Thanks for all the input guys it's really helpful. I would like to become a trucker someday but I dunno if I can hold out 10+ years at UPS lol. I really hope I get hired and if I do I'll definitely become an active member here
. If I get the job and it turns out it's really not for me, I'll stick with it through the summer while I study to get my CDL and then I'll try to find a part time delivery type job to gain some experience.
I have a couple more questions that have been on my mind...
So its true you don't get any of the benefits until you've been working there for 1 year? Does that include tuition assistance?
If I get the job and start at 8.50 how long do you think it would take to advance to 9.50-10?
Might be a stupid question but, what should I wear to the interview? It says to dress casual but I'm not sure how casual lol
For the interview/tour, is it like a group of people that tour and get interviewed all at once? Or is it a one on one type thing?
I just got a job doing pre-load a couple months ago so I can probably help you out a little bit.
Benefits (medical) now take a year to go into affect. Use to be 6 months, and before that it was 90 days, it changed though in the last contract negotiation from what I understand.
I know at our center you get bumped up to $10.50 ($9.50 to start) doing pre-load after 90 days, then $0.50 raise annually after that.
What I wore to my interview was a long sleeve button up shirt (tucked in), slacks, and sturdy leather shoes. There were 16+ people applying for the position I got. Half the people just wore regular street cloths, and a lot of them forgot to wear shoes with a sturdy leather upper, which it tells you to wear on the upsjobs website. Make sure you show up about 15 minutes early, it looks terrible if you are late.
Basically my tour went like this, first they had all of us in a room where the HR person talked about the position, UPS, etc. Then he took us each back for individual interviews (10-15 minutes each). A couple days later I got a call from that HR persons boss who scheduled me for a second interview, I did an interview with her and then another interview with the head supervisor for the center I was going to be working at. I dont know if you will have to go through as much as I did. I guess they had to be really picky on who they hired because they didnt think they would have very many opportunities to hire people this year (I was the 5th person hired out of 7 centers this year, and at that same point in 2008 they had hired over 70 people).
When you do your interview (or interviews), make sure to stress to them that you're a hard worker, like being physically active, have the ability to show up to work on time without calling in, can do work quickly and accurately (you could probably correlate that to your job at DQ), etc.
I did a little research on the UPS website too just so I knew more about the company (which came in handy because they asked some questions to see if any of us took the time to research UPS ahead of time).
Besides that, just sell yourself like you would at any other interview.
The actual job really isnt that hard once you get use to the pace. The first week was hell (they started me off unloading trailers, and facing boxes for the people who scan them as they go down the line) and I totally got my butt kicked. Once you figure out the pace of things it will get a lot easier. After a couple weeks they started having me load trucks. Its easy (but a lot of people seem to have a hard time with it), just be sure to talk to your drivers to see what they like, and think about how they have to deliver their route as you load the truck.
Just remember to think of the job as a workout, its like your trip to the GYM for the day. lol
Good luck and feel free to PM me if you want to know anything else