W. Craig Hardee ⋅ Pelzer , SC Allstate Insurance Company ⋅ 15 years experience

If you want to own and agency you need capital and licenses. If you want to work for agency owner you need licenses. I recommend the property and casualty and brokers license. Also life, accident and health license. Once licensed you are marketable. Once you have experience, you are extremely marketable. P&C agency owners are always looking for good licensed sales staff. Customer Service Representatives are a dime a dozen. I'd be happy to forward your resume on to my counterpart in NC.

Chris Wickers ⋅ Santa Maria , CA Wickers Insurance Agency ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Edward,

In addition to contacting auto insurance companies, seek out some local independent brokers in your area. Contact them directly and let them know of your experience with sales and client service and that you are a Vet. You have to sell them on you.

It will help if you get your auto/homeowners insurance license first. You can most likely do this in your State by taking an online course and then your State exam...and that could take as little as 30 days, and cost a couple of hundred dollars. Pretty small investment for a potential career.

If you land a job with an independent broker, you may get a small salary in the beginning and percent of commissions, very similar to working for an insurance company. If you find the right broker to work with, it could be what you do for the rest of your career, or you could go independent yourself one day and have your own agency.

I'm an independent commercial lines agent. I sell insurance to small businesses, including commercial auto. Its a great business to be in, but takes a lot of work and has its ups and downs....but so does everything if you think of it.

Most of what I learned in the beginning was from this site: http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/

June R Massoud ⋅ Burlington , VT School Boards/Teaching, Tutoring Business and Technical Business ⋅ 25 years experience

Warren Buffett just bought a corporation of car dealerships. Find out where they are and apply to work for them in the auto insurance area. Google him on the internet and find out what's going on. There's probably going to be a reorg, in which case they might be hiring people because they might need more staff. Best Wishes, June

Jamie Warner ⋅ Somerville , MA Liberty Mutual ⋅ 6 years experience

Hi Edward,

I work in insurance and would be happy to review your resume to see if there is anything that might help you find a role in the industry. Can you send me a copy of your resume and let me know what kinds of opportunities you were looking at?

Best,
Jamie

Ali Hoban ⋅ New York , NY AOL ⋅ 5 years experience

Hi Edward,

Have you searched through ACP AdvisorNet's Community? To look for Advisors with specific experience, go to https://acp-advisornet.org/community. You can then sort by industry to see Advisors in the fields that interest you. I did a quick search and found a few Advisors who work in auto insurance. You could message them and ask for advice:

https://acp-advisornet.org/community/szwv56/jan-clark
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/w23fwk/patricia-hunter
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/s8kg8b/matthew-arthurs
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/9bsq2p/eric-pinkham

You might also consider signing up for ACP's yearlong mentorship program for veterans. We handpick professional mentors for each transitioning veteran who applies to the program to work on topics such as resume writing, networking, sorting through education options, etc.

The program is completely free and comes with the support of an ACP staff member to guide you through the progress. We have Mentors in the auto insurance field, so you could receive one-on-one attention from a Mentor for a full year. Veterans who have served since 9/11 are eligible for the program.

if you're interested, go to http://acp-usa.org/Mentoring_Program to learn more.

Best of luck!
Ali