@WONDER wrote:
Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. I'm especially intrigued by the claims adjustor and underwriter suggestion as I did a teeny bit of research and see potential.
A church friend of mine was a claims adjustor. She also had a BA in English.
Being observant - which a mystery shopper must be - is very important to that job. If you notice discrepancies or oddities in the testimony of people filing claims reports, then that can be very valuable to an insurance company. My friend was great at that part. She constantly saw "holes" in people's cases.
However, due to cost-benefit analysis, often her big insurer (I won't name them, but they are one of the Top 3 biggest) would "let the person defraud" them. It would cost more to go to court to fight the case than pay someone ~$10,000 or less (over a decade ago, so today may be a different amount). The time, lawyer costs, research costs, etc. wasn't worth it. - not to mention they might actually lose in some instances. They typically had stacks and stacks of files/cases to go through and spending so much time on a "small" case would cost them more than paying. So, if you got into an accident and had a shaky case (although, not totally implausible) and refused that insurer's offer (if there was one) and threatened to go to court, her boss told her it'd be better to pay the sub-$10,000 claim - even knowing there was a high probability of the insurer being defrauded. HOWEVER, her boss told her she could focus those same efforts and use those same skills on the bigger cases: $45,000, $100,000...$1M...etc. That's how they could protect the insurer.
Observational skills and critical thinking are very important for that job.
@ wrote:
I hold a BA in English and am pretty experienced with MS Office and G-Suite. I also have experience editing mystery shops and am quick at it, but the pay is low and the work piecemeal. I wouldn't consider sales because it's just not my personality at all, unfortunately. 1 cent, I actually never considered what kind of company I'd like to work at, so it's time for me to do some reflecting.
Other jobs (besides insurance claims adjustor):
2.) Technical Writing - pay is usually quite good from what I've heard of fellow English majors/minors
3.) Editor - self-explanatory
4.) Paralegal - a friend with an English BA did this...said she was always yelled at by her suprioers and didn't like it LOL
5.) Teacher - cliche, but it's not hard to get a job. You don't even need a Master's in many places. But, becareful, b/c often the alternative credentialing districts are also hard to teach in.
The same goes with substituting. Practically anyone can substitute teach who has around 2-years worth of college courses in many states (no degree of any sort even needed). Pay is around $100/day. But, like alternative credentialing, you could find yourself in a very difficult school environment with kids who are violent, direspectful, and the like. This isn't always true, but something to be prepared for, as I've seen it happen many times to well-meaning people. They radically changed their views of teaching afterwards and wanted out ASAP (at least to a better district or school). The job was stressful and even dangerous (with students attacking staff).
6.) Teach English Overseas - pay is low, but it can be a good resume builder for something later in life and give you a chance to explore a foreign country. My college dormmate dis this in Japan and loved it.
7.) Journalism - research and write articles for a newspaper - online or otherwise.
I believe there are a lot of contract writer jobs.
8.) School administration - such as admissions officer (friend with English degree does this), university financial aid office (no financial literacy needed, as a friend does this and has no experience...she has a history and chemistry double-major), new student tour guide, etc.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2020 08:58PM by shoptastic.