Hardly working

I got a letter today from Werner Enterprises, a nationwide trucking company that's pretty much my top choice for post-truck-school employment, telling me that my pre-application has been pre-approved. This means I have a job waiting for me provided I can pass the Cali commercial driver's license test. The job in question would have me gallivanting all over the United States and Canada in a big ol' truck.

Here's the part that gets me: the minimum wage for a first-year long haul Werner driver is exactly the same as what I used to make at The Wreck (the newspaper where I worked before enrolling in truck school). And Werner's wages are actually lower on the scale than some other companies, though I have my reasons for preferring them, and chances are that I'll make more than the minimum amount, depending on how much gallivanting I want to do.

To put it a different way, I went to college for five years, did several unpaid internships, then spent several years working my way up the ladder to get to The Wreck's salary bracket. Then I quit, enrolled in a six-week course, and at the end of it will make the same amount of money. I'm not sure whether to be amused, depressed, or both.

But hey, I got a job!