Any one in the Computer Field looking to go truck driving????

Well, I surely aren't eating Burger King, Wendys, Subway or ANY fast food for that price. But when you figure the average meal costs between $10 and $12 (more if you eat at the buffet....GAG), drink not included, PLUS tips for the waitress, it is easy to spend $100 per week on just one meal per day.

 

Thanks Manny,

I'm in my orientation with Swift right now and am on the road with a mentor end of this week. So far so good. I won't make a ton of money as entry level with Swift but they will reimburse my tuition and there is potential there.

And I HAVE read all the many complaints about Swift so please spare me hearing them again. I'm here and nobody is BSing me or trying to get me to see the world through Swift's Rose Coloured Glasses. I do know that Happy people don't really take the time to jump on a forum like this and tell how happy they are and why they are happy, there too busy. There is good and bad in EVERY job. I think those who are unhappy are 20 times more prone to take the time to tell you all about why. New truckers don't understand that there are good weeks and bad weeks. You may put your head on your steering wheel and wonder why your doing it at times. So I'm old enough to know that the grass always looks greener on the other side. That is the human condition. And yes, I'm a new trucker but I have been around the block quite a few times and I know each decision you make in life is a balancing act, weighing the good with the bad.

 

Interesting thread. I know a few drivers who are taking classes in IT to get off the road. And here we see the other side of that. Both jobs have good earning potential, and both can be very stressful. I think the bottom line comes down to what you enjoy or what helps you fulfill your personal goals. Every profession is the same in the sense that if you love what you do your job will be more satisfying. Trick is to find the one you have that passion for. If computers arent it, certainly try something new. You always have that education and experience to fall back on if you find out you hate trucking more than IT.

 

The thing is didntitellu that I never really got into IT. I would up installing fiber optic and ethernet networks, which is basically installing the cables for said network and terminating one end to a wall jack and the other end to the patch panel and then patching it in to the server or backbone. I never got a job administering a network. There is just too much competition.

 

Although truck driving seems like an adventure, the successful drivers will be those that have disciplined steady nerves and can not only meet expected deadlines, but stay ticket and accident free: not easy. IT jobs will be determined by the more technically advanced knowledge and enthusiastic interest in their work.

There are no give-away jobs now: anywhere. The more skills you have, the better chance you have to be consistantly employed. Your interest level and desire in each job will offer you opportunities above and beyond the competition if applicable. Of course if you lose your license, then it will effect getting any job. This factor along with the lack of ability to hold another daily job while on the road is the down side of truck driving - all your bets are on one job.

But other jobs are like that as well, like Engineering or Management since you either work 100 hrs/week (salary) or work unknown rotating shifts that make it hard to schedule other opportunities.

Truck driving has many attractive attributes, if it can keep those features in the near future - $$,$$$. But if industry can keep changing immigration laws or their implementation like they have done in the last 2 Administrations, then truck driving will not pay well per hour as compared to minimum wage (FL minimum wage is $6.67/hr).

The bottom line is Revenue paid (effective take home) minus expenses divided by hours you are working OR away from home (minus sleep time) so you can't work elsewhere. I know day-time taxi cab driving was tax free like waitress jobs, but ended up about $4/hr net: and that's bs for the in-city traffic risks to your driving license (azzholes riding in your blind side constantly). Wonderful people to work with for the most part, but meeting bills is a day by day struggle.

Of course your mileage may vary, and use this wonderful site to learn all you can for every competitive edge possible

 

Entry level IT jobs are basically dictated by the fact that there are 50 applicants for each job. And the fact that there are folks with Bachlor Degrees in Computer Science and Info System Management doing deployments for 12.00/hr. If your not factoring that into your equation, your working with incomplete/flawed information upon which to base your naive statement about "enthusiasm" and "skills" You will NEVER get your foot in the door to prove your skills because 35 of those 50 applicants have SOME experience and you have none since your fresh out of school.

And the others have some sort of thing that the screener likes or dislikes but you have no way of knowing what that is since it is SUBJECTIVE criteria. It could be anything from your age, to your haircut to your accent to your "insert subjective criteria here." That is why we call it an employers market now. Employers can afford to be just that pickey now because of the job seeker to employer ratio that we have in the current situation.

 

It is not incomplete/flawed logic in the least. You are looking at the whole job cycle as the first filtering process, which has always been a crap shoot.

There's 1) filtering, sometimes by incompetent low paid HR reps, 2) getting the job picked from your boss (which can be step one sometimes if you are uniquely qualified, and you will be filtered after selected), and 3) keeping/growing in your job which is the hardest to sustain, and what I was referring to.

If you never start a track record of honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, and resulting achievements, then what employer would risk their business and customer goodwill on a piece of paper no matter how prestigious of academic institutions? I've got 2 degrees from an ABET, number one ranked in the world for both engineering disciplines, Institute. That and $3 will buy me a cup of coffee.

If you don't strive every day, then you will not succeed no matter what you have done for them before or how many millions of dollars you harvested for them in the previous year.

When you are independent, it is a different story. But generally, any employee is a corporate slave, and you better not forget that on any given day

 

Things to consider.... Is staring at a computer , or staring out a winshield better for your eyes....I'd assume their both frustrating lines of work...

 

Interesting point.

 

Actually, staring at a computer screen does cause fatigue and eye strain since you are constantly looking at something that does not move. It's distance to you is constant. When driving, you aren't staring at the windshield, your constantly shifting your vision to near and far objects in front of you, off to either side and in your mirrors. As a matter of fact, one exercise recommended to relieve eye strain for office chair jockeys is to look at objects at varying distances from you sort of like getting up and stretching, but for your eyes.

So looking at a computer screen and driving a truck, as far as your eyes go, have nothing to do with each other.