Typical Week in IT?

ProFamous

Hey all, just wondering, how many hours a week do you work? I am curious because I've always wanted to venture into real estate part-time, and I am unsure how demanding a regular IT job is. Are you on call? Weekends? 9-5? Travel across the country? etc etc etc.
I am in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm really not sure how easy it is to get a job here. Thanks!

TheFORCE

Infinite hours! We work from home too.

snunez889

It depends on the company and the type of work you do. No two situations are gonna be the same and whats demanded of you will change from company to company. My first IT job I worked three 12 hour shifts a week in a NOC and that was it. Where I am now, I work 9 - 5 with some on call. I have heard stories of people working crazy hours and being on call all the time. I probably wouldn't sign up for something like that, unless the pay was great. If I get called on my off hours I wont even answer the phone, if its important leave a message. I got tired of dumb calls for things that can be handled when I get in.

aderon

First IT Job - ISP Tech Support - $12.75/hour + comission + pay for performance
Your shift depended on seniority. Usually I would get 10AM-6PM M-F, but after a year and a half I could get any shift I want and started going 8AM-6PM M-Th. I worked probably... 1-2 hours of overtime a week and got paid for it.

Second IT Job - Enterprise Storage Controller Tech Support - $18.50/hour
11PM-7AM Sun-Th. Overtime was voluntary some parts of the year and very restricted other parts of the year. So for the most part it was 40 hours a week unless I wanted otherwise. I got paid for any overtime I did.

Third IT Job - NOC - $43,800/year
11PM-7AM Th-M. Salaried. Not paid for overtime. I work overtime on ocassion, because I have nothing better to do and I like my job, but there's no expectation for me to work overtime if I don't want to. 40 hours/week.



Note: Never been on call for any of my jobs. Never had to travel for any of my jobs.

ProFamous

@snunez889 Yes, while reading around online I see many IT people saying they work very long hours and are on call. Wondering if all "serious" IT jobs (past entry level) are this demanding. Having a part time job after my IT job would be best with a standard 9-5 I am guessing, but beggars can't be choosers.

gex598

Work 8-5 M-F, on call 24/7 if network outages occur. Salaried and do not get overtime. Have to take part in after hours on call once ever 8-10 weeks where I take all help desk calls between 7pm and 5am.

snunez889

I am a systems admin for a company that only operates m-f 9-5. I guess it depends on the industry you get into. I had a professor who worked as a sr systems guy and worked a second job as a teacher.

N2IT

9 - 6 Monday through Friday. ~10 hours of additional work or research / increased skills.

Tremie24

Mon-Fri 730-4

Most of the time its pretty standard 40 hours work week. There are times where I have worked 50+ hours. I've had to work some Saturdays as well, but its pretty rare. I don't have to be on call, and don't have to travel, other than driving out the different sites.

TechxWizard

Digital support specialist for a radiography company
M-F 9-5
On Call 5pm-8pm 2x a week
Sat 9-4 2x a week.
Taking your work home sucks, especially when there is a snow day and everyone in the office has off except you.
but it pays the bills for now. Id rather sell drugs than work on call, but thats just me lol

J_86

It all depends what kind of position you are in. I've been in positions where it was strictly 8:30am-5:30pm, others where I have standard hours but also on-call 24 hours a day, and when others where it feels like I should just live at work because I never seem to leave! Travel also depends on the job. Every aspect of IT is different, that is one of the best things about it!

I'm in Cincinnati too! The job market here is pretty good. Northern Kentucky, downtown, and the Blue Ash area are pretty hot areas for IT work. For entry level jobs, I almost recommend trying to work with a recruiter to get a contract gig for some help desk type experience.

ProFamous

Awesome guys, thank you very much. @J_86 , it's great to hear the IT market is good here, I am at UC and the co-op for IT seems pretty good so I am hoping! Gotta get those certs...

beads

Fortune 50ish company. Manager of Security and Risk. Hours can be as short as 45 though my last position was usually closer to 100 (ask me about LEAVING). I know many Officer levels that think the first 60 hours of a work week as a first breath.

Depending on what your working on and the criticality of the work itself you may find yourself on call at the administrator/engineer and sometimes management level. If you've ever been in the unfortunate place where the Disaster Recovery plan has been pulled - well, its all hands. What can anyone say? LOL.

One piece of advice I will say is that the field is much easier to stay abreast in and easier to follow if you have some real interest in the field itself. Otherwise, prepared to be bored and cranky with the career field. In other words, don't go into it cause theres a job in it today. We've all meet someone who hates the field and is more than happy to share the bounty of their displeasure.

- b/eads

ProFamous

@beads so you say you work for a Fortune 50ish company as a manager. Would you say that non management positions required less hours? Or is superiority irrelevant? And have you ever worked for smaller companies and how were the hours compared to working at a big company?
And wow! 100 hours sounds crazy. No way I could do that. I enjoy IT work but really I couldn't do that to my family.

jdballinger

This really is dependent on the field. I can only speak to the networking side, but in my experience so far it is all over the board.

This week, I'll put in about 45-50 hours. That's my minimum. I haven't worked less than a 45 hour week since I left the government.
Last week was the final week of a project I had going, and I put in about 75 hours. That's not nearly as common.
Last year at the end of the year, we were short staffed and at the end of the project. I worked 70-80 hours a week for the last 3 months of the year.

All this on salary, so the only real reward is a pat on the back and extra consideration when it comes time for a raise or a promotion.

If you want 40 hours a week, go work for the government. The pay is decent if you can get a 2210 position, and I doubt you'll ever see more than 40 hours.

J_86

ProFamous wrote: »

Awesome guys, thank you very much. @J_86 , it's great to hear the IT market is good here, I am at UC and the co-op for IT seems pretty good so I am hoping! Gotta get those certs...

You're in good hands and on the right track. UC has one of the best, if not the best, co-op program around.

beads

ProFamous wrote: »

@beads so you say you work for a Fortune 50ish company as a manager. Would you say that non management positions required less hours? Or is superiority irrelevant? And have you ever worked for smaller companies and how were the hours compared to working at a big company?
And wow! 100 hours sounds crazy. No way I could do that. I enjoy IT work but really I couldn't do that to my family.

Overall I know management level tend to put in more not few hours than the Architect through Analyst level positions with Officer level folks generally stopping to eat and grab a few hours of sleep. They also tend to drop dead much younger and have a poorer quality of life from a actuarial standpoint.

Overall the larger the company, ironically, the fewer hours are generally worked as well. Why? Because a large if not huge company generally has enough budget to hire not only the quality but the quantity needed to perform the work needed. Company I am currently at is privately owned and works "a little differently" than the large mega-corps your more familiar.

Excuse me, I need to stop by the bank and grab some 20s to light my evening cigar. Its after 5:00PM here.

- b/eads

pevangel

40-45 hours a week but I will sometimes have long days. Once in a while I'll do a 14-16 hour day to complete something because of a deadline, but I will leave early or go to work late some other day.

When I did field work, I worked 50-60 hours a week most of the time.

hurricane1091

I've never had to take my work home before, but I will now. I work 8-5 which is standard for the industry, but no one clocks in and no one really keeps track, so showing up 20 minutes late or leaving 20 minutes early isn't really looked at - probably only because we're in a separate building than everyone else. I know I have IOS upgrades to do in the near future, which have to happen after the market day ends. We have an internal NOC though, they are supposed to handle issues and pass them on if they cannot figure them out. Everything is redundant, so I'm hoping it's not too much after hours stuff.

kurosaki00

Screams, running around, blames, tears, cisco docs, joy, eat at desk, sleep.