Anyone Go Into Trucking From Career Burnout?

I have the same ideas .... see the country ... get paid to do it. Motor homes depreciate fast, are costly to operate and I like the idea of not knowing what tomorrow brings.

I started my life living/working on a dairy farm. Then 20 years in the military traveling all over the world. After retiring from the military I worked in manufacturing for 2 or 3 years while I went to school for computers. Did computers for 15 years, 10 of that owning my own company.

Decided I wanted/needed a change, partly because the economy had made it difficult to make a living in the segment of the computer business I was involved in. Not that I really had job burnout from what I was doing, but felt I needed a change. Had wanted to drive big trucks since I had retired from the military, so this was my opportunity since our daughter was grown and out on her own.

So here we are 5+ years later, loving the decision I made to start driving. I consider this job/adventure as being a paid tourist traveling all over this big country of ours. I guess you could say I still had the traveling bug and wanted to be able to see parts of this country I had never been to.

Ernie

While not as long as everyone else here but after 2 jobs and 5 years of shift work I realized that I just was tired of the same old routine day after day

Yup. 15 years e-commerce. Account and project management. After the company I'd been with for 14years went private things got squirrely so I started looking for greener pastures. After 2 years of searching and burning up my savings realized my heart wasn't in it, and half of what I was being offered was downright insulting.

So chucked it all. Working for me. Well in a Company truck, but in the first 6 months I can see the results and rewards of doing good hard work.

I got tired of the excruciating heat in Florida, working under the sun vs driving in an ac equip truck was a no brainer, plus I love my big trucks

Just curious. The actual reason I started looking at this seriously, was what I felt was impending job burnout. Some 16 years after I started in this industry, I feel like it's time to close the book. Not just the chapter. The whole darn book. At one point I was somewhat revived by a promotion to management, but ultimately in my gut I know it's time. It's bittersweet for me. So many years I spent sponging up as much information as possible.

18 years in the plumbing trade. I never wanted to be a plumber. I used to fix heavy equipment and autos. Way back in the 90's work became hard to come by, I worked some manufacturer in jobs, tried sales, then kind of fell in to a job as a plumber helper. I realized the money was pretty good, and there was plenty of work. I stuck with it. Worked up to foreman running 4 different job sites around the state. From there I became the supervisor for the plumbing department in the local school district. I was not happy there, so after 8 years of that, I left and started my own business. That just ended up taking even more of my time and creating friction between my wife and I. I took some of my own advice and decided to stop investing my life in work that was not making me happy. Went to school, got my cdl , and now drive fuel transport. I am happy, my wife is happy, and life is good.

I'm looking at making the change to truck driving, after being stuck working in a dead end retail job for almost 19 years. Going to college didn't help; graduated 7 years ago and can't find work in my field without experience. To get experience, the career services dept at the university told me to do volunteer work--apparently impoverishing myself with student loans isn't sufficient to get a job, now i have to work for free for an undetermined amount of time and just hope that someone will hire me.

I'm not expecting miracles if I enter truck driving as a career change, but I need something that's steady and gets me out of my rut. Since I don't have a family, and no reason to stay in NJ, it seems like great option for me.

I taught high school for 14 years before making this leap a year ago. The bureaucratic BS was just too much. My blood pressure was out of control. I was on medication for anxiety and depression. It was either do something drastic to change my life or end up in the ground. Best decision I ever made!

Yep I was burnt out. 20 years in custom wood working and cabinetry. I hung up my tool belt and nail guns and went and got the cdl. Now when I go home I go in my shop and piddle around with small projects for myself with out the pressure of deadlines. Love it.

I think we just found our guy to build some custom sleeper cabinets, lol.

I think we just found our guy to build some custom sleeper cabinets, lol.

Mind reader