Careers

I am curious whether our careers choose us or if we choose them. I know in my case I chose the career but it came from two instances when I was in my teens that made me decide on a career path. 

The first one involved my dad. His boss asked him to drop off the daily receipts which he agreed to do. As he was driving around the block looking for a parking place a woman stepped out between two cars in the middle of the block and walked into his rear fender not hard enough to even leave a mark in the dust on the fender. She sued my dad for a large sum of money and played the injury up with fake neck collar etc. My dad reported it to his car insurance company and they declined as he was doing work for his company and that is commercial and not allowed under a private passenger policy. 

He then reported it to his bosses insurance company who also declined as his car wasn't added to their policy. His boss refused to cooperate and he ended up with a $5,000.00 settlement for which he had to take out a mortgage on our home to pay. This seemed grossly unfair to me and he died from cancer a few months later. 

The next situation was when I was 16 years old. I was driving home from visiting my grandma and as I crossed a street another driver was showing off for his friends and laid rubber 20-30 feet long. He lost control and ran into me just as I passed the intersection. He was insured with All Farm and I met with his adjuster who told me his insured was at fault but that I was just a kid with a paper route and if I wanted my car fixed to fix it myself....they would not pay a dime. He said I could sue them but they had plenty of money and I couldn't afford the expense of a law suit. 

They were right of course I couldn't afford to sue and they would do just like he said and drain my savings. That made up my mind right there sitting across from his desk that I had a career path and I would make sure no one else was bullied and intimidated like I had been. I served two hitches in the USAF, and got out and went to work for a large insurance company. I was an adjuster, initially promoted field supervisor, claim manager, home office claim supervisor, regional supervisor, and retired as a senior claim supervisor. I made sure no one was treated like I was or my dad. I handled thousands of claims and supervised thousands more. Not one of those insureds or claimants can say they were not treated fairly and with respect. I made sure my adjusters performed to that standard also.

Incidentally, I was All  Farm's worst enemy. I held their feet to the fire and made sure they didn't do to any of our insureds what they did to me. That one adjuster really cost them considerably in the long run. One of their insureds backed into our vehicle a few years ago and they still bully and try to get out of paying. I could have sued them but I had had enough of that when I was pursuing my career so I did not.  I figured they took enough grief from me during my working days and let them off the hook but this time I was not bullied and the damage was slight and not worth my time to pursue. Same obnoxious attitude by their adjuster those many years later. I'm surprised they are still in business and one of their regional managers was a good friend of mine when I was working. We had lots of enjoyable times together.

So what was your experience - did your career pick you or did you pick it???