Connor: Hello and welcome to another edition of Big Rig Banter, a show about all things commercial driving and transportation-related. I’m your co-host, Connor Smith.
Troy: And I’m your co-host, Troy Diffenderfer.
Connor: The date is April 5th, 2017. This is Big Rig Banter.
Music – Whether you’re hitting the road or kicking back in the cab, it’s time to take a load off with Big Rig Banter. Powered by AllTruckJobs.com, your source for finding the trucking jobs drivers really want. Get ready to shift into gear and let the conversations roll.
Connor: Alright, so thank you all for joining us for our second episode of Big Rig Banter. What are we going to be covering today Troy?
Troy: Well Connor, you know last week we talked about trucking schools and the various steps you need to take to get into a trucking school and this week we’re gonna hit finding a job. Now that you’ve passed your trucking school exam, it’s time to kind of look for a job, so we’re gonna cover things like resume tips and help, what type of job you’re looking for, which I’ll cover in a blog later on; covering what CDL license type is right for you, and then we’re also going to talk about the interview process. We’re gonna give you some questions to expect when your employer interviews you. But, before we get to all that, we’re gonna hit on some trucking news.
Troy: Alright, well let’s get to the news. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the country’s infrastructure received a near-failing grade, and I know if you remember the last episode I talked about the failing bridges and then this study kind of encompasses the infrastructure of the country as a whole. And unfortunately, it’s still getting negative reviews. Just like it was in 2013, America earned a D+ due to thousands of outdated bridges, roadways, and tunnels, all ill-equipped to manage current traffic volumes and a crumbling transit system. All these things result in massive congestion, ultimately slowing down freight corridors and impeding economic growth. The ASCE also concluded that an estimated $4.5 trillion, that’s trillion with a T, is needed to achieve the significant improvements the transportation grid so desperately needs. As we reported last time, many of the nations’ bridges are considered structurally deficient, although they moved up from a D to a C+ since 2014. And this kind of goes to show that our infrastructure is in need of help, and it really plays a safety issue. Tragedy can strike anywhere, and unfortunately, our next news topic does cover tragedy. Connor, why don’t you tell us about that?
Connor: That’s right. So, in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado where recent wildfires have burned some 2 million acres of grasslands, many farms were destroyed, cattle were killed, and the lives of at least 7 people were lost. So, to help out the affected families and these farmers, truckers have actually been working to provide donations of hay and feed for livestock, via a six truck convey that departed from Michigan. The initial load delivered nearly 50,000 pounds of hay to those affected and, you know, the farming community and the trucking communities are both very tight-knit and actually closely related, so it’s really cool to see people helping each other out in times of need like this.
Troy: Yeah, it’s cool to see the more that we kind of interact with the trucking community through this podcast. I mean, we write about it on a weekly basis and stuff like that. It’s awesome to see how tight-knit that community is – truckers working with farmers and a bunch of other communities. They’re really willing to help out whoever’s in need. And in more good news, in a future episode, we’re gonna talk about trucking efficiency and some of the steps that many trucking companies are taking to make their rigs a lot more efficient. UPS has recently announced that it will be investing more than $90 million in natural gas facilities and vehicles including fueling stations, compressed natural gas trucks, and liquefied natural gas vehicles. The company plans to build an additional six compressed natural gas fueling stations and add 30 new CNG tractors and terminal trucks, as well as 50 liquid natural gas vehicles to its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet. In an interview, UPS senior vice president of global engineering and sustainability Mark Wallace said, “We know the importance of investing in natural gas globally for our fleet and the alternative fuel market. In 2016, we used more than 61 million gallons of renewable natural gas. This helped us avoid the use of conventional gas in diesel and decrease CO2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons.” The six new CNG stations will be built in Ontario, California, Orlando, Florida, Salina, Kansas, Louisville, Kentucky, Greensboro, North Carolina, and Vancouver, British Columbia. So far, the company has driven over a billion miles since 2000 with alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles, which include natural gas, electric hybrid, and other types of power trains.
Connor: Yeah, so that’s cool to see companies, you know, taking part in the new clean energy initiatives and finding ways to actually apply things like liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas in a freight situation. Hopefully, that can serve as a good example for what can be done, you know, and they’re not being too showy about it because they’ve been doing it since like 2000, so that’s pretty cool.
Troy: Yeah, and like I said we hope to devote an entire episode to kinds of sustainability and being able to truck in the future without depleting our resources. So keep an eye out for that, but before we get to our main topic we’re gonna take a short break.
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Connor: Alright, so welcome back to Big Rig Banter. We’re gonna get started on our main topic today. We’re gonna be focusing on some tips and tricks for when you’re interviewing for trucking jobs, including the main things to consider during your job search. So, first off, resumes. You may not think that you need a resume, necessarily, for a driving job. You know, you may have been doing this for years but even experienced drivers can really benefit from having a solid resume.
Troy: Yeah, people assume you kind of just walk into an interview and if you nail it, then you’re good to go, but having a resume is really your first impression even before that interview.
Connor: And so many people will just look at your resume and just say, “nope this looks like crap” and not even consider the skills that are listed there so.
Troy: Exactly.
Connor: Yeah, it’s a very crucial part, so before even nailing that interview, what do you need to put on a resume? What are we, what should we be thinking about? What’s good to include? To start, generally speaking, a one-page resume is usually ideal because, you know if you have more than one page, if that gets sent to your employer or you print it out or they print it out, it’s possible that the other page could get lost and then they’re left with an incomplete script, and they’re like, “what is this guy thinking? Is this all that he has?” And that’s just something you can control, so as long as you can have it all to one page that’s usually good. So realistically, there are several things you’re gonna want to include in a trucking resume. First off, it’s probably going to be your basic contact info at the top, so just your name, email, phone number, possibly your address but not always, followed by a small intro then. So, this could just be a quick bio about your past experiences or what you want to achieve at your new job or what you’re looking to do with the profession. Basically just some short, sweet introduction to who you are and what you’re trying to do. Next, it’s probably good to put your license types and your credentials, as far as what kind of trucks you’re able to drive and other endorsements and things like that, just to kinda get that out of the way and to catch people’s eyes if they’re looking for a specific skill set or something like that. You’re probably going to want to put your experience after that, so past jobs, you’ve held, how long you’ve held them, what your responsibilities were there and how you’ve met expectations, things like that. Just short descriptions after every job, and be sure to keep this clean. I mean, at this point it’s usually in a two-column format so you’ll put kind of the date on one side of the page with the skill set and the job title on the other side, just to keep it clean and easily read. It’s mostly just about making everything very concise and clear to the employer. So, after your experience, it will come to your education. If you went on to any higher education, like technical school or any other type of college, that’s probably a good place to put that. You can put your high school education if you did graduate high school, but usually, it’s not needed at that point either. It’s just all at your discretion – whatever you think would be a selling factor, but just don’t go overboard. Finally, include your skills and strengths. So, at this point, you’re gonna just want to emphasize things that you’re good at, things that you’ve maybe achieved in the past, any specific challenges you’ve overcome and how you’ve overcome them, or just your general personality traits that you think would make you a good candidate. And you’re not gonna want to use buzzwords like team player or always on time or, you know, things that are gonna sound cheesy, but yet don’t lack the necessary information when you can include it. So, just try to get in the mind of your employer and create something you think they’d want to read without lying, I think is probably one of the bottom lines there. So, you know maybe you’re not exactly design-savvy when it comes to making resumes or designing documents, so you can actually check out a lot of free resources online. Troy, I know you were looking at some of what’s available on the internet.
Troy: Yeah, you know guys, when in doubt use Google. Google is a wonderful tool and it’s there for you to use. You’re gonna see tons of articles that will be titled “best resumes” or “100 resume tips and ideas.” There’s tons of programs that will help you build a resume, and there’s actually tons of templates available online to make the process easy. But I know, Connor, you talked about kind of this master resume technique that you’ve used in the past, so tell our listeners more about that.
Connor: Right, yeah, so essentially when I was going to school, in college, they told us to make a master resume, which included every single thing we’ve done, all of our experience, and then save that as a separate document that we could pull elements from and create specific resumes for a job that we are applying for. So, it’s essentially just a giant resume, a couple of pages long, that has variations of all of your skill sets and things like that, so, you know, you can use things like Google docs or online document hosting services to create this resume, and then just pick it apart as you need to and create different versions of it. It’s pretty easy actually, but that’s usually a good piece of advice, especially if you’re applying for different types of jobs. So, maybe you’re applying for a driving job, you know, a couple months out of the year, and then you wanna go do something different a few other months out of the year or even you might be applying for a management position or something like that, so those are going to be different skillsets and things you need to list. So, as long as they are in a master document it’ll be easy to edit and create when you need to. So, kind of speaking to that, when you’re applying for a job you want to create the resume for that specific job, and Troy I know that you just wrote a blog kind of discussing that as far as CDL license types go?
Troy: Yeah, the last episode I kind of spoke on the different type of CDL license types and what they all cover, but I wanted to kind of dig in and figure out what kind of license type is perfect for what kind of what job you want. And, I turned my blog into a new game show titled “Which CDL license type is for you,” and I kind of went through the different jobs you might have and which CDL license type is the right fit. It’ll depend on if you want to drive within the state or if you wanna drive across the country. Maybe you want to be a school bus driver, maybe you want to drive a dump truck. Maybe you want to haul larger loads than usual. So, there’s a variety of different CDL license types and endorsements that you need to be aware of, so feel free to check out that blog at Alltruckjobs.com/blog.
Connor: Cool, yeah, that sounds like a great post. All right, so now that you’ve created the perfect resume, the next step is nailing the interview. So, we have a few tips here as far as interviews go. You’re gonna wanna dress to impress. I mean you may be thinking that this is like a driving job and you’re not necessarily in an office environment or anything like that, but that doesn’t really matter when you’re meeting somebody for the first time, especially an employer. So, you’re still going to want to dress up a little bit. You know, business casual attire, probably you don’t want to go over the top and wear like a tuxedo or something like that. Just enough to look nice; comb your hair, all that good stuff. So, besides the dress, I find it’s also useful to get to the interview ahead of time. You know, maybe just sit in your car, and psych yourself up, listen to some motivational tunes or podcast, such as Big Rig Banter, and just really get it in your head that you’re going to be successful and do everything in your power to create the proper mental environment for an interview. That’s just my word of advice, but you’re also gonna want to prepare yourself for what specific questions might be asked of you during the interview. So, we found several questions that uh you are likely to encounter. The first one: What challenges have you faced and overcome? So, usually when you’re asked that, what employers wanna know is, are you prepared for the ups and downs of the trucking lifestyle? What specific examples do you have of overcoming challenges? What are your strategies? They’re just asking if you’re going to be a good fit for this type of job, and just be honest and don’t lie. If you’ve made a mistake in the past, you know, just be sure to detail how you’ve overcome those things and how you’re different now.
Troy: Yeah and they’re also gonna ask you: “What are your plans for your career path?” They really want to know how committed you are to this job. Studies have shown that the turnover rate for truckers is slowly declining, which is good. Truckers are sticking with their jobs more and more, which is something that obviously trucking companies like to see. They also want to know what key personality traits you have. Are you a committed person? Are you gonna be on time every day? And they’re gonna look at your past history. Have you been hopping around from job to job and not staying very long? That’s something to keep in mind. They want to see that you’re committed to the company and that you’re gonna be willing to stay and put in the effort to move forward
Connor: So, next, another question you might be asked is, “What made you want to become a truck driver in the first place?” So, they want to know, are you a driver for the right reasons? What are your true interests and expectations for the job? So, really, they’re just trying to make sure that you’re in for a little bit more than money. We realize that it is about making a living and all of that, and they do too, but from an employer standpoint it’s good to know that somebody is enthusiastic about what they’re doing and they’re gonna be kind of naturally enjoying the job as they go along
Troy: And they’re also going to ask you: “How do you handle stress?” It’s no surprise that trucking is one of the most stressful jobs out there, so they really want to see how you stay cool under pressure. How do you cope with the long hours? How do you cope with driving through the night and not seeing your family that often? They really want to see if you can handle this, so that’s something to ask yourself before you get into the career. Can you handle that stress, and if you can, then this might be the perfect job for you.
Connor: Yeah and so hinging on, you know, how you manage stress, also how do you stay motivated? Are you engaged in the job? Are you self-motivated? They want to know, again, that you’re able to meet deadlines and that you’re able to produce the right results for the company without them having to, you know, penalize you or hold any other incentives over top of your head just to get you to do things. It’s about you being able to take the initiative and actually being a key component of the company. So, motivation is a big thing to consider and how you’re going to describe what you do in that department.
Troy: Yeah, and then they’re finally going to ask you about your strengths. They’re gonna, this is kind of the point where you talk yourself up. Obviously you don’t want to brag, but you do want to let them know why you would be a good fit for your team. Let them know you’re a team player, that you’re good at communication. Maybe talk about the roles you’ve had in different other companies that you’ve worked for, and they really want to know if you want to continue learning. Obviously, you can never stop learning, you can never stop educating yourself, so they want to see that you have that passion to gain new skills and to grow as a trucker
Connor: Yeah, that’s right. So, these are just some of the basics questions. They’re not going to cover everything that you might be asked, but, you know, preparing for these essential questions is a good way to start thinking about your interview and getting ready for that. And you know, it’s also a good move to ask your employer questions as well. So, maybe, why do they like working here? What’s a day in the life of someone who works here like? What is the turnover rate? Maybe, how long the person interviewing you has been with the company and just questions about the company’s history in general. You may also want to just ask about what their specialties are and what they expect from their employees as well. We also wanted to get a quick management perspective on the interviewing process, so we actually set down with our manager, Margaret Colebeck, and we asked her what the interviewing process was normally like from her perspective.
Connor: So Margaret, when you interview people, what are you usually looking for and how do you, essentially, handle that?
Margaret: So that’s a great question. When it comes to interviewing someone, I really have a couple of different things in mind. One: can they do the job? Because at the end of the day, that’s why we’re all here. Two: are they gonna fit culturally? Especially here at Track5, I know that it’s not truck driving, but here at Track5 we definitely have a unique culture, so we want to make sure that the person will fit, that they’re gonna feel comfortable and that they’re not gonna ever feel like, you know, an outcast in the culture. And then the third thing that you want to consider is longevity. Are they likely to stay at the job? Is it just gonna be a quick 6 months… They were interested in it and now they’re running away. So those are the kind of things that I look for just initially when looking through resumes.
Troy: So Margaret, I know that earlier in the show we’ve talked about resumes, and I know personally you’ve helped me work on my resume, so I kind of want to know how much of an impact does a resume have on when you’re looking at job applicants?
Margaret: So resumes are huge, especially in my industry. It’s the first thing that you’re gonna see before you even bring them in or even have a phone interview. It needs to be clear, concise, and efficient as far as what they’re looking for. I want to know your past experience and kind of what makes you unique. One of my favorite things as far as resumes go is I always look to kind of see what is different about their resume? Sure you can have a stellar resume, but if you stand out a little bit and, you know, show me something that’s unique to you, specifically, it always kind of excites me and then I’m more likely to bring them in.
Connor: So, any weird interviewing experiences? Any odd situations that you’ve run into during the process?
Margaret: Yeah, I mean, there’s always you know, a couple of people that will come in and you think that they look great on paper and then they show up and you’re like what? How did you get here? Why did I bring you in? Specifically, there was, for a, obviously not to name names, there was a marketing role where we just had this person that looked wonderful on paper and then they came in, he looked great he had a full suit on, and I was very impressed, but then he just couldn’t answer any of the questions. They were very vague and I was saying, you know, what excites you about marketing? And his response would be like, “it’s cool.” So stuff like that where they’re just like, it’s not a good fit. It’s a waste of your time and their time, but today I don’t think I can think of any crazy or weird situations. Unfortunately, I’d love to, at least once, experience that.
Troy: And to just kind of wrap everything up, we’ve talked about previously in the podcast of what kind of questions to expect from your side of the table, but what are some questions you’d like to hear from interviewees that kind if what want to know more about the company?
Margaret: Yeah, so one of my favorite questions to hear, well… firstly, if you don’t have any questions, to me that’s almost, it’s not necessarily gonna, it’s not going to necessarily cause me to not bring you in for a second interview or not hire you, but candidates that come to the table with questions always tend to do better in the long term. So, what I’m looking for as far as questions go are more about the company. Specifically, you know, how long have you been here? Why do you love working here? What’s the culture like? Those are the people that are really interested in kind of finding a career, and not just finding a job at the moment.
Connor: Well that’s great, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us and answer these questions, and we’ll see you around the office.
Margaret: Yeah, definitely. See you guys soon.
Connor: So, that’s kind of our basic overview of trucking resumes and interview techniques. If you guys out there have any advice or crazy stories about interviews you’ve done in the past, feel free to reach out to us at AllTruckJobs.com or on our Facebook or Twitter @AllTruckJobsUSA. So, we usually like to end the podcast with fun topics, so Troy what do you got for us today?
Troy: Alright, well listeners, I’m a huge fan of movies. I’ve slowly been getting Connor to watch some of my favorite movies, and that got me thinking a few months ago, I wanted to share my love of movies with our trucking readers online, so I decided to write a blog that was “8 Badass Trucking Movies That You Need to See” and me and Connor are each gonna pick one to talk about. I’m gonna go first. So Connor, do you like Stephen King?
Connor: Sure, yeah, creepy stuff man.
Troy: And do you like trucks?
Connor: Absolutely.
Troy: Well, I have a movie for you. Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive. It was a novel and then they turned it into a movie in 1986. It stars Emilio Estevez and it’s basically about anything with an engine that comes to life and attacks all humans.
Connor: That sounds awesome.
Troy: It is very good. It got pretty good reviews and, of course, I love me some Emilio Estevez, so that’s always good to see.
Connor: Emilio.
Troy: Yeah, but I know you are a fan of an animated flick.
Connor: Yeah, that’s right. It’s mostly just because it’s the only one that I’ve seen on your list, and that movie is Cars, the first Cars movie by Pixar. So, you know, maybe it doesn’t have Chuck Norris or Burt Reynolds in it, but it does have Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy, so that’s petty sweet.
Troy: Get err done.
Connor: That’s right. Haha… You know, I just like this movie because it’s a fun family flick and it, you know, it teaches you that there’s more than meets the eye to somebody who is a car. (Laughing) And you know, maybe you’re down in your luck sometimes stranded in a desert ghost town with other animated talking cars, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick yourself up and succeed again, and I thought that was a really cool message to get across with cars that have faces on them. And actually, you know, when I left the theater, everything looked like it had a face on it, and I thought is this my life now? Am I just going to be seeing cars with eyes and teeth? But luckily, I’ve since recovered so thank you, thank you for bringing that one to my attention. That’s a good film.
Troy: That’s good to hear.
Troy: For sure. And if you wanna check out the other 8 badass trucking movies you need to see, go to our website at AllTruckJobs.com. And we also wanna hear what some of your favorite trucking movies so feel free to hit us up on Facebook or Twitter and let us know what some of your favorite films are.
Connor: Good stuff. So, now onto the next fun segment here. Would you rather. Troy, would you rather drive across the country in good weather or part of the state in bad weather?
Troy: That is a tough one Connor, but I think I would rather stay in a state with bad weather. I’m definitely a momma’s boy and I would get homesick easily, and I’ll prefer I would drive slow and steady in bad weather if it meant I could eat some home cooking every now and then and stay home. What about you?
Connor: I would drive across the whole country in good weather because then you get to see all the cool landmarks and everything that there is out there without having to worry about any danger on the roads. So, they’re both pretty good options ultimately.
Troy: All right. Well here’s a good would you rather: would you rather drive an automated truck for better benefits or would you rather drive a dump truck for worse benefits? And that means, when we talk about automated truck, we mean these new kinds of trucks that are taking the world by storm and hitting the road, and they are basically self-driving trucks, or would you rather be stuck in your traditional vehicle that you’re driving yourself and you, kind of, get worse benefits though.
Connor: Yeah, no, that’s a tough one because on one side you’re driving an automated truck, so you’re contributing to the job loss of potential drivers. But at the same time, I don’t know how to drive a truck, as I’ve mentioned in our previous podcast. So it would probably be better for me to just drive a robo truck, honestly. And I get better benefits so, sorry guys. I’m doing that one.
Troy: I’m gonna have to agree with you there. I think that would be the best bet for me as someone who also can only drive automatic. I think driving a truck would be a little difficult, and I would like the hand of a robot to kind of guide me in that direction.
Connor: Probably has Wi-Fi too, so that’s pretty sweet.
Troy: That is true.
Connor: We can listen to podcasts, all day.
Troy: And watch some badass trucking movies!
Connor: That’s right. So, next one: would you rather work six months straight with a double salary or work every other month with a 1/3 less than what you make now?
Troy: This was a tough one, and I think this is one we debated pretty long about. I would probably work every other month with a third of the salary. Again, I like to stay home and I like to kind of see my family as often as I can, and I’d be willing to take that pay cut if it meant I’d be home a lot more often.
Connor: Yeah, I can see that perspective, but I think that I would work the six months straight, get a double salary and then just cruise the rest of the year. Especially if I’m off for the summer months. I would just go to travel or do whatever I want for that amount of time. I guess it’s more of a bachelor’s perspective than a family man, but there you go.
Troy: And what about this one? I know it will kind of depend on where you’re trucking but would you rather have air-conditioned or heat in your rig?
Connor: Ooh. Definitely air conditioning. Yeah. I don’t like hot that much, and I can deal with the cold. I actually prefer the cold, so.
Troy: I’m actually gonna go with heat. As someone who hasn’t had air conditioning in their vehicle up until about a few months ago, I’m used to the hot. I thrive in the warm weather, so I’m gonna stick with the heat. I need that warmth around wintertime. I’m a small guy so…
Connor: You’re like a lizard.
Troy: Yeah, that’s true.
Connor: Cool. So, this next one is getting kind of weird now, as if you thought it wasn’t already fun enough. So, the scenario is this: Would you rather pick up Weird Al on the road if he was hitchhiking or Carrot Top?
Troy: I’m gonna have to go with Weird Al. As someone who is a huge music fan, I think I could contribute to some pretty awesome parody songs as we hit the road listening to the radio. We’re both avid fans of music and I think I’m creative enough that I can be his new co-writer.
Connor: That’s a bold statement, but I would probably pick Carrot Top just because – prop comedy – it’s pretty funny. And, you know, if Carrot Top was going somewhere and he was on the road hitchhiking, I would assume that where he was trying to get is pretty cool. You know, pretty wacky, maybe, maybe not cool. Maybe just, interesting. Maybe it would just be a weird situation altogether. So, it can’t get any weirder than that, except if it’s Weird Al.
Troy: All right, and this last one is a little crazy, and we definitely want to hear your opinions on our Twitter and Facebook, so feel free to reach out to us there. Connor, if your truck was a time machine, what would you haul? And I mean, rucking form the past to the future, what would you bring from the past back to our current state?
Connor: Hmm. Well, you know I think I would probably bring a cargo load of dinosaur eggs and just straight-up start Jurassic Park because everybody would like to see that. And I think I could do it better this time around than the movie. I think I know the pitfalls involved.
Troy: Yeah, we know how that ends.
Connor: Yeah, that enterprise, so, that would just be cool because you’d be rich forever just owning that park, assuming that they never got out of their pens.
Troy: All right you know I’m gonna take things in a different direction, as a huge fan of literature, I think I’d haul back some original works of some of the most famous writers that we have. I think it would be great having some of the folios of Shakespeare, some Dickens original works… so, I think I’d haul back and create my own little personal library of original works from some of the most famous writers that we have.
Connor: That would be sweet, indeed. All right, so thank you all for joining us for our second episode of Big Rig Banter. Next time we’re gonna be going over the three P’s of having a successful trucking career: planning, personalizing, and profiting. And if you’re currently looking for truck jobs, head over to AllTruckJobs.com where you can search by driver type, freight type, and by state. And if you guys have ideas for the show or wanna comment on anything that we have covered today, feel free to reach out to us on Facebook or on Twitter @AllTruckJobsUSA. I’m your co-host, Connor Smith.
Troy: And I’m your other co-host, Troy Diffenderfer.
Connor: And this has been Big Rig Banter.
Music – Thanks for tuning into another edition of Big Rig Banter. For your next job, check out AllTruckJobs.com, the premier online source for finding the best driver jobs in the country. Browse hundreds of positions by freight or driver type to get back on the road with confidence. Click “subscribe” to keep the conversations coming, until next time on Big Rig Banter.
