How do you pick a place to start?

Background:

First of all, I've been unemployed for 4 months now, after working a backbreaking job 80 to 120 hours a week with no overtime and barely breaking even after expenses, I asked for 2 days off because my lease expired at my old house and when I moved to my new house I was fired for taking the time off.

I currently am under a non-compete agreement for my current town (for 1 year) but I have been applying to everything within my field within reasonable moving distance and I have not got any call-backs of interest. I need at least $500 a week to survive, anything less and I might as well become homeless.

TRUCKING QUESTIONS FOLLOW:

Ok, so for like 3 weeks I've been considering trucking as a future career. Everytime I find a company that sounds good I google their name and find 50 people saying they got ripped off or stranded 1500 miles from home because of that company, or that their training sucks and only 5 of 100 students even get to drive a truck, etc, etc, etc.

Is it best to go to a CDL school that isn't in a companies pocket and then go approach a company for a job or is it better to ignore all the people who "couldn't make it" in this industry and go with a company that trains its own employees. I would think a company would want to make sure its drivers had the best training avaliable so they don't have any wrecked rigs, liability, etc...

I'm looking at Westwind CDL Training Center in Cuba, MO as an independant school, and I've read mixed good and bad things about them.

I was also looking at PAM Transport, USA Truck, or Stevens Transport as possible companies that have company sponsored training.

I know how to keep a cool attitude and get along with people and I feel I could survive a year with any company, even if it wasn't an enjoyable experience. But I would really like to start off with a company that isn't going to waste my time and try to ruin my credit or my new driving record (DAC?).

You guys have been through this, and learned already, probally the hard way so guys like me shouldn't have to. I've spent many hours the past few days reading TONS of information from this forum and it seems like you guys know what your talking about. I look forward to reading your replys.

 

Also I wanted to add I know about the effects of trucking on a family and I am still 22 years young and able to do this. I am hoping in a few short months my fiance and I can team drive for a company and earn a decent paycheck so in a year or two of saving I can be out of current debt and go back to school and get my Masters or PHD and another job without so much travel. But I think I would enjoy seeing the country and possibly even relocating to somewhere far away from where I currently reside. I've always loved 3+ hour drives in a car. I once drove from southern missouri to chicago in a day and it was one of the most memorable adventures in my life. I really want the independance of no punch clock, and no corporate idiot as a boss that lacks half my intelligence but has the nerve to yell demands all day. I am sick of working my rear off for low pay and poor treatment in this part of the world. I am overqualified for most positions avaliable to me, and underqualified for where I want to be. I am not afraid of hard work and I think trucking is a reasonable way to achieve my life goals.

 

Ya pure Monkey thats the road I've been on for weeks, but what one guys says is a great company, another guy says the company sucks. Some people have good experiences with a school, but I don't know if its school employees posting that or not. What is the No worker left behind? I really need to get a job very soon or I won't have any behind to work...

I would be perfectly comfortable living in a closet for a couple years with my laptop and cellular modem... Especially if my future wife can come along and also make more money then she makes now, which looking at some of the team drivers posts here makes me wonder why I paid for any college in the first place..