What Did You Do Before Becoming A Truck Driver?

Tomorrow is my last day working for AT&T selling cell phones in a retail store. I've been doing this the last three years, but before I studied Aviation in Alaska. (None of this is even remotely close to trucking, haha).

I've never been so ready for a change in scenery. I'm heading to Prime on Tuesday the 26th, hoping it's the start of a lifelong career in the industry.

I was a painting contractor for the last 25 years. Started with a almost nothing and thought I'd better give it up while I still had some of it left. Let them truckers roll. 10 4

United States Army from 2003- late 2009, Infantry/Air Assault, 48th BCT of 3rd Infantry Division.

Monica C. said:

... my pursuit of a degree in safety engineering, bored yet?

Personally, Monica, I am really excited about safety engineering. I'm working on some ideas to improve safety in the trucking industry.

TOTALS SO FAR Part III (new totals) It's been a month since update #2. Since then, our Trucking Truth community has grown with the following denizens. (I've lumped several careers together into broader categories.) In no particular order:

• IT - 6 -> 7
• Teachers - 4 -> 4
• Law Enforcement - 6
• Building Contractors - 6 -> 11
• Purchasing - 3 -> 3
• Warehouse - 3 -> 4
• Auto Repair - 3 -> 2
• Trucking from the start - 2 -> 3
• Retail - 3 -> 5
• Management - 3 -> 5
• Manufacturing - 4 -> 4
• Sales - 3 -> 4
• Firefighter - 2 -> 2
• Medical - 4 -> 2

New Categories:

• Military (lifer) - 2
• Ground Transport (non trucking) - 2
• Air Transport - 1

These singles, I couldn't or didn't want to categorize you:

• Phone System Engineer
• Counselor
• Recording Engineer
• Musician
• Farrier - still only one of these.
• SIGINT* Analyst
• Cosmetology
• Rodeo

* I worked in this field in the military, too. Just listen to a radio & figure out what's going on.

I have done boat load of things. I was a Nursing Assistant right out of high school for 6 months, this was a temp job while waiting to go to boot camp for the Navy. I was in the Navy for 4 years as an Aviation Hydraulic Mechanic at a pilot training squadron for helicopters in Norfolk. Mainly that just meant I did inspections, refueling and flight line directing. Training pilots are fun! Or is that scary? I had a lot of short term jobs when I got out of the Navy, but one of my favorites was being a tour guide at Norfolk Botanical Gardens. I was sad to leave that job, but my husband (ex) got transferred to San Diego. After working through a temp agency there for about six months, I went to truck driving school and went OTR for 2 years when I decided to go to college before my GI Bill hit my delineation date. Got a BA in Business Admin and Paralegal graduate certificate in business litigation. All through school, I worked 2-3 office jobs. Then, I worked as a Paralegal for about 1 year when I was accepted to graduate school back in my home state of Wisconsin. I did well, but didn't finish. Have been working for the State for almost 4 years now. Burnt out on bureaucracy and want to go back into trucking to pay off my student loans and just do OTR for at least the next 5 years, if not longer. Ironic to return to something I did before college to pay off my education, but that's how things are sometimes.

Buenos Nachos! May you always have good nachos! Wanted to push this back up the list.

Dropped college after 2 yrs, suckered myself into believing I could follow the crowd till I discovered my roots again and stopped chasing the $, even if it was for good reasons. Worked fast food for a few months. Tutored high school math with great pay. ~ 400 per week sometimes. After my hours dropped I went to try Conservation Corps in Minnesota. Fun stuff. got my hands dirty with a chainsaw and had my first real blue collar job. Working in -30 degree weather facing wind in every direction with snow up to your knees while lugging a 20 pound chainsaw for 8 hours? I always love a good workout but something screamed SUICIDE so I left. And we were spraying chemicals. not my style. Tried WWOOF (working on farms) which was a valuable experience. Might go back to it every now and then. Its a nice backup/travel method. But you need some funds. Now that student loans have come back to taunt me, I started driving for Sidecar. After 50 rides, theyre holding my pay so I needed something stable. I started looking into trucking and found a calling. start school in 2 days and have studied like crazy. Cant wait

Spent time in the Army. First as a SIGINT Morse Code Intercept op/Direction Finder then as a SIGINT Analyst and Russian language analyst. Then spent 17 years as both customer support and QA tester at several very large software companies. Got laid-off and decided I'd rather not do that anymore.

Trying for my first job as a driver for an LTL company as we speak.

Certified motorcycle mechanic, but it wasn't paying enough. So since all my club brothers are into trucking, I figure I'd give it a shot...hope I have what it takes

Raised on a dairy/crop farm.us army 63b/h8[light-wheeled veh mechanic/recovery specialist.auto mechanic almost 30yrs can't wait to get going girls all grown house squared away wife good should be sept/oct