Should have gone to college

That goes for most things in life. I use my degrees to my advantage to show employers I have gone that extra step and can work hard to obtain my goals

 

A degree doesn't do much in this business unless you plan on moving to the corporate office. Having a degree doesn't necessarily mean that you are more intelligent than someone who doesn't have a degree, but it makes you more learned. It can make you a more well rounded person. A degree can open doors for you. If an employer has two individuals applying for a position and only one has a degree, the employer is more likely to give the degreed individual the opportunity. Some companies don't care what your area of study, only that you have completed your degree. When someone has a degree is shows that you are someone who sets and obtains goals. It shows that you can follow through.

If you have an opportunity to get your degree, I would encourage you to do so. This is a profession where you can usually work as long as you can pass the dot physical and have a clean MVR. But, should you get hurt or have health problems and can no longer pass the dot physical, you may need to look for another career. A degree could help pave the way for a new direction.

 

A thermometer has 120 degrees and still spends it's time stuck up someone's butt.

 

As said earlier no one can take your education from you, same goes for your CDL. If you go back to school and get your degree dont let go of your CDL, never know when you may have to use it again.

 

Rerun, don't put the Airforce down. The Airforce saved our a@# on many occasion. I was Army. I went in # 17. I had a choice. I wasn't forced with the option of "go in the service or jail". No one now is. I was proud I served and and thank all that served (and those pardon me Redwave for using this term) "stick jockey's" that saved our a@# on many occasion.

 

Thanks everyone for all the positive posts. BTW, Rerun has been banned from posting due to these and other controversial posts he was making.

 

and now I'M BAAAACK.....

i was not putting down our military, far from it. even as a young guy myself, i did what was required by law back then and that was sign up for the draft. but i was never called, Nixon (i think it was) had ordered the pullout of Vietnam..??

i was disagreeing with the advice that the o/p go into the military for his job training, that you gave him. the military experience is not always used in consideration of one getting a trucker's job, for gosh sakes, I SEE THIS in the schools...!! we have had military people with 3,5,10 years driving everything they have, only to be REJECTED for a driving job and HAVE TO go to a school again...!! does that make any sense...after learning it via the military..?? no, it doesn't.....

so in closing, i never disliked the military (why on this God's earth would i do that..??), but i try (when i can) not to recommend someone join up in "some instances"....and the o/p was one of "those instances"....

mention of you being a "fly boy" was uncalled for, and i should not have done that, but then isn't that just one nickname some military people get, like "grunt"...???

 

Hahaha! nice - return posts!

 

I had not seen this thread until it was called to my attention a few minutes ago. Seems to me like there was a lot of uncalled for stuff, and over reaction here. Anyway, I hope that is behind us, because this thread sure seems to me to have some value.

Welcome back to Rerun. Sometimes "saying it like it is," in one persons mind, is throwing "acid in the face," to somebody else. We all have a right to our own opinions, no matter HOW MISGUIDED THEY MAY BE!

OK, now to the OP:

Danny, you sound like an awful lot of young folks who have a mistaken idea of what trucking is all about. It is NOT "romantic." It is NOT (normally) "an adventure."

It is work, plain and simple. It is hard, demanding work, with long hours and many things that are not good in the industry. There are much easier jobs, more rewarding jobs, better paying jobs and certainly less stressful jobs.

Unfortunately, there are thousands of people each year, both young and old who are sold a bill of goods by truck driving schools. They think they are going to be on a "paid vacation," more or less while they are out here driving.

'Tain't so.

You say you think you would hate OTR. But you also say, basically, that you don't want to do a lot of heavy physical work. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, that is pretty much what your choices are. Oh yeah, if you are REAL LUCKY, you can find an OTR job where you ALSO do a lot of heavy physical work. It is just the life of a trucker.

I believe that you have a bit of maturing to do, which at your age is not at all surprising or unusual. But you are going to have to realize that no matter what job you have, there are going to be things that you don't like about it. There is going to be stress, and/or quite often long hours, and/or quite often hard physical work.

I don't know of any job or profession where you can make any type of money at all, where you don't have to give of yourself to get your needed returns. There is always SOMETHING there.

Just as an example, who would think that an accountant would have a stressful job, or long hours? Well, just about anybody who has done that type of work will tell you about deadlines that have to be met no matter what. They will tell you about computer failures or someones mistakes that keep them at the office way late at night.

Or people who work retail. They will tell you of the stresses they have to put up with, caused by angry and often unreasonable customers. And often unreasonable bosses who expect them to do the work of four people, for less than one person's wages, and still keep the customer happy.

I don't care what the job is, there are draw backs. You have to decide what you really WANT to do, and realize that you want to do it badly enough to put up with the negatives. Otherwise, you will just be one of the millions of people who are stuck in a rut, in a job that they hate, with no end in sight.

Good luck.