WARNING- This is a bloody long thread, make a cup of tea before commencing reading
Well just over a year ago, 05/11/2008 I heard those words every test candidate wants to hear, ‘‘Congratulations you’ve passed’’, and with only one minor and it being my first attempt, I was over the moon 
At the time I was working as a drivers mate at Panasonic in Brackmills Northampton on the agency, minimum wage and not knowing if you were working from one day to the next wasn’t the best, especially as I’ve got a woman and two kids at home to provide for. However as I was willing to work any start times they wanted me to do and adding to that I was one of few who would do nights out for them, they seemed to keep me fairly busy. This was a good thing in all honesty, as all the agencies I’d spoken to re getting work, wouldn’t give me the time of day, I guess being a 22 year old newly passed ‘C’ driver doesn’t really give me much chance of getting a break. No one locally was recruiting f/t or p/t due to the time of year and also the slowing global market economy didn’t help either.
All was going well until the end of Jan 09 Wincanton took over complete running of the transport operations and decided to cut all agency workers out both drivers and drivers mates, cue me being out of a job quick sharp. I was really hacked off to put it politely as you would be, no one was taking on anyone for any job it seemed. I broadened my job search to pretty much uk wide, if someone was willing to let me kip down in the truck all week I’d have taken the job, the trouble was people had more experienced drivers local to them who were out of work so I didn’t get a thought for any interview, which in hindsight was a good thing on many levels. The fact that I was getting nowhere with driving jobs, no agency seemed to even want to take me on for warehouse work, as I was either ‘over qualified’ or ‘no experience of warehouse environments’ my previous employment had been car sales, that had no way back into it as no one was buying cars, and I would have hated having to go back to it, after two years of it, I’d done enough in that line of work for my lifetime thank you very much, all of this was really getting to me, then a post on this forum by a top bloke inviting me to go up and stay with him and his good lady wife for the week and go out with him in his truck for the week to firstly get me away from the doom and gloom of getting knocked back and down all the time, and also to get some experience of life on the road. I took him up on the offer and spent a cracking week away from everything and was given a new lease of hope from the Mr and Mrs Bilton’s positive mental attitude talks. Cheers Andy and Caroline, for that week really help out a lot in the grand scheme of everything 
It was in the pipeline for me to go for my C&E however the funding route which I was going to be taking had some stumbling blocks put in the way and we were in no position to be able to pay a grand outright for the training after being out of work for a while and the seemingly ever increasing cost of living. Cue my little brother being ill at school one day and my Mum and Step dad being unable to get time off work to look after him, I offered my services to them to look after him for a few days until he was back to his normal self [once I’d cleared it as being ok with the wife for me to be away for a couple of days 
] so off I go to Tamworth to look after him, whilst there my Mum asked how job hunt was coming on, I said that there had been an increase in jobs advertised for C&E drivers but none really for C vacancies. She put it to me that she’d lend me the money to do my training and pay back as and when I had landed a decent job paying decent enough money. I took her up on the offer and on 29/04/2009 I passed my C&E again first time, this time with I think 7 or 8 minors.
Things were really looking up…sort of, I was offered some work, it was only 7.5ton work but was the first driving job I’d been offered, there were a few downsides to it, it was 6.50 an hour it was only agency work, but it was guaranteed 5 days per week Mon-Fri and it was at Bar Hill in Cambridgeshire, a good hours drive from home so two hours travelling on top of work each day, unpaid mileage. Weighing everything up, I sort of had to take the job, even though it meant the pretty crap take home pay I’d be getting each week around 70 quid of that per week would have to be spent on petrol.
It wasn’t the greatest work, easy enough but it was DHL parcels, no one seemed to really have an idea about much of anything to be honest in terms of organisation, but that’s what makes the job enjoyable at time, being able to sit back and smile at how things are done. Throughout the time of working at DHL I was still actively seeking new employment as I needed something closer to home with less travelling time and costs and hopefully better money. Then in June there was a small, very small only a couple of lines ad in the local job paper for Norbert Dentressangle in Northampton looking for drivers, I rang up was asked how long I’d had license, what shifts would I be willing to work, did I have adr license and what accident history and how clean is my license, I was astonished that I’d obviously said enough of the answers they wanted to hear and was booked in for an assessment a couple of weeks later, I questioned whether my age would be an issue for insurance etc, and was advised if you don’t hear back from us, then come in as planned.
I heard nothing back so went in for my assessment, which to be fair I made a complete balls up of, I’d not driven anything of artic size since my test and in both my C and C&E tests I’d used slap over gear change systems, and the one in the assessment was the range change switch, luckily I’d read about these sort on the TruckNet pages so knew how they worked it was just putting that into practise, which I didn’t do so well with, but on the drive I didn’t hit anything or kill anyone so that was good and the assessor realised my nerves etc as I said I had a lot riding on me passing the assessment and interview and felt I was putting myself under too much pressure to impress and just going to pieces over it, he was able to see past my mistakes, which were only minor ones but a bit too frequent, maybe… and sent me upstairs for an interview, which I feel I redeemed myself in, clear concise answers to what they asked, with a touch of ‘what they wanted to hear’ but without it being bull ■■■■ or lies.
The following morning [a Friday] I got a call saying we want to offer you a job can you start on Monday, which I could and accepted. I’ve been at ND now since 6th July and I’ve landed on my feet to be honest, you have days when things out of your control really ■■■■ you off and you have a moan about it with other drivers, but it’s generally a good place to work at, no major qualms so far, and I look forward to learning a lot more with the guidance of those around me.
So what is next for me 
I’m looking at taking my National and International CPCs not back to back but within the next year as then they are banked and it’s something I can use if things don’t go the right way at any point, and I’m just going to keep plugging away in the job I’ve got and see where we go from here.
Will just say a couple of thank yous at this point… many people on the forum have given advice when needed but a special mention I feel is needed for a couple
Firstly to Mr and Mrs Bilton for giving me the week away when I needed it most, and the renewed confidence and get up and go I got from the week that I got at just the right time, Lee G who has always been at the end of the phone for anything, whether it be banter on a Saturday morning finding out how much work he’s got on whilst I’ll be drinking beer all day 
to how the ■■■■ you get a Stralis into reverse 
also to ROG and the other trainers I contacted when having reversing issues with my C&E, they all gave just a little confidence boost with what they told me,basically you’re doing nothing wrong, just take your time and don’t rush. In relation to reversing, a huge thanks to Rick and all at Data Academy for the time they offered me to get some real life type reverse practising in just before my driving assessment with Nobbys, again, it was just what I needed at the time to settle my nerves down a bit and the level headed guidance I got was top notch, and the last, some say leave the best till last, but I wouldn’t like to comment on that 
DieselDave, who has always been there at the end of the phone[subject to us catching each other ] to give me advice and guidance and another way of looking at things from another persons perspective, he has truly been a diamond
In summary to all newbies who get downhearted about things or to young guys/gals who think it can’t be done, that being landing a job due to age restrictions or lack of experience, as long as you never give up trying you will get there, the only thing stopping you getting a job or passing a test or anything you want to do, is yourself, don’t give up until you’re there.
I apologise now for the length of this post 
