Possible new job opportunity

Gorby

Hey Guys,

I was offered a new position at a small NOC doing network monitoring yesterday and I'm considering taking it because there seems to be promotion opportunity unlike my current role now. One of the things that somewhat bothered me is since I'm making a decent salary as a deskside technician the pay won't be much of an increase but more of a lateral move.

I've never worked a shift schedule before and for this position it would be 12 hour shifts 7am - 7pm days rotating weekly on a 3 -4 day schedule. Have any of you done a shift like that? How did you adjust?

gorebrush

This all sounds very familiar...

I moved to a 2nd line BAU role in October which is Shift based. I work that same pattern, 7am-7pm 2 days, then 7pm-7am 2 nights, then 4 days off (well 3.5 day off, you have the rest of the day off after the night shift then 3 whole days off)

How did I adjust? I love it!

I now commute when it is dead quiet so my commute is under 10 minutes (as opposed to up to 40 minutes as I used to have to drive past 4 schools at the time all the children went in)

Night shifts are perfect for studying - they are generally very quiet.
I get paid a shift allowance of 20%, winning.

Sometimes I find the day of the last shift a pain as I only get about 5-6 hours sleep, but the 3.5 days off is nice. I really feel like I have an 8 day week and it's 50/50 work/off.

I far, far prefer it. I'll miss it when I move on as I'm sure my next job won't be shift. (but hopefully I'll make as much or more money back on a 9-5 with the CCIE done)

Gorby

I thinking the biggest benefit is time to study. So what was your sleep schedule like for a shift like that? Was it hard the first few weeks?

gorebrush

Did take slight adjusting but I'm used to it now.

I like my 2nd day shift - gives me an excuse to stay up tonight until silly o clock - like 5am and then I can sleep all day in preparation for working that night.

I usually sleep from 7am until 3-4pm after first night shift and try and get up at 1-2pm after 2nd night shift. The rest of that day I will admit I try not to do much, but the 3 full days off are lovely. I usually study on all 3 of those as I'm working towards CCIE.