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Landing your next job as a claims adjuster means having a competitive resume and a sharply polished cover letter, but it is important to remember that those are only the first steps. Candidates who earn job offers consistently have to be able to ace a face-to-face interview as well. That means being memorable and demonstrating your knowledge about the industry, without being overbearing or a know-it-all.
To do that, it is important to prepare with a mix of general job interview questions that are likely to pop up for any position, and insurance industry-specific claims adjuster interview questions that reflect the kinds of specialized skills and knowledge that top companies look for when they hire claims adjusters. By working on preparing for both lines of questions, you have the opportunity to link industry-specific information into your more general question responses, and you also ensure that you are prepared for anything the hiring manager might ask during your interview.
5 Claims Adjuster Interview Questions & Answers
What about your last job prepared you to step into this position?
Before I trained to enter the insurance industry, I was a customer service representative at a large call center. Our clients included both insurance clients and also some tech industry support for cellular phone contracts and warranty services. Both of those client groups involve a lot of negotiation with customers from a call center’s perspective, and they both taught me how to adjust a customer’s expectations politely, while explaining why it is important that we do so.
This job requires a lot of communication with clients. Not all of it is communication they want to hear. What would you do about a client who reacts negatively to your evaluation?
Luckily, this is an area where I do have a lot of experience. If I’ve already explained what happened and why I need to make the adjustment, the next step is to give clients the space they need to ask questions. By fielding their concerns and addressing them, hopefully we can bring the clients to the point where they understand. Failing that, it is necessary to keep my own cool as I point out what led to this determination.
Tell me about a time when you had to negotiate with someone and you wound up giving in. What would you do differently next time?
This is an interesting question because it’s actually what appealed to me about this career in the first place. I learned early on in life that I like to give people solutions that make them happy, and when I was younger I had a hard time drawing a line. At the call center job, I learned from that, and going forward I always ask myself a few key questions about who caused the situation, who has already invested the most in a solution, and why it is necessary to obtain my key core results. That way I am more prepared to stick to my guns and get what I need out of the negotiation.
4. This job requires flexibility and sudden changes to your schedule. How do you plan on handling the stress of the position?
Like any other job that has core responsibilities outside of working hours, I plan on making my work time flexible and taking the space I need to ensure that I’m effective in all situations. That might mean going in to process paperwork immediately after a late-night accident, so that I can afford to rest the next day without holding up anyone’s process. It might mean asking for more flexibility to work from home as needed so that I can stay more mobile. Until I know exactly what options will be open to me, it is hard to be really exact, but I chose this career for a reason, and its needs appeal to me.
What do you know about our company?
I’m most familiar with the services that you advertise through television and workplace outreach, of course, but most people are. I’m also aware that you operate as a large, international insurer, but that most of your sales are through agents and brokers, not the direct market. This means I’m likely to be working with clients who have their own advisers and representatives, so I need to be prepared to defend the company’s positions, but I can also count on having a translator on the other end to work with most clients.