Long but true...and hopefully helpful.

I live in FL...no companies hiring from FL...right? Wrong.

Ok, granted I do live in NE FL which is a huge advantage over someone who lives near Mickey World or below (heck, for that reason alone, I would move north. All the benefits of FL here in the north without all the garbage that lies to the south...sorry, but it's true...but I digress)

Do yourself a favor...stop merely going to a company's website and filling out an application and then sitting by the phone waiting for the phone to ring. It is very likely NOT going to ring.

DON'T believe what you read about driver qualifications from the website. Complete the app and make someone tell you that they can't hire from your area...or that the speeding ticket you got 28 months ago disqualifies you...things change everyday. Same thing about background isues. Recruiting standards change almost daily. It is a number's game.

Look, most of us here who are struggling to get on with a company are newbies.

We can't sit back and be choosy to get our first year of experience or can we? I say we can...it just takes more effort. And aren't you happier with a choice that you have made rather than being forced to go with the only company that will take you? Take some ownership here.

If you are the recruiter and you have two people apply online but only one took the time or made the effort to call you, who are you going to give your time to? Who would you prefer to talk to on the phone and to hire? Are you going to call the others? Heck, no...they get probably dozens of apps per day each. There is no way they can do a quality job of finding the best of the bunch. Help them select you...pull yourself out of the pile and go to the front of the line.

Has the light gone on yet? Beginning to see you are, Grasshopper!!

Example...not braggin' just giving true life story....mine.

I just got my CL A CDL on 10/23. I was enrolled in an 8 week course here at the local community college. I don't have a speck of commercial driving experience. I have been a beancounter for the past 15 years.

I started completing online apps beginning the 3rd week of school (yes, 6 weeks (a full month and a half!) before I would be ready to go to work).

I kept a spreadsheet and made an entry each time I completed an app...Company, location, phone number, recruiter's name (if known...otherwise, after speaking to someone), comments re: the company, etc. Things I wanted to remember..."not now but call back on November 15th"..., etc.)

I must have filled out a minimum of 30 or 40 apps (I could go to my spreadsheet but I'm too lazy right now). I also completed an app on one of those sites that obviously blast them to several companies at once.

Most of those, I had to go to the official company site and do over. No biggie. If they are interested in me enough to talk to me on the phone...I am willing to spend 15 minutes completing the app again.

About 2-3 days after completing the online app, I would phone the company and speak to a recruiter or leave a message. If I left a message, I would continue to call back, at least daily, until I spoke to a live human being.

I left messages daily but admittedly, I only got one call back from leaving a message...and, ironically, that was from the recruiter for the company I am going to work for...go figure).

My point is...KEEP CALLING!...My number 2 choice for companies was one I learned about here, went online, completed the app, 2 days later called and spoke to the recruiter and told the recruiter how impressed I was with what I had heard and read about the company and that I was really interested in going to work for them.

It is a smaller company and the opportunities are few...but if you have the time to wait, you could get on their list for orientation and training. And they only took students at the rate that they needed them, usually only 2-3 at a time. They don't bring 10 to orientation knowing that they only intend to hire 2.

Although I have an orientation date with my first choice company, and I am thrilled to be going to work for them, I am still on the waiting list to go to Company #2 and I WON'T change that until I know that I am in and rolling with Co #1.

I guess my long-winded post is this...work at going to work!!! Call!!! Let them know you want to work for them...That you aren't simply trying to get on with the first one that sticks.

Recruiters are human...contrary to popular belief, at least the smaller company recruiters are. I am on a totally middle name basis with several of these folks because they KNOW I am interested in their company, I have spoken with them on several occassions, I provided info about my school that they didn't know and as soon as the dam breaks on some of these companies that truly AREN'T hiring in FL, I am confident that they will call me.

I say they are on a "middle name basis" with me because no one but my family and impersonal recruiters know me by my first given name. My friends and those you I have a good report with know me by my middle name although my first name is on all the apps.

Good luck and go to work to get to work. You can do it.

And yes, I still have my training company fallback positions too. I have scheduled orientation dates for 3 of those companies too in addition to the others I mentioned. I want to be absolutely certain that I am going to work somewhere. I'll put in my year (minimum) and re-evaluate at that time.

God speed and all the best.

Discourse is now over.

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How's that "Hope and Change" workin' out for you?

You want compromise??? Then agree with me...and we'll have compromise.
Why do I always have to agree with YOU for it to be considered compromise?

Nice, thank you.........

He's right. Go make noise, don't just be text on a form. My driving career started by showing up at a place I wanted to work at and working all day every day for free. I just showed up and started carrying stuff around until they put me on the payroll.

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The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

That is such great advice...today, with liability being what it is, it may be more difficult to do that but it is certainly worth the effort if you can do it.

When I speak to young men from our church about careers, I always tell them to use their summers to do unpaid (if necessary) internships (nothing different from what kajidono is talking about) at all the different businesses/vocations that they THINK they want to do upon graduation. They get real live experience and often find that a job isn't what they THOUGHT it was. If they are good, they graduate and go to work without the interview process.

I can tell you as a fact, we hired every intern that either worked summers for us or who took a semester off to work for our firm. And believe me, they weren't out there living at home with Mom & Dad like all the slackers who were looking for work upon graduation, those who spent their summers doing drunken belly flops at T&A hotel on Skinny Thong Beach.

__________________
How's that "Hope and Change" workin' out for you?

You want compromise??? Then agree with me...and we'll have compromise.
Why do I always have to agree with YOU for it to be considered compromise?