“Insurance is a risk”

Day 65

This was my name plate for my desk.

Note the bar code - very technical!

Yesterday I was thrilled to learn that I had been offered a job at Progressive Insurance; what is most thrilling about this is the fact that I used to work there. I am so relieved to be gainfully employed again, and this has inspired me to do a post about my first working experience at Progressive.

At the end of 2001 I was ready for a big change in my life. I had left my job at USRA and followed the advice and counsel of my brothers and sister to apply at Progressive Insurance. Jordan worked there before he left on his mission; Jaimee worked there a few years before (which is where she met her husband Daniel!); and Josh had been working there for several years. Apparently, this was supposed to be a Case family business.

I applied and interviewed in January 2002, then a short time later I found out I was hired! My first day was February 18th 2002 and I was very nervous, namely because I knew squat about insurance. Fortunately, the training was very thorough and the trainers were so nice and helpful. Soon I was well-versed in the basics of auto insurance: coverages, underwriting guidelines, premiums, and rates.

Most important lesson learned: risk. There are acceptable and unacceptable risks in the realm of insurance. I also learned, from an inside joke with my siblings, that “insurance is a risk.” Then I learned how to process endorsements (changes) to policies, how to take payments over the phone, how to review coverages and understand rate revisions. All of this insurance info gradually began to make sense to me.

In my training class I was surrounded by some truly fun, friendly people. I made some very close friends in this class and we had a blast. Sometimes the class would get a little bit carried away--we called it being “in the wedge”, which meant that we were walking a fine line between being professional and being just plain inappropriate. The trainers kept us in line, though, and yet they were able to joke around with us, which made the training experience more than just bearable.

April 2002 - me in "Academy"

The class lasted eight weeks, then we took a test and moved into the “Academy” - a pre-training environment, in which we were on the phones, taking live calls, while being supervised, assessed and eventually approved to graduate to the “floor” (the actual working environment). We had up to 20 weeks to become proficient and graduate to the floor; I was out in my 11th week - cutting it a little close, but I was assured that it didn’t matter once I was out on the floor. Like graduating from high school, all that mattered was that I had completed it.

Team 11 - one of my favorite teams!

(I'm on the left side, second person in shades!)

For the next seven years I worked on various teams at Progressive. I went through several changes in management, where I had the privilege of working with some of the best supervisors at Progressive. I mean it. I really lucked out and had great managers during my entire tenure at Progressive. [No, I am not sucking up to my future supervisor…well, maybe just a little] In January 2003 I had the opportunity to take an insurance licensing class which lasted two weeks. It was an intense, brutal class and I was so burned out (and crammed with insurance info) by the time it came to take the test. To my relief, I passed the test on my first attempt and got my Colorado insurance license!

Me at a team meeting,
ready to take notes (Geek!)

The Progressive call center was relocated to a larger, nicer building in 2004 - its current location. I continued to work as a Customer Service Rep, but I was able to branch out and try my hand at another position in the Sales department (with my insurance license I could write and sell auto insurance policies). Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good fit for me in this position and I returned to customer service.

In 2009 I was moved to another department that handled customer service as well as preserving/saving policies from cancellation and rewriting insurance policies. After a few months of this I felt a need to move out of the insurance business altogether. I guess you could say that I was beginning to feel burned out. An opportunity came up for me to work in my dad and brother-in-law’s mortgage business as a loan processor and I jumped at the chance. That was in April 2009. By September 2009 things had changed drastically when my dad and brother-in-law separated from the business. I spent several months trying to be rehired at Progressive (unfortunately, in this economy, they were not hiring), then I had one job that lasted only two weeks - the less said about THAT job the better!

And then last month, out of the blue, my brother Josh calls me to tell me that Progressive was hiring for customer service. I applied online, took some assessments, had a phone interview, then I had back-to-back one-on-one interviews last week. And yesterday morning I got the call with the job offer! I am so thrilled to be coming back to Progressive, back to the world of insurance. “Insurance is a risk” and a risk that I am ready, willing and able to take!