential employers it became very clear that I needed ‘real world experience’. I had gone to a local meeting for adjusters, and everyone was very supportive and congratulatory on the achievement, but they also said I should embrace an opportunity to go work the Denver hail storms. I heard the message and headed to Denver.
The job was not for an insurance company, but for a general contractor. The position was a sales position, however the company really only wanted adjusters for the sales positions. Since there were no good hurricane this year, they did not have a problem finding adjusters. The contractor would hand us leads, we would call on the lead, look at the damage on the roof and any other hail storm damage on the property and then help the homeowner through the insurance claim process (out titles were Claims Specialists).
I know the title of the post is “Re-Education Complete, Now Get Some Experience”, and this is where the experience comes in. In doing this process over 70 times in 7 weeks, and meeting with insurance company adjusters on the property, I got good at becoming an adjuster. I learned, on the job, what to do, when to do it and what to say t0 the insured. Of course I was always looking for more damage and would state my case to the adjusters as to why the whole roof needed replacing, but it was great practice and the answers I got back were all educational too.
When I got back I went to the same group of people who said to take the opportunity and gain some experience. Now they wanted to know what it was like. What kind of damage did you see, how bad was it, how many roofs did you see. The questions just kept flowing. I realized I had gained some experience that many of these adjusters of 10+ years had not had yet. It was a good positive boost for Karl. 
So all was good, yes I did learn a lot. The experience also did lead to me getting on several catastrophe lists and some local adjusting firms daily rosters, some thing that I could not have done without the experience I gained in Denver. So the moral of this story is, even though you may have worked for 20+ years, but now changed careers, you are starting at the bottom. You can move up quickly, but you will need to gain experience as well as prove to yourself and others you can do the job. Sometimes that means a little change in tactics from what you may be used to. Above all else, continue to network!
Quite often they say a change is better than a rest. Are you finding this true in your new career? You used to be involved with IT, Change Management, Applications, ERP, etc. For those of us still in that field, we tend to get fatigue with all the work, which project after project starts to feel the same. I often wonder myself if I was to go and do something completely different (like climbing up on roofs and making assessments of damages) if that change would reinvigorate me….