What kind of IT Jobs offer the best Work-Life Balance?

John_Diaz

So theres this talk recently with me and some of my friends that IT in general is 24/7/365.

I don't much about the IT field but I used to be a casino manager working 60+ hours a week plus being on call 24/7 I was pretty paid well and all but this job got me very tiring all the time working wierd and long hours it drained me a lot.

But now that my wife works and makes a good amount of money I have a chance to change jobs however my wife does not want me working long hours anymore and neither do I or my son so i have a chance to make a career change so I thou something I like was working with computers.

However is there work life balance in the IT field or is it generally a weekends/on-call 24/7 Profession?

I found this techexam forum and thou I would ask you guys hows the work life balance in the IT field.

Now my ideal work life balance
- working 40-45 hours a week
- generally having weekends and nights off
- it can be technical or non technical as I heard there are Non technical IT jobs
- little to no on call if possible.

Just trying to gets some insights and options for what I can possibly do in this field that can still give me a great work life balance .

Something that interested me was like being a Cable Man or a IT Business man possibly but Im guessing IT is very broad so I would appreciate the advice and help thanks.

Im not trying to go back to a long hours job im very burned out and tiring to continue such a lifestyle like that.

networker050184

It really just depends on the position and the company. I've found the mid-range operational type roles tend to come with the most on call or long hours. If you're in the design, sales, professional services, etc. there likely not much late nights and weekends involved.

John_Diaz

networker050184 wrote: »

It really just depends on the position and the company. I've found the mid-range operational type roles tend to come with the most on call or long hours. If you're in the design, sales, professional services, etc. there likely not much late nights and weekends involved.

So I heard.

What do you do in IT and is your work life balance great? Does it allow you to spend time with your wife ?

Ertaz

"IT" is two things really: It's half what you're given and half what you make of it. I spent the last 20 years in an operational role before I took my current job. I loved the work. Helping people, creating solutions, collaborating with very smart peers, and delivering against deadlines were the high points. The 3AM phone calls, the 36 hour straight through shifts and the years with no raise due to the economy were the low part. I missed a lot of time with my kids and a lot of events due to the on-call rotation. On the flip side, when my son got sick, the company let me have a month and a half off paid no questions asked. That place has since shut its doors.

Now I'm 8-5 M-F doing security work. I love the schedule and being home with my family, but I really do miss fixing things. Security is hot right now and a good portion of it is administrative, so you might look there.

My schedule isn't as good as some other folks though. Some of them have so much free time that they are able spend some of it with other guy's wives...

iBrokeIT

John_Diaz wrote: »

What do you do in IT and is your work life balance great? Does it allow you to spend time with your wife ?

I think if work/life balance is your biggest concern than you should probably pick another field because it is unlikely you will progress beyond entry level. Not at all saying it is impossible but a very uphill battle when most employers consider IT a business critical function and want employees that will treat it as such.

Basic85

If you want work/life balance, do not take a job in a 24/7 IT call center. You've odd shifts like 7pm-3:30am.

techfiend

I'm an infrastructure engineer and my work/life balance is pretty good. I average about 25 hours in office, 3 hours at home a week. Unless there's a meeting or pressing concern I can come and go as I please. I'm on call 24/7 but there's good human redundancy.

As long as things get done and company stays up management doesn't care about hours.

John_Diaz

Basic85 wrote: »

If you want work/life balance, do not take a job in a 24/7 IT call center. You've odd shifts like 7pm-3:30am.

The Casino I used to work at was always open 24 hours a day. You would feel like you're never OFF.
Is it mostly company dependent or job dependent in terms of work life balance for the IT Field?

John_Diaz

Ertaz wrote: »

"IT" is two things really: It's half what you're given and half what you make of it. I spent the last 20 years in an operational role before I took my current job. I loved the work. Helping people, creating solutions, collaborating with very smart peers, and delivering against deadlines were the high points. The 3AM phone calls, the 36 hour straight through shifts and the years with no raise due to the economy were the low part. I missed a lot of time with my kids and a lot of events due to the on-call rotation. On the flip side, when my son got sick, the company let me have a month and a half off paid no questions asked. That place has since shut its doors.

Now I'm 8-5 M-F doing security work. I love the schedule and being home with my family, but I really do miss fixing things. Security is hot right now and a good portion of it is administrative, so you might look there.

My schedule isn't as good as some other folks though. Some of them have so much free time that they are able spend some of it with other guy's wives...

Sounds good looks like you gotten good work experience not bad.
What was your first IT job before you went into security? I heard IT security is not really entry level work?

Problem is my wife does not want me missing any more of my kids event and so she won't let me have a job with wierd hours any more.

Since I left the job I think of getting the A+ cert to start off in a Help desk role where Im guessing everyone starts but it would have to be a day shift job.

My degree in Business may help out in somethin but I might not be sure.

E Double U

I've been in IT since 2003 and have never been on-call. I have worked nights/weekends/holidays during my NOC days, but I didn't have a wife or kids at the time so it was not a problem. Almost all of the overtime I put in was voluntary just to bring in extra cash.

I've had a great work/life balance since marriage/fatherhood began because every role has allowed remote work. These roles included network config, SOC, and bank security. Even the entry-level tech roles early in my career were just 40 hour work weeks (with a few exceptions). Guess I've been lucky.

Danielm7

Agree with networker, it really depends on the company. You'll find people all over the internet complaining that they are working crazy hours, no downtime, then you'll find people in that exact same role in another company that loves it, works 40 hours or less and a great balance. Support roles are likely going to have some after hours work, but it doesn't have to be a ton. Where I work they occasionally have to do upgrades on a night/weekend and if everything hits the fan they have to fix it. But, it's setup fairly well, they don't get called after hours very often for emergencies and most of us are pretty happy.

kiki162

It really depends on what you decide to get into, and what type of jobs there are in your area. Since you seem to be starting off on the "ground floor" so to speak, the best thing to do is to go back to school first, instead of worry about the career field in general.

Figure that the further up you go, and the more experience you get, the more opportunities you'll have to move into "other" areas of IT. For example, I work with a lot of people that have primary IT background, yet we all do a lot of research as a apart of our main jobs. With that being said, you should think about getting a core IT background established first.

For the most part, you'll work a normal shift. However that's something that you'll need to establish first during an interview. If you can only work M-F 8-5, then that's all you can work. Don't try to adjust your life just to get the job. That's something for people that have the time.

If you get into a Help Desk role, and depending on the company, they will have 3 shifts available. From my experience, you don't get to stay on just 1 shift because you have a family. Admins normally have the usual M/F 8-5 schedule, however they are subject to working weekends, on-call, major deployments or upgrades, and basically whenever the company needs you. If you get a company phone, well then they have you on lockdown...so be prepared.

Remember this is NOT an overnight thing that you can just jump into, and this WILL take you a couple of years to get into the right role. Many companies have remote position that you can work from home, however those roles are for people with several years of experience under their belt.

networker050184

John_Diaz wrote: »

So I heard.

What do you do in IT and is your work life balance great? Does it allow you to spend time with your wife ?

My work life balance is great and I work on the architecture side. Work from home usually around 30-40 hours a week. There are some times I work late or end up on weekend maintenances but not very often.

It definitely hasn't always been this way though. I've worked jobs where 60 hours a week and on call was the norm.

scaredoftests

Where I am right now, there is a balance. Pick the hours (just as long you are in between the hours of 9-3) and occasional OT on Tuesday nights. Though, I did have a sweet IT job when my son was little. It was part-time, but great benefits. <sigh>

Ertaz

John_Diaz wrote: »

What was your first IT job before you went into security?

I've had quite a few before landing here. Keep in mind this is 20 years worth of time: I started with telco work, moved to manufacturing IT, went back to same telco, then went back to the same manufacturer. I've been a UNIX admin, DBA, Network Engineer, and even desktop support.

John_Diaz wrote: »

I heard IT security is not really entry level work?
Problem is my wife does not want me missing any more of my kids event and so she won't let me have a job with weird hours any more.
Since I left the job I think of getting the A+ cert to start off in a Help desk role where I'm guessing everyone starts but it would have to be a day shift job. My degree in Business may help out in something but I might not be sure.

It's not entry level work. There are lots of disciplines that don't involve a technical deep dive. Frankly, with your business background, I would look at Risk Management. It's the business analyst of the security world. It's definitely a daytime kind of job.

beads

IT Security is best or better practiced after a career in IT. No doubt. If your looking to standard product development or GRC/Risk both those tend to be steady normal business hours types of work. Project Management which is also a "hot" field and is easier to break into would be worth breaking into. As a Security Architect and Incident Commander for a global organization, I am on call for my client(s) 7/24/365 but that's also the part I love - unexpected challenges.

Here is what I see missing from the responses above. Yeah, there's going to be outliers in every field, someone working one day in the office and the other four at home with weekends off and a 20 percent bonus paid quarterly. Me too but that was in the dot com era, not today. The bigger time sink, moreso than anything else is the constant learning needed to STAY in the IT field. See my recommendations above on PM and Development. All those acronyms aside those names of my esteemed colleagues represent hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of hours of vigilant after hours work studying to both master today's tasks but tomorrow's.

I plan to study about 15 hours this week after work. Currently learning a great deal on comparative data and threat modeling as the old methods are showing there age. I also know folks who are happy with lower level skill sets and will never pick up a book past college work for major corporations and do the bare minimum to get by but enough to stay employed.

Enormous field so finding something that works for you should be easy. Finding something that won't work is likewise, easy.

- b/eads