When I look back at all of this now, it feels incredibly funny. Almost naive. I’m writing this completely honestly and openly, and I’m not ashamed of it at all. If anything, it’s kind of entertaining.
So let’s take it step by step.
I, as a former analyst and a graduate in economics and finance, decided to look for a job in truck driving… analytically and pragmatically. As if I were analyzing a company on the stock market to invest in, not getting into a cab, turning the wheel, and hitting the road.
In Slovakia, there is a website, which provides financial data on all business entities. In the transport and logistics section, there were more than 17,000 different companies at the time. From that pool, I filtered only companies with annual revenue exceeding €1 million.
And me?
I decided, I would pick the “best” one.
Weeks in Data Instead of Kilometres on the Road
I set myself simple rules. I want to work for a company that is financially healthy, has stable growth, strong numbers, and feels solid overall. No random decisions. No “let’s try and see.” So I sat down and started.
I went through Finstat. Region by region, company by company, number by number. And it didn’t take days. For weeks, I was building my own database. Sorting companies, comparing them, creating rankings. It felt like I was working on some big analytical project, not looking for my first job in a completely new profession.
Yes, it may sound crazy. But that’s exactly how I was wired.
Because I didn’t come from a trucking family and had absolutely no contacts in this environment, I had no other option. And when you are completely on your own in something, you go with what you know. For me, that meant: economically, analytically, but somewhere deep down, also intuitively.
A Motivation Letter in the World of Truck Drivers
Once I had this massive database, the next step came. I wrote and sent a motivation letter. Yes. It sounds strange & unusual in the world of truck driving.
I sat down and wrote everything: who I was, where I came from, why I was leaving the corporate world, and why I was going into trucking. There was logic in it. There was structure. And there was emotion.
And I’ll say it straight. That motivation letter was really good. But looking at it now, I see one thing.
In this industry, it must have seemed completely out of place. Totally unconventional. Maybe even a bit ridiculous. But that was me. And that’s exactly why I’m writing this here — so I never forget how it all started.
First Round: 90% of Them Said “We Want You”
In the first round of my job search, I reached out to my top 10 companies. I sent all of them the motivation letter. And the result? Around 90 % of them got back to me and they wanted me.
Some of them invited me straight to an interview, even talking about signing a contract. Some openly told me they were curious to meet me simply because they had never received a motivation letter from a driver before. A few even said they could imagine me more as a dispatcher. And that’s when something important started to click.
The shortage of drivers in Slovakia and across Europe is not a problem. It’s a brutal, raw reality. So one of my assumptions — that I would be able to choose in this profession — turned out to be true.
Companies were interested but no final agreement came. The conditions didn’t fit. Something felt off. Something just wasn’t right. And so I made a decision I would make again today. I didn’t force it.
A Pause Before a New Chapter
I told myself I would give it some space. Let it breathe. Enjoy a bit of calm before everything changes. So I went to Turkey for two weeks. To rest. Clear my head. Be outside of all of this just a little longer, before a new life would begin. A life in a truck.
And how my job search continued — and which company I eventually chose that’s for the next article.