Question:
Greetings folks!
I'll warn you ahead of time, I can get a bit verbose. Feel free to respond to the first 3 paragraphs and skip the rest .
I'll start with the part that may be a bit different about my otherwise common post (looking to get into trucking, need to choose a company and/or school).
I need to decide where to live. All "external" factors being eqaul, where is the best place to live (or at least be "based" out of) as a trucker?
Some states have no income tax (Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Washington, maybe a few others unless I'm mistaken?). I imagine being close to a major transportation hub could be nice (Chicago, St. Louis, Dalls, any other particularly good ones?).
As for my "external" issues, I'm currently in California ('couple hours north of San Francisco). My residence here is tied to my current job. I don't particularly want to keep living or working here. My drivers licence is still Illinois (but I don't have a currently valid address there).
I have family on the east coast (Philadelphia, Boston, and Maine) and Northern and Southern California, but being close to them isn't of any great importance. No spouse/significan other, or kids.
I grew up in Michigan, and have moved the greater Chicago/Detroit area sort of high on my list (I have some friends in the Ann Arbor and Traverse City). I'm also considering Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City since I do some positive (or at least not too highly negative) expectation gambling (blackjack card counting, poker, some video poker machines) and could picture having a van or small rv and spending most "time at home" in comped casino hotel rooms.
Any advice along these lines or any others as far as where to "live"? Also, is there any sort of industry standard regarding taking "time at home" somewhere other than "home"? Are some companies better about this than others?
What about training and companies to work for? I should be able to put together enough cash to pay for a private school if that is by far the best route. I've been leaning towards trying to get on with Schneider or somewhere similar that sponsers the training in exchange for a ~1 year contract, but am looking for input.
Things I "would like" to see in a compnay, but don't require include the option to have a cat (and possibly human riders on occaison) in the truck, easy to spend time off other than offical "home", fuel at Flying J (or are there other places with WiFi now as well?), company training or tuition reimbursement, and I'm sure I'll think of others later.
My driving record may show up totally clean now. I believe I had like 3 speeding tickets approx 7, 6, and 5 years ago (I think the 5 yeard old one incurred no points ... 5 mph over on the interstate in Michigan). 1 accident that was written up has failure to stop in a safe distance, but dropped altogether when I contested it. Insurance company totalled my car (~3 year old Geo Metro).
My employment record is a bit spotty. After getting my BS (Math and Computer Science) in December of 1999, I started (but didn't finish) some courses to prepare for grad school in a different field (decided it wasn't a good fit either). Started an NIH internship in Bethesda, MD, but couldn't stand it and left after about a week. Spent the rest of 2000 and the first half of 2001 travelling around the US and part of Canada and hanging out with friends and family. June of 2001 to March of 2002 did software quality assurance for Wolfram Research (Champagin, IL). That was when I decided I didn't much like working in an office environment. Did some more travelling, started and withdrew from grad school (discovered it was as much the particular school as anything else ... same one I was at Jan-April 2000), toyed with the idea of playing poker and/or Video poker "professionally". Moved to and started working (computers, some housekeeping, and movie projectionist for 2 shows a week) for Harbin Hot Springs (where I am now) in April of this year.
Writing it all out like that, it seems even worse than I had been thinking. In 3 years since finishing college worked for 9 months once place and 6 months in another with the other 21 months essentially unaccounted for. I could "claim" up to about 9 months in grad school, but with no official credit and having "dropped out" twice I don't imagine it would seem too impressive.
How picky are most companies about such things? Is it enough of an issue that I should make sure I have employment "lined up" before paying for or starting training?
Sorry to ramble on so long. If anyone thinks more info would be helpful in giving me advice, rest assured, I can provide plenty more .
Thanks a ton for any and all thougts.
--Bill the NomadicSquirrel

Answer:
And in no particular order......
Where to live: Generally speaking the midwest is probably one of the best areas of the country to live as far as available driving jobs. IL, IN, MO, KS, OK. The northwest and Florida are probably the two worst areas to live in as far as driving jobs go.
If you choose to live close to a larger city (Chicago, OKC, ST. Louis, KC, etc) you may be able to get home a little more often, especially if the company you are running for has heavy freight lanes going to or through that area.
Employment record: You will need to have a complete employment history for the last 10 years, including any and all periods of unemployment/self employment. School does count as employment. The last 3 years must be verifiable. For periods of unemployment/self employment tax records, unemployment settlement statements, letters from friends can be used for verifcation.
For the most part companies could really care less what your job history was like before entering trucking. A lot of job hopping after you enter trucking will hurt you however. More than 3 jobs in the first 2 years or 5 in 5 years and you could find yourself hard pressed for work.
Hometime: Industry standard is basically one day off for each week you work. With most companies home time can be taken where you want, assuming that they can get you a load to or near that destination. Most OTR companies want you to stay out at least 2 weeks at a time, some require 3 or more weeks out. Also some companies are better at getting you home than others.
Driving record: For accidents and speeding tickets they will usually only go back 3 years. 1 speeding ticket or 1 accident in the last 3 years shouldn't hurt you any.
As far as going to driving school goes. I personally recommend attending a private school so that way you are not locked into an employment contract which you will have to sign if you go to a company sponsored school.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.