If in IT you dont want to work weekends nights holidays or be on call? Then...

Bchen22

What jobs would such a person qualify for? Help desk or desktop support?

NOC-Ninja

yes. That person will never get to the top.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Contract jobs would be your bread and butter then. Generally they are set for 40 hour work weeks and rarely would have OT or be on call. Don't expect to make a heck of a lot of money though or be exactly in a high level position. It would be difficult to get that experience in those roles to move upward and even then, in higher level contracts there would be some expectation to be on call or work longer hours as you would be more valuable and likely mission critical.

If your goal is to never work weekends/be on call/holiday work, then you'll be stuck in helpdesk/desktop for life.

anhtran35

Entry level SHIFT BASE help desk or NOC positions. HOWEVER, you should be more flexible especially if you want to excel in IT.

Gorby

There are some jobs in IT which don't require a "shift" type of schedule or holidays and weekends. Such as my position as a security auditor, but to excel you should at least be willing to put in some extra time and if needed on call.

joelsfood

Management.

rsutton

Weekends, nights and holidays and the norm in IT. Most companies want their systems, and their people up and running 24/7. Most of the standard roles like Help Desk, Systems/Network admin will have after-hours support, or an on-call rotation.

xocity

Working for an MSP i've always had weekends "Off". I put quotes there because I sometimes get the on-call shift and sometimes things need to be done after hours so I volunteer my time sometimes to show that I'm a team player. I would imagine that in every I.T. jobs there are times that afterhours and weekends are not exactly demanded, but expected from time to time if you want to advance.

Jon_Cisco

Non management government work maybe.
If you want to punch a clock and go home at the end of the day you will find a job. Just don't expect it to have many responsibilities. IT is 24/7 and there is some expectation that when things break someone fixes them.

edit:
P.S. I notice that most of your posts have to do with working less and getting by with less.

I don't think you need career advice on your questions I think you need to reflect on your life goals. There is nothing wrong with doing what makes you happy. You don't need lots of money and a stressful job to feel satisfied.

If your looking for some sort of permission to do less and be content I freely give it to you for all it's worth. Don't stress yourself out about long term career planning if it's not really what you want.

overthetop

I wouldn't even want to work with anyone like that in the IT Field, but that's just my own opinion. You should just find a new career.

Danielm7

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

Contract jobs would be your bread and butter then. Generally they are set for 40 hour work weeks and rarely would have OT or be on call. Don't expect to make a heck of a lot of money though or be exactly in a high level position. It would be difficult to get that experience in those roles to move upward and even then, in higher level contracts there would be some expectation to be on call or work longer hours as you would be more valuable and likely mission critical.

If your goal is to never work weekends/be on call/holiday work, then you'll be stuck in helpdesk/desktop for life.

It's all relative. I work in a huge company and a large percentage of our IT team are contractors. Even the CIO is a contractor. Time used if there is an emergency is just subtracted from other time you need to be there. By that I mean if you had an emergency and by Thursday had already worked 44 hours they'd tell you to take Friday off and take half of Monday off so you don't have to bill over 40. Not all contractor setups are a bad thing.

networker050184

overthetop wrote: »

I wouldn't even want to work with anyone like that in the IT Field, but that's just my own opinion. You should just find a new career.

Why? Who wants to work nights and weekends? I know I sure don't but it can be a necessary evil at times. Just make sure you find a good employer that will make it up to you.

Danielm7

networker050184 wrote: »

Why? Who wants to work nights and weekends? I know I sure don't but it can be a necessary evil at times. Just make sure you find a good employer that will make it up to you.

Because for some strange reason lots of IT people think it is a badge of honor to work 60+ hours a week without overtime and to never have an issue with working in the middle of the night when no other department needs to. To go along with that lots of companies demand the same, it works out well, just only for the companies.

marcj04

I'm curious but are most IT professionals salaried? I am mainly curious about Help Desk, Network Admins and Network Engineers as that is the path that I will be taking. I honestly wouldn't mind working nights, weekends, holidays, and 60+ hours a week but I would really want to be paid for working that extra time.

anhtran35

If you are a contractor for say KFORCE then you get paid hourly. If you are a salaried employee for CSC then it's a salary plus holiday pay and PTO.

hurricane1091

You're not going to work 60+ hours and not be compensated, get that out of your head right now.


Mostly, "on-call" means if someone has a problem after hours/weekends you are expected to be available to support them. What this usually translates to is unlocking an account/resetting a password. Or, if you're higher in the ranks a bit, coming in on a Saturday here and there/staying late once in a while on the weekday to reboot servers after maintenance.

Most things can usually "wait til Monday" or "wait til tomorrow". If you have a redundant network as well (you should) that even further supports the cause.

markulous

There's definitely places out there that fit the bill and not all entry-level positions either. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to work 40-50 hours with most all weekends/holidays/nights off. People have families and working 60+ hours isn't really ideal for that. I personally don't mind if I'm on call, especially if it can be worked on remotely, but in the scheme of things I don't want to work more than 50 hours a week due to my family.

blargoe

If you are working 60+ hours per week and are getting no consideration for your time, you are working for the wrong company.

marcj04

Yea but if your salaried then isn't that just part of the contract? Regardless of how many hours you are working? That's just what I always assumed. I have never had a salaried position so I really don't actually know.

Danielm7

marcj04 wrote: »

Yea but if your salaried then isn't that just part of the contract? Regardless of how many hours you are working? That's just what I always assumed. I have never had a salaried position so I really don't actually know.

If you're salaried and fall under the exempt category then you generally aren't compensated for overtime.

overthetop

networker050184 wrote: »

Why? Who wants to work nights and weekends? I know I sure don't but it can be a necessary evil at times. Just make sure you find a good employer that will make it up to you.

I don't want to work at all, I want to sit home in my shorts watching Maury all day, and I dont want to put the toilet seat down its a lot of things I don't want to do. It is not necessarily about wanting to work nights and weekends but the ability to work nights and weekends if need be. I have done contract work and salaried employee and its nothing worse than working on something as a "team" and that one guy leaves because its the end of the day. I hate clock watchers but thats just me. If you get off at 1700 you're in your car by 1703 hugh?
NO OFFENSE please forgive me

The second worse kind of employee is the one who smokes. I am like you just went out to smoke at the very least 6 times during a 8-12hr period, for at least 15 minutes each. You should not be watching the clock you owe 90minutes to the company. That wasn't a paid smoke break, now you need to leave at 1830.

xnx

What's to stop you leaving on time if you've been productive throughout the day..?

Bchen22

hurricane1091 wrote: »

You're not going to work 60+ hours and not be compensated, get that out of your head right now.

Yup this is why I don't work for free and desperately avoid these kind of jobs.
I only remain productive at my IT job because I almost never work more than 40 hours. I work the most 42 hours only once and got paid for it.

techfiend

It's definitely possible to have a great IT career without working nights, weekends, holidays or being on call. I know 2 that have done it and I plan on doing the same thing. I started at desktop support last month and now a jr admin and don't expect to to work any of those hours unless the network blows up. I do most of my admin work after everyone leaves the office at 4, usually done by 6, sometimes 7, it's a 24/7 business. I could come in before 8 to do the work too but I like my sleep in the morning.

IIIMaster

It depends on the company to be honest. Some are mandatory weekends off and some are 24/7 on call. Also some award the best schedules base on performance, most of the time they let you know in the job description. For the most part I work support and had weekends off.

joelsfood

Another thing to remember is that in systems/storage/networking (and probably other aspects of IT), the most interesting stuff tends to only be done after hours, as it would impact users. So even if you do manage to find a straight 9-5 job, you might be missing some of the best stuff your team is doing. I really feel this helps contribute to burnout in a lot of people who only work the tsraight 40, as there's only so much you can do during business day

YesOffense

joelsfood wrote: »

Management.

Not really. You're not on call per se, but you're never really off the clock.

JoJoCal19

Maybe I've done something right (or in some people's cases wrong). I've never worked nights/weekends except being in an on call rotation every couple of months at just one of my IT positions (nothing ever happened). I've had a very successful IT career thus far. I guess I just work very hard within the confines of my schedule, even when considering taking on additional projects and tasks. I'm just good at working smarter and more efficiently. I mean now I have a work laptop and BB but unless we have a major breach/incident, then I don't have to worry about working outside of my 7-4 schedule.

Bchen22

Great Responses thanks
I suppose I learned that the 40 hour work week can be made in any profession
The pay tends to be low thou when doing this.
Its a trade off I guess

hurricane1091

Bchen22 wrote: »

Great Responses thanks
I suppose I learned that the 40 hour work week can be made in any profession
The pay tends to be low thou when doing this.
Its a trade off I guess

You're just making stuff up now and that's just silly. I've seen the guy above me come in one Saturday since September and he has to be making 70k+ I would imagine, and his boss has never come in nights and weekends and makes 6 figures I bet.

Bchen22

hurricane1091 wrote: »

You're just making stuff up now and that's just silly. I've seen the guy above me come in one Saturday since September and he has to be making 70k+ I would imagine, and his boss has never come in nights and weekends and makes 6 figures I bet.

Hmm really? I don't hear that quite often
I'm a Field Service Tech making 50k for 40 hours a week in the public sector Overtime here is very rare. Weekends and holidays off and no on call
I suppose I'm the exception maybe the managers are too?
Been in public sector for 25 years