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

hurricane1091

You're just a field tech though. I don't mean that in an offensive way -- you make more than me. But I'm talking about a Sr. Systems Engineer and CTO.

xocity

Im sure the CTO/ Sr Sr. Systems Engineer has paid their dues in I.T. and worked those 60 hour weeks or on night/weekends/on call. I know of a VP that told a story of how he was a field tech basically living at client sites 10hours a day but told us he did it for the experience since it was a stepping stone to make it in I.T.

Now he's working 35/40 hours a week and occasionally I see emails from him at night. Issues only get to him after 2 or 3 junior engineers our reached out to first. Hard Work paid off for him.

sthomas

I think if you don't want to work many nights, weekends, and holidays your best option would be to work in the public sector. The pay can be decent and usually there is a good work/life balance. Even so it is IT so there will be some instances were you have to work on an evening or weekend or maybe even a holiday but it wouldn't be very often.

E Double U

I've been lucky to not be on-call in my decade long IT career, but I have worked different schedules.

In the NOC there was no need for on-call since it was 24/7, but I worked all three shifts in my four years there. I was single without kids then so I didn't mind. Getting paid an extra 10% for swing shift, 15% for graveyard, time and a half on weekends, double time and a half on holidays made it worth it.

In config & migrations I worked Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm and only worked over when something went wrong which wasn't often.

The SOC was 24/7 was no need for on-call. I was Mon - Fri.

In my current Info Sec role at a local bank I work 9.5 hours a day by choice. I've been here for almost two years and I can count on one hand the number of times I've worked late or over the weekend and I scheduled it. No on-call.

hurricane1091

xocity wrote: »

Im sure the CTO/ Sr Sr. Systems Engineer has paid their dues in I.T. and worked those 60 hour weeks or on night/weekends/on call. I know of a VP that told a story of how he was a field tech basically living at client sites 10hours a day but told us he did it for the experience since it was a stepping stone to make it in I.T.

Now he's working 35/40 hours a week and occasionally I see emails from him at night. Issues only get to him after 2 or 3 junior engineers our reached out to first. Hard Work paid off for him.

I'm not denying the on call portion. In a small company, you will absolutely always be on call. The thing I'm driving home is that you won't typically find a job that should pay $25/hr and hire you for $50,000 /yr instead (which is $25/hr) and work you 60 hours every single week so they save money. There's only so much that needs to be done.

Once infrastructure is in place, executives are very happy. If it works, don't fix it. So think major things that would have to be done off hours. Router/switch replacement, server upgrades/maintenance, etc etc. How often does that stuff actually get done? My point exactly.

Also, it depends what you are trying to do. Plus, consider the business itself. If the business is open 8-5 then it is open 8-5. You won't be supporting anyone if no one is there (unless they have laptops like where I work and some do work on their own time after hours) and if everything network wise is kosher, why would you be in the office still?


Like yeah, if a switch goes down on Saturday, you'll need to be in there to get that replaced before Monday. How rare is that though? Even if something happens to the DC, you probably have more than 1 and you'll still be okay till Monday. Just think about these things.


TL;DR - If you're in corporate America and the business operates under normal hours, you probably won't have to worry about that much off hours support. If it's not affecting more than 1 person, it can usually wait until tomorrow/Monday.

anhtran35

If you are looking for an ENTRY level IT job then I suggest you be willing to take nights and weekends. You get paid more. You get experience. You can study for more advance certs. I started in help desk and worked nights/weekends for 2 years. Move on to a NOC and worked nights/weekends for 3 years. Worked overseas Afghanistan and Iraq. Came back home last year. Now work at home via VPN 4 days one week and 3 days the next repeat. It's part of the sacrifice of knowing where you want to be in life. You have to put in your dues. The positives is now I have 10 years of IT experience. A few certs. Great referrals from my previous IT Managers. Worked on several projects that I stick on my resume etc. Tons of connections. The negatives? Your social life will take a hit. Your bunker might take a hit( Afghanistan and Iraq ).

Bchen22

anhtran35 wrote: »

Your social life will take a hit. .

Yea thats not happening ever to me nor will I ever let it.

AwesomeGarrett

Do you want a job or a career?

You can make a career out of any job and vice versa. Just because you're in a senior role doesn't mean that you'll be working 60+ hours a week and weekends. At the same time, if you're level 1, it doesn't mean that you'll be capped at 40 hours.

The difference lies at 5pm, whether you stay and work on the issue or project because you know it's going to benefit your career tomorrow, the next year, or five years down the line; or you pack it up, go home, and decide you'll work on it tomorrow or push it off to someone else.

Personally, I do both. However, if you want the job with the better pay, benefits, time off, and have people around you thinking you're some sort of IT god, then you're going to have to work the extra hours here and there.

Yes, you can punch your 40 in every week and have nights and weekends to yourself and have a great compensation package. However, if that's not you, next time you do not have enough time off for vacation or can't buy what you want or even what you need ask yourself, is this the best that I can do? Not just for your family but for yourself.

Priston

I know plenty of people that are in design, development, and test roles that don't have any requirement to work outside of normal business hours. Occasionally there will be a big project with a dead line and most people are willing to work a few extra hours to get the job done.

Bchen22

AwesomeGarrett wrote: »

Do you want a job or a career?

You can make a career out of any job and vice versa. Just because you're in a senior role doesn't mean that you'll be working 60+ hours a week and weekends. At the same time, if you're level 1, it doesn't mean that you'll be capped at 40 hours.

The difference lies at 5pm, whether you stay and work on the issue or project because you know it's going to benefit your career tomorrow, the next year, or five years down the line; or you pack it up, go home, and decide you'll work on it tomorrow or push it off to someone else.

Personally, I do both. However, if you want the job with the better pay, benefits, time off, and have people around you thinking you're some sort of IT god, then you're going to have to work the extra hours here and there.

Yes, you can punch your 40 in every week and have nights and weekends to yourself and have a great compensation package. However, if that's not you, next time you do not have enough time off for vacation or can't buy what you want or even what you need ask yourself, is this the best that I can do? Not just for your family but for yourself.

Great Answer thanks a lot you guys to all of you
Really appreciate it.
My son and daugther will appreciate this advice.
As well as any co worker I work with.

pinkydapimp

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

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.

Guess i have been lucky as well. Not to say i havent ever worked late or on a weekend. It has just never been required. I think there are plenty of roles with a good work/life balance if you are skilled enough to be choosy or look for them.

speednetwork

I would work whatever I can get, ot and everything.