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I have been in the collection industry for the past five years and have even had my own collection agency which I sold for a profit after being in business for only 7 months. Since then I decided to get out of the collection industry. I just recently obtained my P & C license and moved to Houston, TX. I have been having the hardest time finding a company to hire me without experience even though I have my license. It seems that the companies I apply to are telling me that I need experience or a college degree. I am wondering how anyone without a degree gets into the industry and gets experience. Can anyone give me some helpful information that can help me get my foot in the door in the insurance industry? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

You might want to try working in a Company side first. Alot of Agencies would hire a Company person with a license for the experience. That gives you alot of good background. Hope this helps.

YES its easy go work for a real Broker who has many carriers. That's your first question to them? How many and whom? Then find out if they are willing to split commission and ownership of the book you develop? You need or should I say must have BANK to get started at least two years. No golf, no girls or boys? No goof'en off every day is gold mining. After 3 years things will cool down. Do not work for farmer, allstate, statefarm. They will own your ass and your book. If you screw up or don't sell life insurance or banking products? you will pay dearly.

You will have to keep pounding the pavement until somebody gives you a break and is willing to take a chance on you. No previous experience on the agency side nor company side and no degree is a very big hill to over come in today's marketplace.

Finding a job with a company as a sales rep. is most likely the way to do it on the company side and there are always companies looking for this kind of person, you have to hit the insurance websites that are out there and there are many, start with the on line sites for Ins Journal, Bus Ins. etc.; contact the local BIG I and PIA and see what they may know is available; then there are a very large number of ins. websites out there; Monster.com, career builder.com; ultimateinsurancejobs.com;. go to http://www.ultimateinsurancelinks.com (they have a lot of headhunters in that list that you can look at.

There are many direct writers that may talk to you and i know SandDog said stay away from them and that is usually good advise but if they are the only ones willing to hire you then it is a start. that's where i started and it was a great trainng ground for me and was worth my time to learn the basics and then move to the broker side.

Good Luck

Your post corresponds perfectly with one we just had regarding finding employees for a small agency. Contact the small agencies in the area for one that's willing to train you either as a producer or csr. I'm not sure what positions you've been applying for on the company side but you're not going to get a position as an underwriter or adjuster or marketing rep without experience and or degree. However, companies always have openings for support staff where you can learn the business and work your way up to those positions.

Did you have to partner with a company in order to get your P & C license in Texas?

As a veteran Executive Recruiter, my experience is that people coming from other industries into insurance are not prepared to start at the bottom of the salary grade in order to learn this business. Having a license will definitely help you. Houston's salary ranges are significantly different from California, but an underwriting trainee in California right out of college will command a salary in the low 40's. Someone starting on the brokerage side with or without a college degree will start lower than that. If your goal is to get into sales - you may need to start off as a CSR for a small brokerage, typing certificates and auto id cards.

Good luck.