I'll finish CDL driver school the third week of September, want to get started early.

Hey guys. I'm new to the forums. 1st post. On here because I just spoke with my instructor at my CDL driving school in Springfield, Illinois at Lincoln Land Community College, and he told me I should start looking for jobs now, before I have even started my 4 week course which ends the third week of September. I'm looking for over the road work, which he said would be most accessible and the best paying starting out, and that I can get tuition reimbursement and a guaranteed job before even graduated provided everything goes well.

I've already visited a bunch of over-the-road sites and I'm getting pretty overwhelmed. I know literally nothing about which companies to go for, which to avoid, how to check for which have the best benefits... pretty much everything.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a site that answers most of these questions? Or does anybody have any advice.

On a side note, my employment experience for the past few years is limited because I was finishing my bachelor's degree, so I'm hoping that doesn't put me at a disadvantage.

Basically, I just need help getting a jump on the ball before my course gets started because I know once it gets going, I'll have less time, and I want to get set and have a gameplan soon, before I even get started.

Thanks.

 

Well, my bachelors is in screen arts & cultures with a sub-concentration in screenwriting, so it's more or less useless, even though I went to a good university. I wouldn't expect to be able to be a supervisor of any kind until after I had a year or so of related driving work experience, and I have none.


To you other guys, thanks for the advice against starting out on a lease job and checking out which companies to avoid. I once sold frozen meet door to door in Maine for about 2 weeks and they made you buy the food from them before you sold it... so I guess that's comparable in some way. I ran from that job.

The numbers I've been told based on making good mileage over the road are anywhere between 30-50k, which is more money than I've made in the past 2 or more years, easy. Even if made less than 30k after taxes after a year of really tough driving, it'd be huge improvement for where I'm at currently.

It definitely seems like truck-driving is more practical than looking for a job in my field. Film and TV producers barely want to pay you anything, and they want you to be really happy about it!


I suppose once the course gets going things will start to fall into place. My schoolmaster guy... not sure what to call him - program coordinator I guess - said that some guys apply and get good over-the-road jobs waiting for them the day they graduate, with tuition reimbursement (it's 4k at my school). He keeps touting our program as very good and claims that he pretty much gets graduates of the programs signed up for legit jobs with the major companies (Schneider is one of them). But I know things are often too good to be true, so I'm doing my research early.

Either way, I'd rather be driving than serving.

 

Actually, I pushed it back and will be starting September 24 and finishing the second week of August.