Overnight NOC Job?

Hey Guys,

I may be getting a job soon as an Associate Network Operations Technician, working the overnight shift. I'll be new to the NOC environment, and new to the overnight shift as well. So that will be a big change for me. I was wondering if you guys can share your experiences in a NOC, and how is the overnight shift for it? What should I be expecting? Anything in particular I should prepare for? What are future routes for a NOC technician? etc..

Thanks for your input!

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Paul Boz

My first real job was a promotion from tech support at a small ISP into the NOC. I chose the over-night shifts as frequently as I could get them.

Over-night shifts are great. It would surprise me if they didn't start you during the day and transition you to the night shift though. It will be hard to truly learn the position and the company if your only exposure is the night shift. I chose the night shifts because I was afforded the ability to make decisions that would otherwise route to other people during business hours. I was also the only employee on the clock in the whole company so no team mates or anything like that. Quite the responsibility for a 19 year old! The complete isolation from co workers really taught me how to independently work, find my own answers, and implement creative solutions to complex problems. When you're by yourself you can't just walk over a few cubicles and get the information you want.

You can expect lots of study time and doing more maintenance than active troubleshooting. Generally the night shift cleans up after the day shift - does the housekeeping so to speak. This is also largely dependent on the type of company you're working for and what the NOC monitors. I worked for an ISP so it was all telecom equipment and circuits. A large server farm may rely on over-night sysadmin type skills. It just depends on the environment.

In all I'd say its an excellent career move and something very valuable on your resume. I have lots of great security experience now but the most proud thing on my resume is probably that first NOC job because it was my first "real" job with "real" responsibilities and opened a lot of doors for me. You get lots of transparency into processes and technologies that the typical employee does not get. The NOC is over-arching in that it often monitors the whole environment. Most people function in compartments of the environment and don't get that holistic big-picture. The "big picture" is what got me into data networking bigtime. As I kept looking at how things connected I wanted to know why and how.

drew726

I just started overnight NOC recently and to say theres a lot of time to study is an understatement.

Hypntick

drew726 wrote: »

I just started overnight NOC recently and to say theres a lot of time to study is an understatement.

Sounds like my type of job. I'd rather do overnight or second shift. I am just not wired for normal daytime operation, this current job is killing me. 7:30 to 4:30

Dr_Atomic

You'll have a lot of dead time on overnight shift. I used to envy the daytimers, because they got to hone their skills in networking and do things I never got to get involved in at night, because all the projects were during the day when people were awake. You'll find your IT knowledge start to evaporate on night shift unless you find ways to get involved.

Priston

Night shift has its ups and downs. Weekends can be boring sometimes right around 4am, unless you change your sleep schedule which I rarely did.
I ate dinner first thing when I woke up and breakfast right before bed...

@ Dr Atomic
I thought most NOCs did their network changes at night when no one is using the network

ats3

You will gain a lot of experience in a NOC. Some companies have different tiers in a NOC which allows you to move up in the team. Other companies will have just one tier where you basically do it all which can give you more experience. What type of company is this for?

Forsaken_GA

it all depends on the company environment.

I prefer night shift for the same reasons that Paul mentioned. Not having to wake somebody important up at 4am is a major driving force to fix the problem yourself, so if you have any motivation at all, you get good at working under high pressure situations, and if your company does changes at night, you may get the experience of implementation. If you *won't* be doing implementation, and someone else is coming in to do it, I highly recommend you make friends with that/those person/people, and look over their shoulder and ask questions so you can understand what their doing. Make use of any resource you possibly can to learn.

And finally, if you intend to move on to other things, make sure you use your downtime wisely. Sitting and browsing gossip web sites or watching TV, or playing games, or watching youtube is not beneficial to you. If the company has a lab environment for what you want to do, lobby for access to it. If they don't, see if they'll let you bring in your own gear and set one up, or at the very least, give you permission to connect to your own lab resources remotely. Try to spend as much downtime learning as possible. There's absolutely nothing better than furthering your own career development on your bosses dime.

rogue2shadow

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

it all depends on the company environment.

I prefer night shift for the same reasons that Paul mentioned. Not having to wake somebody important up at 4am is a major driving force to fix the problem yourself, so if you have any motivation at all, you get good at working under high pressure situations, and if your company does changes at night, you may get the experience of implementation. If you *won't* be doing implementation, and someone else is coming in to do it, I highly recommend you make friends with that/those person/people, and look over their shoulder and ask questions so you can understand what their doing. Make use of any resource you possibly can to learn.

And finally, if you intend to move on to other things, make sure you use your downtime wisely. Sitting and browsing gossip web sites or watching TV, or playing games, or watching youtube is not beneficial to you. If the company has a lab environment for what you want to do, lobby for access to it. If they don't, see if they'll let you bring in your own gear and set one up, or at the very least, give you permission to connect to your own lab resources remotely. Try to spend as much downtime learning as possible. There's absolutely nothing better than furthering your own career development on your bosses dime.

+1 on this.

Essendon

+2 to what Forsaken said. Excellent points.

try2pingit

Wow! Thanks for the input! You guys are tremendous... that's why I love techexams.

I followed up with the HR Manager and she said that the NOC Manager expressed interested in my resume. They are currently looking over other resumes as well to consider for phone screens/interviews. What happened was that I applied to the 'Network Operations Technician' position and was asked if I had Voice experience which I admitted that I didn't but that it wouldn't be an issue to learn the technology. So the HR Manager said that the Voice experience was required and then said something like "hey you know what, we're in the process of approving an Associate NOC Technician position available the first week of March. She called me the next day and said "we've actually decided to streamline the associate position with the regular NOC tech position, it will be posted online in like 3 days so you can apply to it". So I did and now I'm in waiting mode, praying to get this job. My wife is not too happy about it because she'll be alone overnight which she isn't used to. It would be a sacrifice but would be an awesome move careerwise. The change in sleep patterns must be crazy to get used to. I don't really mind it though.

*When* I get the job I'll definitely be absorbing as much as possible and learn from peers. This would be a really good start in the cisco world since I've decided it's THE route I'm taking.

I really appreciate all your input, you guys rock. I hope to get the job and be on my way to being as good as you all.

wbculver

I work in a NOC (First Shift), it was the best decision I've ever made. Our Third shift guys have worked here for several years and love it.

You will be amazed how much you learn while working for a Service Provider.

You're happiness will come from the work environment and co-workers, so I hope everything works out well.

Dr_Atomic

Priston wrote: »

@ Dr Atomic
I thought most NOCs did their network changes at night when no one is using the network

Some changes are made at night, but they're done infrequently. Some maintenance is done at night, but not by NOC technicians with CCNAs - this is done usually by the CCIE engineers who are on-call with very limited exceptions.

Bl8ckr0uter

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

Some changes are made at night, but they're done infrequently. Some maintenance is done at night, but not by NOC technicians with CCNAs - this is done usually by the CCIE engineers who are on-call with very limited exceptions.

That depends on how you define "changes". At my last shop, I got to apply IOS updates and do some minor route changes as well as some ACL changes at night. This was do to the CCIEs being to busy dealing with our fiber backbone and the CCNPs to busy getting doing the day to day support.

Forsaken_GA

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

Some changes are made at night, but they're done infrequently. Some maintenance is done at night, but not by NOC technicians with CCNAs - this is done usually by the CCIE engineers who are on-call with very limited exceptions.

It largely depends on the company. I do quite a bit of maint at night, and I'm not yet a CCIE. I've demonstrated my competency, and all proposed changes are peer reviewed, CCIE or no.

taigemao

Dr_Atomic wrote: »

You'll have a lot of dead time on overnight shift. I used to envy the daytimers, because they got to hone their skills in networking and do things I never got to get involved in at night, because all the projects were during the day when people were awake. You'll find your IT knowledge start to evaporate on night shift unless you find ways to get involved.

Indeed! That's my feeling.

phatrik

It think everything there is to say has already been said but I'll re-iterate what I find the most important anyways:

Night shift is great for a few reasons

- You get some independence WRT decision making
- You get some down time to study
- Maybe it suits your schedule and your family situation

However as someone else already mentioned, being on the night **** means you might miss some learning opportunities since projects go on during the day. My advice is to use the night shift to study / obtain your CCNA Voice (since they asked you about Voice experience already) and then try to get transferred to day shift where you can apply the skills you've learned. Also as someone already pointed out, ask for access to their lab (it shows them early on you're interested in learning/bettering yourself)

Welly_59

I've literally just woken up from a night shift as part of net support team in a MSP. One incident all night

skswitch

try2pingit wrote: »

Wow! Thanks for the input! You guys are tremendous... that's why I love techexams.

I followed up with the HR Manager and she said that the NOC Manager expressed interested in my resume. They are currently looking over other resumes as well to consider for phone screens/interviews. What happened was that I applied to the 'Network Operations Technician' position and was asked if I had Voice experience which I admitted that I didn't but that it wouldn't be an issue to learn the technology. So the HR Manager said that the Voice experience was required and then said something like "hey you know what, we're in the process of approving an Associate NOC Technician position available the first week of March. She called me the next day and said "we've actually decided to streamline the associate position with the regular NOC tech position, it will be posted online in like 3 days so you can apply to it". So I did and now I'm in waiting mode, praying to get this job. My wife is not too happy about it because she'll be alone overnight which she isn't used to. It would be a sacrifice but would be an awesome move careerwise. The change in sleep patterns must be crazy to get used to. I don't really mind it though.

*When* I get the job I'll definitely be absorbing as much as possible and learn from peers. This would be a really good start in the cisco world since I've decided it's THE route I'm taking.

I really appreciate all your input, you guys rock. I hope to get the job and be on my way to being as good as you all.

Just to add on the balancing act that is shift work / relationships.

Mornings. Fit in the bests of course. In bed at night and home for dinner. But I do find myself getting lazier and easier distracted for studying. If I hit my recliner before my computer chair I'm done for.

Afternoons. I make sure to clean up the house, layout or start dinner so when they come home there isn't much to do. She admit's she gets spoiled on this lol. I call before my son goes to bed which he tells me about his day at school. She gets a empty quite house to study for her certifications. (taking Security+ next week! *cross fingers for her*)

Overnights. Empty bed yes but small sacrifices now for greater gains later. I get to see both my son and spouse before they leave for day. Also having chance of walking my son to school is pretty awesome.

Usually shift work comes in broke up parts in the week. When I was off and my spouse was would do mid day lunch dates.

When you rotate schedules you get a chance of working with different people who have their own skill sets. I tend to dislike sitting in the same chair...talking to same person...about the same thing...over and over. You can only talk about Game of Thrones theories so much!

All in all its a great chance to learn how to adapt to different situations and make it work for you. Use it to your advantage or you'll hate it.

hurricane1091

I worked for a place that had a NOC. One guy came in from 4-12 and then another did 12-8. Overnight was kushy, totally alone but you would have no one to learn from.

volfkhat

Spoiler ALert:
OP didn't get the job.

Futhermore,
OP stopped coming to the site years ago.

Dead Thread.

EDIT:
Okay... after being teased by the community;
i suppose it's possible that OP hit the lotto and is living on an Island somewhere....

Carry on :]

skswitch

BRB editing my resume to remove "detail oriented"...

Still some good information in this thread for anyone who may be lurking and interested in what to expect for shift work.

DatabaseHead

sks

Love it!