In August, my boyfriend and I drove about 3,500 miles cross-country from Connecticut to California. Some of you may have read my tweets about the trip with the hashtag, #MBgo2CA. Besides going to college in Burlington, Vermont, I'd never moved before, especially not across the country. Luckily, fellow Champlain alumna, Grace Boyle, has a lot of experience in that area and I followed her blog posts about relocating closely.
Preparing to relocate is a momentous task, and one of the things you have to do is secure new insurance, in my case, auto and renter's insurance. In July, one of those catchy State Farm commercials, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," (now you're all singing that little rhyme in your head - I apologize), prompted me to try out their online form for a car insurance quote. Why not? We all know and love how online forms work, so I didn't have all the information in front of me at that time and didn't complete the form.
Later the same day, I received a personalized and friendly email from Steve at Heather Copeland's State Farm in Davis. Smart how they have you put your contact information in right away on that form! He noticed that I hadn't finished it and wanted to help me get a quote. He even put a smiley face in at the end of his email. So, I gave him a call.
Now read closely, this is the important lesson of the day...
We did the usual inputting of the vehicle information to get my quote, and he even said that I would get renter's insurance and a discount for having both on my plan. The crucial component to this conversation was that Steve asked me why I was moving to Davis. I explained to him that I had recently graduated with a degree in PR and had been looking for work in Davis prior to my move.
He prompted me to check out a PR firm where his friend worked, one that I hadn't seen in search results in Google. Steve even went the extra mile to get in touch with her and called me back saying "Send your resume over!" This I promptly did, including a personalized cover letter after doing some more research about the firm.
This little act of my insurance agent getting to know me ended up leading to an informational interview, an interview, and finally to a paid internship which I start next week. Pretty nifty, huh? So, if you're moving to California where the unemployment rate is 12% and people think you're crazy for moving here, or even if you're not moving, you've got to go back to the basics: network, network, network - even with your insurance agent.
Thanks, Steve! :)
