By Sean Odenwald
I spent years not working, volunteering my time towards useful ventures supporting my children’s schools. I was so far out of the job market that it became a challenge to sell myself into new career paths with a long absence in employment as well as facing the challenges of marketing an Infantry Officer. I sent out over 500 professionally designed resumes to various industries utilizing the strengths that those in the military find useful, which earned only a handful of interviews and no new career paths, emerged.
I discovered VAS as one of 110 companies at my local Veterans Job fair in Orlando. I met Guy Grand that day and it has been a whirlwind since then. We spoke for the better part of 30min, by far longer than any other booth at the fair. I came home, read his online book, and signed up for my Insurance Adjusting license that week. I attempted to get signed up for the course that started the following month, but was sad to learn that it was full. I was able to sign up for the April course and it was a great time to go.
Everyone is skeptical at the cost and time put into the program, and the real question of “does it really put you into a new career path as easy as the brochures say?”. The short answer is YES! The long answer is YES, but if you don’t put the effort into your employment then your opportunities will dry up. You need to be ready for immediate deployment if you are attending school during the storm season and be ready to apply with a variety of firms so that you have a multitude of companies with exposure around the nation. I attended VAS with 5 state adjusting licenses, finished with 7, and now have 10. Combine that with the 16 states that do not have licenses and I have 26 states covered.
I took a needed vacation with my family immediately following the conclusion of VAS. Everyone else in my session deployed to Canada immediately upon graduation! Upon returning home I was receiving claims within 4 days. I have been working daily claims for two firms in Florida while waiting for a catastrophe to come in. In the mean time I have been busy applying with the VAS partner IA Firms to ensure that I have the maximum amount of personal coverage across those 26 available states. Additionally, to bolster my new resume I have been busy working on continuing education through VAS online resources and regional classes specializing in water and fire damages. I am on the CAT rosters of 10 companies with exposure in varied locations around the country and I am getting certified with the nation’s largest insurance carrier at the end of next month. This is my new career path. There is work out there. VAS can give it to you. Make the call.
-Sean O., (Captain US Army) – VAS Graduate 2016
