Employability

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi everyone

I’m new to posting, but have been watching from afar for a while.

I am thinking of changing career from being a classical musician to hgv driving. I’m 29 and for the last 8 years I’ve worked freelance for most of the professional orchestras in the country. Aside from the rubbish teaching work I have done over the years to help pay the bills, this is the only work I have ever done.

My reasoning for wanting to drive for a living is that I enjoy driving (I often had to drive home to London from Glasgow overnight and preferred it to playing the gig), like my own company and after my dealings with parents of the children I taught the oboe to, would rather keep interactions with the public to a minimum. I’m already used to irregular/long/late hours from touring so that doesn’t particularly bother me.

Having looked on here, quite a few people seem to have come from a military or warehouse background, from both of which I guess you would have picked up some transferable skills. My concern is that as a new pass I’d be laughed out of town with a cv containing only seemingly irrelevant experience and struggle to get a foot on the ladder and also, having been self employed, no employers for references. Does anyone have experience of a similar change in direction and did it work out?

2

The only transferable skills you get from military is the licence itself.
Never done warehouse, so I don´t know.
However, a useful subset of those military skills would be that you would be self opinionated, obnoxious, ego driven, unwilling to listen to other peoples side of the story, and greedy for money. Oh, and can tell a good story :smiley:
But! As ex military, you would be a good timekeeper :slight_smile:

Joking apart, if you like driving, have always had an eye for the wagons, then there´s nothing stopping you from giving it a go, is there.

I was thinking that, as you are living in London, there are a lot of jobs for 7.5t drivers, start off small, kind of. Then I saw you´re 29 and probably won´t have that on your licence. So, your best option is Category C (The old HGV 2) which will let you drive anything apart from the bendy ones, artics.

I don´t know your financial situation but if you want to HGV then you gotta pass the tests, tests mean courses, courses means fees.
What you lay out on the Cat C course you can easily make back with one month of driving (When you get a job!)
petersmythe.co.uk/
Is the sponsor of this forum. Check it out.

I have heard nothing but good things about his place, and I mean nothing but good. He´s a regular on the forums and will happily answer any questions you may have. You can also get in touch with the HQ staff by phoning or emailing direct. I would say ask Peter about general policy and HQ for dates times, availability etc.
If I lose my current battle with DVLA about my Cat C licence I will be heading along to Peters place for a course.

Anyway, whatever you decide, if you have any questions, post em up. I fully expect to see some more posts here with different/better advice, but good luck to you.

3

That post was getting a bit long, thought I´d add this stuff on as a new one :smiley:

As to employability? Why wouldn´t you get jobs? You´re in the right age range, you´ll have a licence, you´ll be willing to work?
My CV consists of Ex Army Surveyor, Steel erector/rigger, Commercial Diver, Guitarist and singer in Spain for the last 13 years.
Not what you´d call relevant experience :smiley:

You can do all the research you want (and I DO) but unless you´ve got your licence, CPC card, and tachograph card in hand? Employers/Agencies will tell you to ring back when you do.
Sure, they´ll talk to you for a bit about how the job market is booming and yes, they will definitely have jobs for you, but until you have those three things and are actually sat in a cab?..you will never know. :slight_smile:

My experience is that yes, there are jobs. If you get a Cat C you will get a job of some sort.
Probably cost you about 1500 quid to find out if you like it or not, though.

4

Employability can often be down to your own attitude. If you turn up for an interview 5 minutes late and looking scruffy you will probably join the ranks of those saying there’s no work. However, turn up looking interested and keen, and the outcome might be quite different.

Strongly suggest you take a look at this viewtopic.php?f=5&t=156383

Pete :laughing: :laughing:

5

When I was a bus driver with Calgary transit (Canada) I trained out a guy who was a professional opera singer he s still there 10 years later so he made the change easily.

6

As far as most employers go, they really aren’t going to care what you previously did for a living as long as you turn up on time, get the job done and ideally don’t crash the truck too often. Quite a few people on here come from say IT where they sat on their backsides for hours on end so as long as you can operate a pallet truck, then you’re sorted (you build the strength pretty quick).

Not pretending it’s the best job in the world especially multidrop and you’ll miss driving at 70 when stuck at 55 (max) or 30 going uphill, getting soaked or hailed on, being hated by everyone else on the road and trying to get into stupid locations with something that shouldn’t take a transit van.

7

I’m an employer and I’ve taken on new passes. My view is you have to give newbies a chance and in some ways, getting someone who has no experience means I can train them my way.

Not every employer thinks like that, case of starting with what you can get and building experience.

8

Thanks so much for all the replies and advice! Good to hear that previous background isn’t too important. Orchestral musicians are unexpectedly good time keepers too (being late to one rehearsal would almost certainly result in not getting asked back and it’s really unpleasant having to wade through 80 odd people to get to your seat) so at least I’ll have something going for me. Sure I’ll be back with more questions soon

9

I got a job reasonably easy ( a number of years ago when they jobs market was on a down & not in a good way ) but not ex military or warehouse I was in fact in catering for many years

You will have plenty to offer 1 good time keeping a professional approach to life & work smart ( take it you had to be when doing shows ) be able to plan have a good knowledge of the road network within the UK being able to talk to people as we do have to sometimes the list goes on

Look at what you can do ok you lack experience with in driving but you do have a lot of other skills

10

2010-2012
During college I was a apprentice Mechanic

2012 - 2017
I was a taxi driver

2017 - present
I gained my HGV LICENSE woohoo.

Hgv work…
My first job was working for a breakdown recovery firm dealing with AA and the local police authority. Did it for 15 months before starting for DHL. I FOUND A job pretty easy really. Today I can get a job just like that due to my experience.