Trucking with a college degree

My turn to share my story.

Back in 2001, I started flying in the UK just for leisure. I was renting these small Cessnas and I decided after a while to go further and get my commercial license. At that time I was finishing College as a Electrical Engineering student. Few months after graduation, I managed to get all my ratings and certificate to apply for a job as an Airline Pilot. Aww that job sounds soo amazing, with the flight attendants, first class flight benefits worldwide and a great uniform. I was really happy to live the dream and when I was 29 in 2008, I was a proud First Officer on an Airbus A320 carrying 186 pax all over Europe, North Africa and Middle East. Back then I was making $120k and life was sweet. I was living with the girlfriend in a great place by the Lake in Geneva, enjoying night life and outdoor activites.

Then 2008 hit us pretty bad. Airlines were not doing so great anymore and they started to lay off pilot, mechanics etc. I was one of the unlucky ones to loose my job back in Sept 2010. Then I had the opportunity to move here to the US.

I started applying to airlines, mostly regionals. Remember the Colgan Air crash back in Feb. 09? Well these guys, despite their shinny uniforms were barely making $20k a year. Yeah that is $20,000. Just insane to see someone dreaming of doing that job. Problem in the US is that the Airlines dont give a cr*** about their pilots and pay ###### wages. Training is about $100k and you are going to make that kind of paychecks for quite some time.

I added my pay stubs for the past year and as a Delta Connection (the regional side of Delta) I just made $14k after tax. Thanks god my wife can pay bills.

I am sick of this ###### industry and I am ready for a change.

I dont know if you guys realized how bad the situation is for Airline Pilots but it is really a tough industry. Flying doesnt make me dream anymore.

That's why I decided to get some infos about getting a CDL and possibly switch career to Trucking.

Take care guys!

Tony

 

Yeah I heard this airline pilots got screwed. Just like the mechanics they moved all the work in the us off shore.

 

The original post was is it a waste of time to be a trucker if you have a college degree. I personally find the question insulting as it implies that one could be too good to be a trucker. I was going to list all my degrees and awards but that just looks like I am bragging. A degree in Law Enforcement should not be something that disqualifies you from being a trucker. But lets face it, it is a degree in law enforcement. It isn't like you have to be in MENSA to get on of those.

 

Whats MENSA?

 

Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world

 

JTHub,
You just quoted what I said to my sister a few hours ago. Life is what you make it. I've done a lot of things in my life. I've owned a flight school, been a court reporter, nurse and restaurant manager. Like you, I have enough experience with life to know what I want and what I do not want. I have never seen so much negativity. I have a friend who is a 98-pound blonde bombshell who has been driving for 15 years and still loves every minute of it. You can decide to be happy frying french fries at Wendy's. It's a matter of attitude. Yep, I know I can wait forever to have a truck unloaded. Yep, I know some customers will be rude. Yep, I know I can break down and then have to argue with the company about fixing the truck. These issues are very much the same issues I have faced in my other jobs. Planes break, attorneys are rude and dear Lord, have you ever had to work alongside an arrogant doctor or start an IV on a 80-year old man who is beating the stuffing out of you while you try to save his life? I've done some really hard things and accomplished much. Trucking is not going to take me down. I know there is a learning curve. I am not an idiot.
I am amazed at some of the things "veterans" post on here. It's like they think we are some green 18-year-old with stars in our eyes and big dreams of striking it rich in the trucking industry. I don't know why they have to drag it down and make it sound so awful. If it's that bad....why are they all doing it? This isn't rocket science.

 

Fluffy Guy, congrats on your degree..I also say go for it. I am speaking from 23 years as a police officer. Police work will always be there. I will say it is harder to get a job in law enforcement mainly because the job market is not as good when I started, therefore, officers are not leaving and going to other departments like they used to. The jobs are just harder to get nowadays. When I started, there were always openings at area departments, now they are few and far between. Public safety has taken a hit lately because of decreasing tax revenue and many departments are not expanding, some are shrinking. Eventually it will hopefully stabilize and get back the way it used to be. The retirement in my state is good but believe me, it is earned. (A considerable amount of it is taken out of our pay anyway plus it has just been managed well). If trucking is something you want to do then I say do it. If you decide to get out of trucking and go into law enforcement later on it will actually help you more than hurt you. You will have a few years of good work history plus a degree to boot. Police work is all about common sense anyway. I have seen several officers over the years with degrees that had no business doing it, some that did. Good luck! Hopefully I will be out there with you in a couple of years.

 

I got lucky. I was supposed to team, but, my teammate was suspended. So they sent me solo. Then she came back but didn't like how they run teams ragged and she was close to the point where she didn't have to. So she told them to give her her own truck. I've been solo in a new 2012 international ever since.

They tried to team me with a man but my husband freaked. LOL. Yeah. Training for a few weeks is different from living with one for 6 months. Women are hard to find. So I might stay solo. I like it. (Upgraded a month ago)

Things are finally going well for me. I just recently started getting good miles. Was trapped continuously in Laredo for a while there. LOL. Now im being sent from TX to Michigan and Ohio. Auto loads. The one I have now is rediculously heavy load with a crappy trailer. Had to use my hammer on the pins to move the tandems. Took forever. LOL.

 

Good topic, i'm 24 years with 2 degrees..one on electrical engineering and one on industrial mechanics. Both have been helpfull mostly on industrial since I was top of my class and cause on electrical they require a lot of licenses which for starters you have to pay extremely a lot to even get a try to earn and then find good end paying job or make your own, if not its straight to construction to install any electrical installations which isn't bad but not good enough live this days and its only temp. On the industrial ive got so many choices but the worst job hours and on a distance from home so much I could had ended a midnight shift zombie and just sit down job seeing a piece of aluminum turn into a small medical screw for spine hundreds of times on a 12 hour shift in 4 to 5 days a week. But its a lot of moving and trust me driving miles to that kind of a job on a '88 Corolla GTS aint easy and I learned that while in past working a on pizza delivery which was worse. So I have opted to follow my old man's footsteps and get into trucking and slowly work till I get a good average driving job cause that's what I like after all even with 2 degrees. Now there I wouldn't care even if I have to work overtime or after hours cause I like being on a truck and the feel of the road, its a good life. So we should all get used to try what we can or want to do in life as long as its something we do like to do firstly.

 

In the field of Psychology & social skills viewing someone with a high level of education or social class as less valuable or thinking they must
be miserable compared to those with more money or status is actually a result of poor or misinformed guidance starting in early childhood.

Studies have been performed that show the level of income in the United States needed to reduce stress and improve general satisfaction from your career is 75K on average of course healthy financial habits also have a part to play in keeping that number so low compared to what most people would speculate. Creating a number that is too high keeps many people from even trying because they think they need
to do something that is beyond there scope of reality.

Another thing everyone should learn at a young age is high IQ does not equal big money. A few years ago a documentary was done on a man
who tested so high in IQ he was off the charts and could not be measured. He worked as a bouncer in Long Island for minimum wage while perusing his real passion of writing books on the mysteries and science of the Universe . The main question given to him over and over is why doesn't he use his intelligence to become rich.