Carter Larson

Mr. Rudebusch

Mark Larson, Insurance Adjuster

4/8/2021

Reflection

For my senior project, I spent about thirty-five hours. The most time-consuming part of

my project was shadowing, which was attributed for twenty hours of the thirty-five. The

next most time-consuming portion was my research essay. I would say that I spent

between five and six hours researching and writing my essay. This was quite

time-consuming because of the amount of time it took for me to both pick a topic and

then find good sources to research from. My product took me around four hours to

complete. First, I needed to decide what I was going to create, and then the actual

creating portion took the rest of the time. The next step was to create my presentation.

By the time I was finished, I estimated that I spent between three and four hours on it.

The rest of the thirty-five hours came from working on things like my cover letter and

resume.

Although I would say my project when smoothly, there were some problems I had

to overcome. The main problem I ran into was choosing a research essay topic. I had

already picked insurance adjusting as my career, and I was having a hard time finding
any information about it on the databases we used. I had to stray off the path of

insurance adjusting to create my research essay which was about stress in the

workplace. Another issue I faced was finding good days for me to shadow. Because

insurance adjusting is mainly dependent on weather, the fall and winter seasons usually

are quite slow. My mentor and I were struggling to find days where I was available and

where he had a full day. I was able to overcome this by just shadowing the days I could

and spending more time learning about office work than I originally was planning on.

The senior project is a very big part of your senior year, and if you don’t use your

time wisely, you can end up regretting it. What I experienced was that the project

seemed like it was still a long way out, but then all of a sudden everything was coming

up very fast. Luckily, as we worked our way through the school year I learned the

importance of managing my time and getting an early start. Shadowing was one of the

first steps of the project and it was by far what I struggled most with. I, unfortunately,

waited until the time was dwindling so I had to somewhat rush my shadowing to be

done before the due date. When it came to our presentation and product, I was much

more organized. I had learned from previous experience that it paid off to get an early

start, so instead of wasting my time, I used it. The main thing I did to make better use of

my time was to work more outside of class. I spent my study hall and some time after

school working on the things I needed to get done. I was able to finish my product and

presentation ahead of time which helped me spend the time I had left perfecting them.

I would argue that the senior project was one of the most beneficial projects that I

have done throughout my high school career. The project helped me realize that my

high school days are ending and that it is time to move into the real world. There are
also many other things that I gained from this project. My twenty hours spent shadowing

were full of information, I knew an ok amount about insurance adjusting before the

project, but I feel as if I learned more than I would have ever thought. I not only learned

during my time shadowing, but I also spent more time researching and watching videos

about the career just because of the curiosity I had acquired from shadowing. There are

many other aspects I learned that went along with the project, like how to write a letter

of intent, or how to make a website on Weebly. The final thing I learned was my

thoughts about whether or not insurance adjusting is the job for me. After spending my

time shadowing and learning, I realized that this is a job that I enjoy, and it is something

I will keep in mind.

If I decide to pursue a career in the insurance adjusting industry, this experience

will be very useful. Instead of going into the field with a small idea of what to expect and

how to do things, I will have already learned some of the basics. Although what I

learned about insurance adjusting will be very helpful, that knowledge is only a part of

what I learned from this experience. I learned all sorts of different things ranging from

how to do computer work to how to present to a panel. I want to take the time to thank

Mr. Rudebusch for making us do this project and helping us along the way.