Passed my CDL 2nd try, now what?

You might have opportunities as a OTR company driver in CA short term with the AB5 passage eliminating O/O's by the hundreds. Or thousands.

 

You don't have to go OTR. Some drivers secretly want OTR, but don't want the "better half" to know it.
There's also line haul jobs that may require a layover once or twice a week, which isn't too bad.
For starters, there's Dot Transportation in Los Angeles:
www.drivefordot.com
Los Angeles, California - Terminal
7701 Rosecrans Ave
Paramount CA 90723

 

OTR is NOT mandatory anymore. It WAS a decade ago before you could get a local job.

Newbies really should find the job/company they want BEFORE going to school and work for that company immediately after school's end.

If you want to haul fuel, you have no option but to wait for your HazMat process to be complete. If there are plenty of driving jobs in your area, start with a non-HM job and stay there for a year. Your opportunities really open up after 1 year at 1 company. And 1 year at 1 company is much better on a resume' than 12 months experience from 2-4 different companies.

It's my impression that once you are beyond 30 days without work after CDL school you start looking like damaged goods to the good companies.

 

Good luck on that. The days of standards may finally be coming to an end.
Some day we might even find trucks get their power like diesel locomotives. The power of the engine goes directly into a big generator. Then it is a matter of switching power and electric motors are on the wheels. No clutching needed. Let off the power and reverse the power slightly and gain dynamic braking.

 

You can usually find a driver placement company, think a temporary labor company but for truck drivers, in many medium and large cities. Working for them lets you experiment with different companies doing different things but without switching employers every time you want a day off.

My best advice is SERIOUSLY decide what job you want and focus EVERYTHING on being a good candidate for that job, including sacrificing holiday plans, if necessary. One year at the wrong company can feel like a lifetime. I wouldn't pick being home for a holiday over working at a good employer. Short-term thinking produces bad results.

 

MOST driving jobs at companies that hire newbies are in automatic trucks. Something like 90% of new trucks being bought are automatics. Old timers like to pretend if you don't "throw the stick" you'll never be a real truck driver. They walked to school 10 miles, in the snow, uphill both ways and don't want you to miss out on that.

Shifting is far easier, although confusing at the start, than EVERY newbie imagines. I don't think whether you drive manual or automatic is any more significant than what color truck you drive is important. It is what it is. Automatics are nice in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but shifting becomes 2nd nature so fast (you will shift hundreds of times EVERY day) you very seldom need to think about it.

 

School is 3 weeks. A job is 1 year. Focus on the job, and decide about school however that company wants. The companies that hire newbies will pair you with an instructor for weeks of training. That's where you learn the job. CDL school is just about passing the state test.