Learning & Development

Name Alex
Education Currently finishing my Associate’s degree at Frederick Community College, plan to pursue my Bachelor’s degree at Mount Saint Mary’s University
Department/Concise Job Description/Years Spent at State Farm Learning and Development Assistant to the Coaching Team, 3 years at State Farm
Location Maryland
Career Path My dream is to be in Agency Leadership!

After working at a bank for a few years, a friend of mine told me about an opening at State Farm. I was ready for a change, so I decided to apply for a job and started my State Farm career in Auto Claims. After two years, I moved to Learning and Development where I currently hold a position. I love my job here; no two days or projects are the same for me. The most interesting project I have worked in my career is the New Team Member Fast Track class designed for Agents. The class teaches everything from our background and culture to systems and underwriting. I spent time marketing this class to the Agents and organizing materials and binders with my Project Manager. For me, it was interesting to see how the operations center tries to educate Agency members. Once the class began, I saw all of my work come together and I was even able to teach the Customer Service portion of this class.

As cliché as it sounds, I believe State Farm is different from other companies because we are genuinely a family who helps each other develop. I have recently lost 90 pounds and owe a lot of my success to my State Farm family. They used to be strangers, but motivated me through, ultimately saved me, and my life has changed because of them! State Farm helped me in figuring out who I can potentially become.

During one of the toughest parts of my journey, a State Farm attorney talked to my department about our goals for the year. I will never forget he told us, “Pure exhaustion is a sign that victory is close…don’t quit at your make or break point.” Not only did that energize me to work harder in my job but it also pushed me closer to my personal goals. I don’t know of any other company that cares this much about their employees, from our amazing employee health services department and an online fitness tracker that keeps me going too!

As my way of saying “thank you” to my State Farm family for all of their support, I wrote a proposal to my leadership team for a fitness plan for my department. I want to share what I have learned on this journey with them and give back. I plan to send out a monthly newsletter including health and fitness tips, a Q&A section and have contests.

It is easy to stay positive and have great energy at State Farm because of the amazing people that are there with me. We are ALL IN…making a difference for each other, and making a difference for our customers. My best piece of advice for working at State Farm is to take advantage of every developmental opportunity you are given whether it is the amazing classes, community opportunities, leadership positions, or mentoring help. Also, sometimes State Farm is really known as being a “grandparent” company, not being ahead with technology and systems. We are trying to become more competitive with younger customers, so I would advise new workers to take advantage of this and develop novel methods of reaching out to this market. I am very happy to come to work every day and give 100% to my customers and coworkers!