Becoming a trucker with a college degree?

I graduated college with bachelors degree in criminology. Made honors. Also a military vet. Following year got into trucking. It’s in your blood or it isn’t. There’s a high percentage of people on here that hate life and despise their job and the deal life handed them and put trucking down. Kinda makes you wander why they hang on a forum about trucks in their idle time lol. I personally make good money. But if you are doing a job that enjoy waking up each morning to do, money doesn’t matter.

 

I agree with your friends. Once the buzz wears off you will as well. Considering a career that only requires a 6 week course to secure employment in a dead end job. That's setting your sights pretty low.

 

I didn't read all of the replies here but FWIW we are the same. I spent years in college wondering what to do as I was taking classes for criminal justice/social work. I became a Sheriff here in Cleveland (Cuyahoga County). It was a mistake. I wasted 4 years baby sitting loud mouth loser inmates and working for peanuts compared to the REAL world. Yes I had job security NO DOUBT! But you can have that crap I would rather roam the earth figuring out what to do than to do a life sentence 8 to 16 hours at a time (forced doubles).

If you enjoy a military type environment filled with wanna be militants and some real ones of course, then you may like law enforcement IMO.

After 5 years of it and seeing how my friends were still LIVING AND making money I was like hell no!

I resigned and chased I.T. stuff for 15 years or so until finally going back to flatbedding which I had done before any of that ^^.

 

Nothing wrong with driving while you are trying to get on with a department... Starting as a detective is unrealistic though, but you also have to be willing to move to different places.
I have a degree, and continued driving until I found a job in my new field. But even living in a major metro, I had to move an hour away once I found a job.
If you have a crim justice degree then you could always move to Texas, we always need guards, which is a stepping stone for a lot of people trying to get on with a small local pd.
But if you want to go active on a police force asap, apply to somewhere like Dallas where we can’t find enough qualified people to fill our academy classes. Dallas PD starts at 53k a year plus any overtime you want to work.

 

Wow...thank you very much for this entire post. And what an incredible story of your experience on the road. Just remembering and retelling the details of that event had to have been hard.

While my account here is new, I'm not. I've been reading this forum for at least 5 years and have likely seen hundreds of your posts. And I'm aware of the grief you catch sometimes, too. But like you said, not everyone will see the sunset. So I'm not going to wait until tomorrow to tell you that I find great value in your stories and in your experience. And I respect and appreciate your willingness to share your memories and your advice. This community would suffer a great loss without you. Just so you know.

 

Story telling does not hurt much after a time.

REAL stories really hurt with each story time. Now I need a drink or a pill....

 

This is true but it sounds like he already has his mind made up. He can try it now before he is tied down as married man driving a mini van..if and when he leaves trucking at least he will have his CDL so he can supplement that big $$ police job..not..

 

https://jalopnik.com/modern-minivans-can-now-smoke-your-old-sport-compact-1796587758

6.7 seconds aint bad. If the air temperature was below 50 (Colder the better for engine holley double pump and highrise manifold) my Torino GT would do it in just a hair over 6. But the biggest problem is that dagum C4 transmission which was a monster automatic made for all things a freaking TRUCK..... if you had many small gears and can shift them really fast with a auto you can get below 6 maybe 5 if you have enough of them. (Ive always wondered) btw, my car was NOT a 1/4 mile no way. It's specifically designed to accept top end beyond factory speed of 132. Ive had big buick beefs at 500 cid engines walk away and absolutely destroy me off a light on torque with a car that weights almost three times mine did. (THAT's Humiliating. Im still feeling the burn of a particular buick that beat me really bad in frederick long before I had a chance to do anything at the top of my 1st gear. He was gone. (The race was already won by him before 40. Much less 50.)

Ive heard of transmissions that do not shift gears but rather ride a belt or a endless loop that essentially changes when you add load or take away load. (Get going right now gives you a hell of a low gear that is essentially endless as your top end wears off...) but the idea that it will be constantly speeding up and spooling down would drive me crazy. You would need to seriously isolate that buzz box.

 

This is cool, you can get some good deals on minivans these days. I had 2 a Dodge Caravan, biggest piece of crap I ever had, started burning oil at 50,000 miles. Also had a Chevy Lumina minivan, the one that looked like a giant dustbuster, it was actually a good vehicle, wish I still had it..yep did the mini van thing with kids, wouldn't change that time in my life it for the world.

 

Don't worry you will be getting on the job training in law enforcement while trucking. It will be a little different you will be on the receiving end of the enforcement!