This is going to sound mad but, for those of you looking for work, please read your CVs before you send them out to the company you are applying to
So far this week I have had ones that consisted of -
Please give me a job, i’m wonderful, and that was about it…
I’m ex army, based near Hereford but not allowed to talk about it
I’m independant, articulate and could do your job better than you do <— That may be true but can you drive a lorry??
She/he has worked hard/maintains great work relationships (please delete where necessar) <—From a guy
Is it so hard to read them yourselves or get someone you know to check it over? I’ve removed the spelling mistakes from the quotes because I’m not asking for Shakepeare to drive my lorry (he couldn’t spell either, including his own name) but basic grammer, not being a nob and some explanation of what you have done would be a distinct improvement
Sorry for the whinge. I shall keep on reading…
How many years back do you go when checking an applicants work history ? Here in the States trucking companies go back 10 years.
Mick Bracewell is 100 % correct in saying ex military drivers are no good for civvy street because they are trained for combat operations, for example, you are told by the military instructors to drive at night then with no warning, turn off the headlights and drive blind through the forest at high speed to evade the enemy.
My brother was in at the Army and trashed every single car after leaving the Army by crashing the gear box and basically being a rubbish driver.
Now then , would you hire my brother to drive your new £120,000 truck and wreck it ?
trevHCS:
I wonder how many of those CVs were from Job Centre applicants with no interest in ever getting a job, but have to send in a CV to keep the dole / beer money flowing.
Good luck with the beer money at 400 quid a month to pay all the bills and feed yourself and pay travel costs for interviews etc.Around half that with savings over 6 grand.Having said that a burger and a pint at Wetherspoons can be cheaper than eating in at home including the costs of home heating and cooking and hot water for washing up.
As opposed to employers calling for ‘experience’ and using the carrot of so called ‘driving’ jobs, to fill labourer or factory worker jobs and wanting a bank manager’s type CV for the privilege in a so called driver shortage.
m.a.n rules:
You should be thanking the second one for telling you he’s ex-army. At that point you could file his CV in the bin and move onto the next applicant as all ex-forces drivers can’t drive for [zb] in civvy street. I’d rather take my chances employing an EE with a licence out of a Cornflakes box than ex-forces. quote bracewell…
sits and awaits the maoster and many other ex service people
p.s what a pathetic sweeping statement…
I’m not gonna bite . To use military parlance Mick was “firing for effect”. He does have a (grudging) point about the standards of some ex military drivers however. In between posing on balconies or butchering Argie conscripts I drove a tank transporter and covered many many miles, more than the guy who was trained to pass his test and then never drove again until his Tesco assessment.
remy:
How many years back do you go when checking an applicants work history ? Here in the States trucking companies go back 10 years.
So new drivers or those with a large break in employment for whatever reason, or worked for long gone employers and/or retired managers, the applicant is stuffed.There are lots of jobs here where they state must have x amount of years impossible to provide checkable work history added to all the ‘experience’ bs.Then they claim there’s a driver shortage.
fair comment maoster, thats why i used the word sweeping and in reply to toby if they can be trained to drive in combat they can be trained in civvy street…
Tarmaceater:
Mick Bracewell is 100 % correct in saying ex military drivers are no good for civvy street because they are trained for combat operations, for example, you are told by the military instructors to drive at night then with no warning, turn off the headlights and drive blind through the forest at high speed to evade the enemy.
My brother was in at the Army and trashed every single car after leaving the Army by crashing the gear box and basically being a rubbish driver.
Now then , would you hire my brother to drive your new £120,000 truck and wreck it ?
Tell us more about infra red lights.
How do civilian HGV drivers manage to do their civilian jobs when answering adverts for drivers in the RCL as Territorials ?.
Yes a soldier who might have to drive sometimes isn’t the same thing as a driver who has to also be a soldier.
m.a.n rules:
sits and awaits the maoster and many other ex service people
p.s what a pathetic sweeping statement…
Be shocked all you want. It’s the truth, by and large. They are programmed from an early age to take orders and follow them to the letter. If something happens that they haven’t had an order barked at them about, their arse falls out and the whole operation falls apart because they’ve never had to use the brain they’re born with, nor know what it’s there for, ergo they haven’t got a ■■■■■■ clue what to do. That works to some degree in the forces because there’s always someone higher up the food chain nannying and thinking for them 24/7, but it sure as hell doesn’t work in civvy street where the majority of firms expect you to use your brain and figure out solutions yourself when faced with the myriad of problems and issues you come across on the roads every day, eg. weather, roadworks, accidents, closures, delays. They might well be reasonably adept at driving an Oshkosh M1070 with 80t tank on the back over sand dunes whilst dodging bullets and not have to give a [zb] about who or what they hit/drive over in the process, but unsurprisingly that “experience” and mindset doesn’t translate well in civvy street.
Ex-forces drivers are basically human bots. If you need 26 pallets of beans moving in a box trailer from London RDC to Manchester RDC then they’ll get it there, so long as you provide them with a satnav and 200 steps of written instructions for them to follow. Then you just have to pray that there are no road closures, otherwise you’ll never see the driver nor the load again. Give them a page of collections and deliveries to do, leaving it up to them to do them in whatever way they think is best and see how it ends for you . You might be happy to take that chance with quarter of a million pounds worth of kit, but I’ll pass, ta.
Mick Bracewell:
The CV from one of our drivers was laughably bad with shocking spelling, nonexistent grammar and random words missing from sentences. I was ready to file it in the round basket but it was the only application I had on my desk
Mick Bracewell:
The CV from one of our drivers was laughably bad with shocking spelling, nonexistent grammar and random words missing from sentences. I was ready to file it in the round basket but it was the only application I had on my desk
Good punchline!
so not a company that good drivers want to work for
m.a.n rules:
so not a company that good drivers want to work for
Specialist work, involves getting boots very muddy, clothes smelly, rota’d weekends and a requirement to drive artics on lanes barely fit for a horse and cart. That tends to limit your applications, even when the pay is well above average for the area. Most LGV drivers aren’t interested in any work that involves getting their boots and/or truck muddy.
Mick Bracewell:
Specialist work, involves getting boots very muddy, clothes smelly, rota’d weekends and a requirement to drive artics on lanes barely fit for a horse and cart. That tends to limit your applications, even when the pay is well above average for the area. Most LGV drivers aren’t interested in any work that involves getting their boots and/or truck muddy.
The idea that ex forces won’t cut it seems like an oxymoron.
Or having to collect knackered excavators from a quagmire.
More like turf growing on the cab floor than mud, muddy clothes and hair all smelling of the mixture of diesel exhaust and bulk refuse all for around half the going rate of pay.The life of a class 2 county council driver.No need for any CV but much better than multi drop in town though.
‘Most’ of us do it for the freedom of the open road and interesting scenic routes to far flung destiniations.
The problem is too much rough and not enough smooth in that regard and the ones who’ve got the smooth want to keep it all and don’t want to share it.
m.a.n rules:
sits and awaits the maoster and many other ex service people
p.s what a pathetic sweeping statement…
Be shocked all you want. It’s the truth, by and large. They are programmed from an early age to take orders and follow them to the letter. If something happens that they haven’t had an order barked at them about, their arse falls out and the whole operation falls apart because they’ve never had to use the brain they’re born with, nor know what it’s there for, ergo they haven’t got a [zb] clue what to do. That works to some degree in the forces because there’s always someone higher up the food chain nannying and thinking for them 24/7, but it sure as hell doesn’t work in civvy street where the majority of firms expect you to use your brain and figure out solutions yourself when faced with the myriad of problems and issues you come across on the roads every day, eg. weather, roadworks, accidents, closures, delays. They might well be reasonably adept at driving an Oshkosh M1070 with 80t tank on the back over sand dunes whilst dodging bullets and not have to give a [zb] about who or what they hit/drive over in the process, but unsurprisingly that “experience” and mindset doesn’t translate well in civvy street.
Ex-forces drivers are basically human bots. If you need 26 pallets of beans moving in a box trailer from London RDC to Manchester RDC then they’ll get it there, so long as you provide them with a satnav and 200 steps of written instructions for them to follow. Then you just have to pray that there are no road closures, otherwise you’ll never see the driver nor the load again. Give them a page of collections and deliveries to do, leaving it up to them to do them in whatever way they think is best and see how it ends for you [emoji38] . You might be happy to take that chance with quarter of a million pounds worth of kit, but I’ll pass, ta.
I have worked with 2 ex army chaps.
One was a total lunatic, got sacked after chasing the gaffer around the yard with an axe!
Another was pretty much as Mick describes. He did is time (22 years??) and was retrained as a driver ready to step into civvy street. The bloke was a nightmare, always smashing the kit about and unable to find the sites we were delivering to. He admitted that for most of his adult life he was told were to go and at what time. Always somebody else leading him about. I liked him as a person but he was never a wagon driver.
Incidentally Mick…tank transporters are civvy contractors.
It was an example. It matters not what function they were performing within the military. The key point is that they are programmed to follow orders to the letter and not permitted to think for themselves, nor make any decisions or judgments as there are higher ranks to do that and nanny them. Any kind of civvy street role that involves any degree of having to think for themself, use their own judgment or make decisions is destined to end in disaster and invariably does.
. You might be happy to take that chance with quarter of a million pounds worth of kit, but I’ll pass, ta.
