Getting A OTR Job Out Of Truck Driving School

Within the last year I left 2 jobs without 2 week notices because of bad management and broken promises. I know all jobs has their ups and downs but I just wanted to leave and get started with a lifestyle change into trucking. My question is, can I get a well paying or any trucking job with that kind of past employment history? My driving record is clean and my criminal record is clean. I'm based out of Charlotte, NC

Eric, Welcome to the forum!

Quitting a job doesn't look as bad as getting fired from a job. I think you are in a relatively good position. Here's the deal: employment history is important because the D.O.T. requires that trucking companies have that on file. This is a typical onerous burden that government agencies place on businesses to try and accomplish their own goals. The goal in this situation is to make sure that the trucking companies aren't hiring potential terrorist that will use a truck to do some damage like they did with airplanes on 9/11.

You will need to document your history without leaving any blank time slots. So, if you weren't working for a period of time you just put down that from such and such a date you were unemployed and looking for a job. If you were doing some type of work for cash payments just say what you were doing and have a couple of friends write a note verifying that information and get the notes notarized. They just need a thorough accounting of your time so that they can confirm that you weren't over in Afghanistan at a terrorist training camp.

Now, let me recommend that you don't tell them you quit because of bad management and broken promises. Just say that you quit to better your situation and hoped to find more gainful employment. You don't want to start out establishing yourself as someone that sounds like they know more than the boss.

Do some research here on this site. Check out the Trucker's Career Guide and How To Choose A School. And if you are interested you really should read Brett's Book. It's a free online version of the book and it will give you a lot of great insight into what being a truck driver is really like.

Again welcome to the forum and feel free to ask us any questions that come to mind - helping people break into this industry is what we do here.

Thank you for the information