The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsI had an interview today.
It sounds like a pretty good job. It's union and starts at $20.00 an hour. That's good money here in the heartland. Insurance is good, too. Forty-seven dollars a week for health, dental, and vision for me and my wife. The kinda crappy part is it's rotating shift work. I'd be on first shift for a while, then second, and then third. However, I'll still get two days a week off every week and the swing occurs after my off days.
I really hope I get this job. The interviewer seemed like he liked me and said they were going to hire a bunch of people after the first of the year. I've been a trucker for a long time, and I've been trying to get out of the trade. I swear, it's like the fuckin' mafia. Once you're in, the only way out is in a coffin. Well, hopefully this is my ticket back into mainstream society.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Union!!!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,698 posts)It does sound good. I hope you get it too.
And not getting out of the trade the way you would in the mafia, either!
BEST of luck!
merrily
(45,251 posts)Flaxbee
(13,661 posts)I thought you took another job a few weeks ago? Did that not pan out? Or is this one just better and you'd move to it?
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)even though it was better than my current job. It just didn't seem like the right way to go the more I thought about it. I had applied for this job and had to take several tests to qualify for it. When I got the call for an interview it looked like I had made the right choice.
Look for my posts here in the lounge, especially the one titled "Never doubt the Tobster." I'll provide a link if you would like.
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)Ptah
(33,035 posts)I wish you the same.
rurallib
(62,448 posts)Generic Brad
(14,275 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)I hope yours goes better than mine did...they emailed me afterwards, explicitly told me I had the best presentation, energy/passion, ideas...but they decided to go with the superior credentials of the other candidate.
What do you want to do, if not trucking, Tobe?
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)I live in Small Town, Indiana. I finished my degree in business administration at this time last year. I had to do most of it online and my options for that were limited. I had it narrowed down to a choice between math and business. I chose business because I thought it was the more pragmatic of the two. I also have a natural aptitude for business.
But it just hasn't worked out. Being 43 isn't helping me much. I'm competing with people who are 20 years younger than me who are also fresh out of school. It's supposed to be illegal to discriminate by age, but it isn't hard to determine how old someone is by looking at their experience, and if not, then, of course, in an interview. But not all employers discriminate in that fashion. Unfortunately for me, the ones that don't are looking at candidates who are my age but have 20 years of experience in their fields and are therefore much more qualified than I am.
If I were in a much more populous area, these problems might be minimized. Indeed, I've had a few offers in bigger cities, but they are about an hour and a half away. The pay wasn't good enough to justify the commute, and we cannot move right now.
I've been a trucker for 19 years. I thought that my experience as a driver along with my business degree would make me an attractive candidate for a management position in a trucking company. There have been several openings in the area for those kinds of jobs, but I haven't even been able to get an interview for one let alone a job.
The time has come to face reality. I'm either going to have to find a way to move or take the best thing I can find regardless of what kind of job it is if I want to get out from behind the wheel. I'm not going to tell you what kind of job I'd be getting if I get the one I talked about in the OP. I don't want to reveal too much. But it gets me out of the truck and I get over a $4 an hour increase in my pay plus better medical benefits for about the same price as I pay now. It's possible that my degree will come in handy there, and maybe I'll be able to move up the ladder. It already has been useful to me in getting the interview. I had to take a series of tests and score high enough to qualify for the position. I scored the highest level I could attain and a lot of that had to do with my education.
I'm sorry to hear that things didn't work out for you at your interview. Here's to better luck for both of us.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)This might just be because I've spent my career or some of it in NPOs, but I think you'd be a great candidate for a position in that sector with your background (and most people with business Bachelor's degrees or MBAs either never think to consider it or aren't motivated to apply because the pay isn't "Wall St." ...the real growth in positions in that field is actually for business-minded people that can make organizations able to do more with less. As the economy tightened and funding tightened, more and more organizations realized that they needed that kind of business-savvy person somewhere in their staff and to transition to running their organizations more like a business in the business of helping people.
Combine that with your clear concern for other people and the fact that you can flat-out write (sometimes I think I spend more time writing than actually helping people. It's a lot of writing.); I think you'd do well. You might need to spend some time (under a year) volunteering (make sure they understand your intent and what you're looking to do so that they can use you in a role that benefits both of you) to build applicable experience and it would probably help to take a course in grant-writing or fundraising. (If you need help there, just ask. I can refer you to exceptional reasonably-priced certification coursework from Association of Fundraising Professionals and The Foundation Center.) Try to volunteer someplace you'd like to work, you'd be amazed how many people are hired internally from the volunteer pool for opening that never even get posted. (If you need a list of local organizations/opportunities, try looking at Idealist.org or VolunteerMatch.org)
It's a broad-field, I don't know where but I'm fairly sure there is an NPO out there somewhere for whom your background as a trucker would be useful...possibly an NPO focused on transit-issues, transportation, highway safety; alternately one that concerns itself with logistics (think food banks...all that food has to get in and out of the warehouse somehow; disaster relief...same basically.) Or...maybe you want to be in something completely different.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)I haven't really looked at non-profits in part because I don't see a lot of ads for positions in them here, but I hadn't thought of volunteering at one as a way to get my foot in the door. I think that's a very good idea. At least I would be doing something that I feel good about even if it didn't pan out to a paying position.
I appreciate the idea and I'm going to look into it in my area. I might take you up on that offer for a referral to the certification.
Thank you for the compliment on my writing. I learned how to write well here at DU. When I started out here, I'm sure I came across as nearly illiterate. My writing style is still pretty much intuitive, though. I have very little formal training in the art of writing.
brer cat
(24,602 posts)I followed your posts while you were in school, and I admired you for going back to get your degree. It may not seem like it now, but I really believe (for what that is worth ) that your degree is going to pay off. This may well be the opportunity to get your foot in the door, and then move up in management.
At any rate, getting out from behind the wheel while gaining a higher starting salary as well as better benefits sounds like a winner. I will be sending you good vibes!
mnhtnbb
(31,402 posts)Did they tell you when they'll make a decision? Do you have to wait to hear until after the first of the year?
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)It took my boyfriend who is older than you, with an MFA and loads of college teaching experience about 3 years to find a job here in SoCal. It just takes a lot of time in this economy.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)That wage can be a real change for you.
Shift work can be rough.
But the benefits sound worth it.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)alphafemale
(18,497 posts)I actually tried doing OTR for awhile.
The companies I was exposed to were all awful.
This was ages ago in the days of paper lie/logbooks.
I was always exhausted.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)A lot of companies still treat you like a dog and work you like a mule. It's getting harder to cheat on logs, but the practice is still wide-spread.