Work Work Work

So I’m on my third week of the new job and I have yet to have a change of heart on this whole “grown up, cut your hair, get a real job” sort of mentality. I still like it. I like it a lot. Turns out making a big-boy paycheck is awesome, and although I was getting a lot of school paid for in my old job, having tangible, in-your-hand money is pretty cool. Most of my first paycheck is going to go straight to rent and things of that nature, but looking at my account balance and seeing that I am well into being a thousandaire is pretty cool. A feat that would take two months before took less than two weeks now. Pretty neat.

Another thing that I’ve done at work since the first week is pass all three of the exams that are required of us. I had to take what was dubbed “Insurance Essentials” two Thursdays ago, which was a six hour course on the computer with an exam at the end. I missed two out of thirty questions there. Then I had to take a California policies exam (because California is dumb and totally different than all of the other states), and passed that. (I missed two out of 44.) Then today, two weeks later, I had to take the state adjuster’s licensing exam. It was the most nerve wracking because you actually had to pay for it. It was 100 questions, of which I missed eight. You could pass with a cool “C,” or 70%, but I decided that was silly. Now, really, all I have to do is start working.

The training class for this job is seven weeks long. I’m on week three, like mentioned above. I haven’t really actually done my job yet. I’ve been learning how to do it. The computer system isn’t necessarily brain bending, but making sure the assignments I’ll have to do are all right seems to be the most stressful part. I need to figure that out in the next day, because on Friday we’re starting the job job, at least in part. We’ll only be doing it for a few hours, not all day.

I guess this would be a good time to explain really what I’m doing. I work for about the third largest insurance company in the nation. My job is to start claims when people have wrecks or their house burns down. Yes, it’s a call center type thing, but I’m not trying to sell people on anything, so it’s not like that. We actually get to help people, and contrary to popular belief, that’s something that does appeal to me. So I’ll start a claim (sometimes see it all the way through), and if it has to be handed off, I do that. Not brain surgery, but there is some thinking involved. The best part, though, are the benefits.

Everyone at the company talks about two things: profit sharing and profit sharing. Every year the company puts 15% of what we make into an account and let’s it accrue interest. We don’t pay for this money at all. They just give it to us for working there. If you stay with the company for some odd years and never touch that money, you’re a millionaire. No foolin’. Additionally, every march they hand out all the employees a check for about 5% of their annual income, just for there. It’s like an extra paycheck. Fun times. My shift will be overnight once I start working, and that’s an additional 10% as well. Interesting stuff.

So that’s my job. I’m interested to see where this all will take me. Or maybe I’ll simply end up hating it and moving on, but as of today I like it, and will see what happens.