It's all who you know

by Julie Martin
(Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

In August of 2001, I was a receptionist at a local datacom company who had just been told I was about to get laid off. I called my insurance agent, with whom I had a friendly relationship, because she had handled my car insurance for several years.

I asked her if she was hiring and she said no, but she gave me the phone number for her district sales manager, and I called him.

He called some of his agents, who worked for Allstate, and I was placed within an agency by the time I was laid off. I also had a new career path, due to this networking strategy.

It didn't work out at that office, but I earned my customer service license in insurance for the State of Florida, and the next office I worked at was a perfect fit, and I stayed there for almost three years.