Can anyone convince me?

First year driver pay is usually in the $30-35,000 range. The potential in trucking is to earn more than you are talking about with your current employer. It really comes down to what you want to do for a career. I don't think that decisions concerning career changes should be based solely on monetary concerns.

 

From the comment above...

"It really comes down to what you want to do for a career. I don't think that decisions concerning career changes should be based solely on monetary concerns.."


Someone wise once said..."Do something you love and you'll never work another day in your life..."

I retired a lucrative job in aviation in 2003. The money no longer mattered once dissatisfaction set in.

I've always dreamed of driving big trucks.

Live your dreams and the money will follow.

 

Man, that's it right there! The money really doesn't matter once dissatisfaction sets in. That's exactly where I am at the present.

 

I can relate to your story. I was a CO in KS for about 10 years and now drive a truck. I would say you are a fool if you leave the joint. I don't know the details, but I'd guess you guys do 8 hr shifts, 5 days a week? So that means you get to see the kids/wife everyday and get 2 days a week off, you pry know that by x oclock you will be home, you can plan on being off for little Billys ballgame. Hop into a truck and say goodbye to all of that. One little nail in the road can cause you to have a flat and then you could be 2,3,6,8 hrs?? behind, so much for getting home that night ( and that's just one of a thousand things that can go wrong)You said you like prison work, why leave a fairly stable job that pays decent, has good bennies and most of the times is a pretty easy gig, to drive a truck? You WILL NOT have a set schedule like you do now, some guys will chime in they do, but they are full of it or an exception to the rule.

 

If you need someone to convince you, then stay where you are. Just like not everyone could even begin to be a CO, not everyone can be a successful driver. OTOH, having spent three years working a county jail, (out of a 20 + year career as a LEO,) I can't imagine ANYBODY actually wanting to have a career in corrections. And I was in a very laid back facility. . .

 

if you "love your job". why would you want to change jobs? your already financialy secure with a government job. doesn't add up.

 

NC4,

Let me ask you this. Who said your job is secure? there have been plenty of people who went through life hearing that they have job security, don't worry, then all of a sudden the company they worked for changed hands and the new company chose to lay everyone off and bring in their own people.

Part of the problem in this country is that no one has total 100% job security. What happens if the State of NC sells the prison you work at to some operating company and that new boss says, hey you can stay but your salary is now this and it's less than what your making???

A truck driver could have a major accident and do alot of damage to their truck and be out of a job, so truckers don not always have 100% job security either.

I think part of what gives truckers security and opportunity is that the industry as a whole has such a shortfall of drivers that its almost too easy to walk in and get another job anywhere or almost easy. From where I sit, I am thinking your possibly trying to live out a boyhood dream, of being behind the wheel of a big truck. This is the only reason I can think of why you have this job you love that seems like such a solid one but you want to do this.

Its either that or your deep down inside feeling like this job you have that is so great for you is not so great after all and your in denial of this fact.

 

I agree with most of the others. While it's perfectly natural to think what it's like on the other side, it sounds like you have a pretty good deal where you're at. I down play trucking a lot in my posts, but it can work for some. Generally, it's for people that are out of options or are "natural born leever pullers". People that come from your type of background usually don't make it, as there is so much that you're not told about, and that's why turnover is so high. I spent 35 + years in this industry, but that was a different job years ago, it was fun. Now with stupid rules, HOS, inattentive 4 wheelers, no place to park, I'm glad I'm out of trucking. Good luck.

DFWTX, I would think a CO would be one of the most secure jobs in the world, with all the crooks in the world, and as society continues to decay, prisons are so overcrowded as it is, I don't think they have to worry about being out of a job any time soon.

 

I was throwing out a scenario. I am certain corrections is a good job to have but there have been may great jobs along the way that evaporated.

 

It's got to be a tough job. My parents had "senior helpers" come in to help out, and this one guy was a former CO for like 12 years, and he said they kept bringing in more and more and at the end was in charge of 50 inmates ( non-murderers) in a big room, unarmed, and said he had several scuffles and a fellow woman CO got raped, and he quit.