You could become an independant insurance adjuster, just stay away from auto. You have to go to school to get licensed most places, but it won't be a long commitment. I believe there is a big demand for heavy equipment adjusters. Property claims and catastrophy are in demand as well at least around here. You are basically your own boss, contracting out for someone.
Curmudgeon wrote: Service advisor can be a very nice paying position. I should know, I've done it since 1985. Something you need to know up front is that along with mechanical knowledge you will need people skills and a thick skin.
THIS!!
btp76 wrote: My step dad is an electrical engineer. He works for a company doing investigations of large scale insurance claims. IE was it really lightening that killed your air conditioning system. That sounds like interesting fun work. He's 65 and has no plans to retire. What would I have to do to get into a similar position?
First, get an engineering degree. 
Then, find a job with an engineering consulting firm and put in some years - from what I've seen you need to have a fair amount of time in the industry before you have the background and experience to go into forensic engineering.
Having said that, working for an engineering consulting firm in itself can be a fun and rewarding job - it's what I've been doing for close to 20 years. There's a lot of variety so you're not stuck at a desk designing some little widget, and there's a lot of independence to the job...you can make or break your own career.
sachilles wrote: You could become an independant insurance adjuster, just stay away from auto. You have to go to school to get licensed most places, but it won't be a long commitment. I believe there is a big demand for heavy equipment adjusters. Property claims and catastrophy are in demand as well at least around here. You are basically your own boss, contracting out for someone.
If you know heavy equipment (from tractor trailers to bulldozers), they are in big demand. Trust me, I know this first hand, as I work for a commercial insurance carrier. The heavy equipment appraiser is a dying breed. Most of the guys are now at retirement age, or well past it, and not many are taking their place. It's getting harder and harder to find a good one. And they command pretty good prices. The fee is usually $400-$650 per claim, roughly. Obviously, you'll have overhead, vehicle expenses, whatever as part of that. But it's a good living.
Conquest351 wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: Service advisor can be a very nice paying position. I should know, I've done it since 1985. Something you need to know up front is that along with mechanical knowledge you will need people skills and a thick skin.THIS!!
What kind of hours do you work?
Heavy equipment adjusting sounds like fun. Tell me more.
Servcie advisor hours depend on the actual shop. I've done: 7AM-7PM (that seems to be a Toyota thing), 7:30AM-7PM, 7:30AM-6PM and 8-5:30, the most common seems to be 7:30AM-6PM. Saturday hours are all over the place, anywhere from 7:30AM-5PM to 8AM-11AM. It's also a retail job, meaning you will probably work days such as the day after Thanksgiving etc. The money can be pretty good, the best I heard was a Caddy dealer in Texas with guys making over $100k, glassdoor.com has info on places like Pep Boys etc along with some dealerships.
If you are really interested in that I'd try to get on with a dealership, preferably with a larger group like Sonic or Hendrick, etc. they tend to have better benefits like 401k and medical. I'd stay away from Pep Boys and places like that, they don't pay as well and are usually open on holidays which just kills your social life. Dealerships tend to close on major holidays.
btp76 wrote: Heavy equipment adjusting sounds like fun. Tell me more.
People break stuff. They call the insurance company to tell them it's broken....write me a check so I can fix it. You go look at the broken stuff, and decide how much it should cost to fix. You tell the insurance company how much to write a check for. There might be a little more to it, but that is the basics.
Property is the same idea, just dealing with buildings etc.
Curmudgeon: The hours terrify me, but if the pay is good... I'd like to be able to see the kids off to school and cook dinner for the family, but I'll look into it further. I'm taking a friend to lunch tomorrow who started out doing what I do and moved into a few successful jobs with the new car stores.
Sachilles: I know that part. How's a guy get into the field?
sachilles wrote: You have to go to school to get licensed most places, but it won't be a long commitment. I believe there is a big demand for heavy equipment adjusters.
Klayfish wrote: The heavy equipment appraiser is a dying breed. Most of the guys are now at retirement age, or well past it, and not many are taking their place. It's getting harder and harder to find a good one. And they command pretty good prices. The fee is usually $400-$650 per claim, roughly. Obviously, you'll have overhead, vehicle expenses, whatever as part of that.
Vehicle expenses? That's pretty low overhead. Maybe you pay for marketing your name, but otherwise I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
Uniformed Standards of Professional Appraisal Practises
I did however take a gander through their "Find an Appraiser" listings...holy crap there are only like 150 appraisers nationwide!
The Naval Reserve will take you right up to age 36.
sachilles wrote: on a silver platter
You missed a perfect opportunity for that let me google it thing that was going around.
The allpro link in that list looks like it has some good info on it. My best suggestion is to find an indy adjuster in your area and say you want to get in to heavy equipment adjusting. Just call them right up. If you lived here, I'm fairly confident you'd get and independent adjuster to pay for your training.
Oh,.....and so you know where I'm coming from, my wife works for an indy adjuster firm up here. Completely virtual office. Pretty cool setup. I've contemplated giving it a shot myself.
What's the future market for stuff like that? I would imagine that because more and more of our worlds industries are becoming mechanized that there is probably a fair amount of room to grow. Combine that with oil and gas boom, and you've got a fair amount of equipment out there running around, breaking down.
However, regionalism may be a concern. You'd better hope your the youngest in town or else the old guys will find a way to beating you to the job.
On the flip side, if every adjuster you meet is struggling to catch up with the workload, there is only room for growth.
I'm finding this very interesting.
Independent adjuster...meh, my experience was not as glorious as you described. Paid by the claim, busy as hell when it's busy, no income when it's not, benefits may be an issue. However, I did more cars than I did heavy equip because there were more cars out there. The heavy equipment (typically OTR trucks but some construction, industrial and farm implements) paid far, far more. I would much rather do it for a single company than as an independent. It's a similar level of corporate BS but with better benefits and stability, in my experience.
Find companies that insure such things, then check 'careers' on their web site. Some will train you.
Just to divert from the adjuster direction for a sec w/ my .02. Not all trades are dirty, back breaking work. A good two year trade school is gonna set ya back some in time and money, same as college would but half the time usually.
Not every plumber spends his life unplugging E36 M3ty toilets and drains. A newly certified welder is highly unlikely to walk into a clean TIG job, yur prolly gonna run tons of stick before that. But for those that find their expertise it's worth entry level and climbing the ladder. Don't know what y'all consider good or decent wages but I consider $18-30/ hr pretty darn good in my area.
If I were 18 again I'd be thinking Electrician, HVAC, plumbing/ pipe fitting or welding. Maintenance Techs are in demand in apartment and office buildings as well as schools and hospitals... now that's a clean job. Knowing what I know now my fav of all the trades would be Stationary Engineer.
Your wifes making 100,000k in these times. Thats not chump change but its still great money.
Think about a bit of a life style change in the mean time so your not choking yourself.
I would looking into being a service advisor also and see what you think of that.
In reply to fasted58:
You want to be in commercial plumbing it has nothing to do peoples own toilets but more about pipe work in buildings.
Welders/iron works make good money
HVAC,electricians is good also.
I work a dirty job" road construction" alot of labor and when compared to being a hvac or sparky they are like office works vs what I do.
In reply to Woody:
Air Force is were you play with the fun toys
A completely different thought (mainly because I've been there myself) - take some time figuring out that what you want to do is worth doing for you - you want to run towards something, not away from something.
I'm not saying you shouldn't pull the plug on your business if that's what's necessary, but make sure that you spend enough time considering what you want to do instead before you do.
joeya wrote: In reply to fasted58: You want to be in commercial plumbing it has nothing to do peoples own toilets but more about pipe work in buildings.
yup, I know it well. I been a industrial pipe fitter for 28 yrs. Starting a new pipe fitter job next week, hope that carries me another 10 yrs... unless a Stationary Engineer job comes along
Her salary keeps us plenty comfortable. I wouldn't feel right letting my flailing business bring down the family, so I carry the burden myself. My income can pretty much go straight into savings, if I had any right now. This the second time in my life I've considered leaving the car business, and I'm just considering it at this point.
There's no way I'd go into the service for many reasons beyond having small kids at home.
The trades, to me, just don't feel like forward progress. I can see someone starting off going into them and doing well. It's just not the right thing for me.
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