It sounds like I may have close to another 2 weeks of training left. That's almost a month of 9-5 information being pounded in my head (well tech 8:30-4:45, but you get the idea). That's not including the time on the side studying the plan documents and work flow for my particular plan (which we've only very briefly talked about in class).
I keep telling people it's just a lot of new information, but I don't think they get just how much. It's not boring at all--THANK GOD! It has allowed me to find the answers to every question I had as a CSR in detail and helped me understand why we're not taught so many things. Cause just about everything I've learned can vary completely from plan to plan and client to client.
Of my class, I'm the least experienced person moving into the Disability Specialist position. Everyone else has either done it before or worked with claims in another form (such as worker's comp, social security, etc). My biggest in is that I understand the company, but I still want to prove that I deserved my promotion despite only being with the company for 6 months. Because of that most nights and every weekend, I've been skimming at first and now going through with a fine tooth comb everything regarding my plan.
I thought I'd be more nervous at this stage, but I'm really not. I'm just really excited. Next week we get to start systems training. Right now we've been talking all about theory and now we get to talk about the application of all that theory. How we do our jobs instead of just the what and why behind it all. We also get more time job shadowing.
I feel like it's slowly seeping in now and coming all together in my head. Especially during job shadowing I can feel all these ideas coming from all over and parts of our plan coming up and I'm suddenly excited about how much I've learned. We did some claim scenarios, too, which was fun. Putting together all the little pieces and figuring out what the next steps are. Really gave me the confidence I needed to believe in myself. :)
I think one of the things I'm most excited about is learning so much about every illness and injury under the sun. There is ongoing training monthly where they touch on a new medical item in detail, which is so cool, but also just handling all these different claims will get me in touch with a bit of everything on it's own. Learning so much about treatment plans and healing duration times, etc is going to be awesome as a writer. Knowing various paths an illness can take? Priceless.
I know it's supposed to suck that I'm not making a living creatively right now, but I LOVE my job. I LOVE having stable pay. And I love that I'm still doing creative things (i.e. writing) on the side. I know I'll probably always be making side pay off writing or makeup my entire life, because it's something that I need to do as a person. It's all part of God's plan for me in the end. And I feel really good about helping people at some of the worst parts of their life, afford to be out of work when they are incapable of working.
Ugh, sorry this post has got to be one of the most boring every since it's almost completely work related. Basically, I'm really happy with my promotion, but I have no life right now outside of work until I settle in to my new position.
