Hey ya'll first post, and I had some questions for all of you. I currently live in CA, and am changing careers. I am currently doing office work, and have always hated it, but when you have a family young, you kind of have to do whatever gets you a job the fastest, and i've been doing this stuff before it was legal for me to work haha.
So anyway, my wife daughter and I will be moving to just west of Ithaca, NY in the finger lakes region of upstate NY. I took a harvest position at a winery/vineyard up there, where i'll be paid sept-nov, then after that I have to find jobs in between harvest seasons, while i intern at the winery. I wanted a good backup job, in case i couldnt find an office position up there...or maybe even a main job, if it paid well enough. So after talking with my warehouse manager about getting a class A, because he had told me i shouldnt have trouble finding a job anywhere if i had that, I scraped some money together, and plan to go to the Dootson School of Trucking, so I'm finished with the school and hopefully have my license before we leave the last week of July.
My first question is, is the relocation going to be an issue? will i have to retake the driving test in NY? Since I will be licensed in CA what do i have to go through to convert it to a NY license? Should I just go to school in NY? I was hoping to be ready to work right when we touch down, so i was really hoping to finish the test before we leave CA.
My other question is if the work is seasonal up in that portion of the states, or if its a steady need. I also wanted to know if I will have a problem finding a job. Since sure, i will have my license, but I will not have any OTR experience to speak of. What are the chances of finding a local or regional spot, when you have no experience? I'm sure i'll have more questions, but those are all i could think of right now.
Thanks guys
PS-thanks to this forum I've already learned to stay away from company lease programs haha.