Your typical work day.

southside · January 2013

Hello Guys,

I know that for most of us IT guys, no two days are the same.

So I thought I would make a post here describing how our typical day starts and what we do in our day to day roles.

Me: I work as a Consultant for a firm doing infrastructure support as well as consultancy. I have being in the IT game for 3 years. In my current role it is much busy unlike my last role as a Junior Systems Engineer, I had so much down time which even gave me time to dick around! on the job and sometimes even study for certs! GODD I miss those days

I wake up at 7:15 AM.

7:15 AM - 7:50 AM: Get dressed, eat and get ready to go to work.

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Come in to work and through out fire.

9:30 AM - 6:00 PM Do my work, work on support cases, do project work, do design work, help my team members it is really busy and I end up putting in extra 30 minutes to a hour each day cause my work is really busy and I hold a lot of responsibilities ( Like all top notch trusted IT Professionals)

6:00 PM - 6:30 PM Go home.

7:00 PM - 11 PM Eat and dick around and enjoy life and then go to bed and do it all over again.

Iristheangel · January 2013

4:30AM - Wake up, shower, dress, etc
5:00AM - Leave for work before traffic
5:30AM - Arrive at work and park wherever
5:30-6:30AM - Hide out in the restroom and make myself presentable for work. Normal girl stuff - hair, makeup, etc
6:30-8:00AM - Study before anyone comes in or before I really have to start work. Lately it's been CCNP Switch.
8:00-10:00AM - Followup with vendors, apply pressure where needed, do various tasks instructed by infrastructure architect
10:00-11:00AM - Meeting. Usually Infrastructure meetings
11:00-12:00AM - Lunch time. I usually snack and study at my desk. Lately I've been labbing CEH during this time.
12:00-5:00PM - Configuring equipment, following up on operational matters, getting quotes, working with the architect, etc
5:00-6:00PM - Fight Los Angeles traffic home
6:00-8:00PM - More studying
8:00-10:00PM - Pretending like I'm studying when I'm really watching TV shows
10:00-12:00AM - Super serious studying for M.S. work. Then I crash.

Rinse, repeat the next day.

gbdavidx · January 2013

you only get 4 and a half hrs of sleep?

Iristheangel · January 2013

During the week, it averages 4 to 4.5. During the weekend, I'll sleep for about 8-9 hours a night.

gorebrush · January 2013

Day shift: -
05:30 - up and get ready
06:30 - leave for work
06:40 - get to work
07:00 - start work
19:00 - finish work
19:10 - home
19:11 - 23:00 - relax, spend time with my wife maybe revise if she is at work
then sleep

When on a night shift

15:00 - get up
18:30 - leave for work
19:00 - start work
19:00 - 07:00 - if it is quiet I spend the 12 hours studying, or looking at the internet, or when I need to, actually fix problems

This accounts for 4 days of a week. Then after those 4, I have 4 off.

southside · January 2013

Iristheangel wrote: »

During the week, it averages 4 to 4.5. During the weekend, I'll sleep for about 8-9 hours a night.

OMG Iris,

if i get that much sleep I would be moody and non productive.

Is it your body, is it the way it is,

some people only need 3 hours and they are fine?

Iristheangel · January 2013

Trust me, my body would love more sleep if it can get it! In order to get all the studying done that I need, I need to be awake that long during the week. It's a balancing act and I'm usually chipper at work but I can't wait for the day when I'm done with this craziness. I'm trying to finish my M.S. this year as well as getting my CCNP (then my CCNP Security after). As you can see on my Network Academy thread, I'm also balancing actual in-person class for the CCNP Switch which adds to the intensity of my study routine.

If I can manage it, I'll have all this craziness behind me next year and can go back to focusing on one certification at a time without college or grad school piled onto it. Heh... Studying for the CCIE in the future will probably be less stressful than this since I'll only be focusing on ONE thing

southside · January 2013

Nice, what a hard worker

just do not burn out,

Also you are still young, there is time, why the rush?

Iristheangel wrote: »

Trust me, my body would love more sleep if it can get it! In order to get all the studying done that I need, I need to be awake that long during the week. It's a balancing act and I'm usually chipper at work but I can't wait for the day when I'm done with this craziness. I'm trying to finish my M.S. this year as well as getting my CCNP (then my CCNP Security after). As you can see on my Network Academy thread, I'm also balancing actual in-person class for the CCNP Switch which adds to the intensity of my study routine.

If I can manage it, I'll have all this craziness behind me next year and can go back to focusing on one certification at a time without college or grad school piled onto it. Heh... Studying for the CCIE in the future will probably be less stressful than this since I'll only be focusing on ONE thing

Iristheangel · January 2013

I'm 30 years old so there is a bit more social pressure to get things done and I'll soon be paying for my spouse so I need to be where I need to be in my career at that point (Spouse starts medical residency for 4 years). I left a comfortable job that paid well and was secure but I was not learning anything new for my current job where I work as a consultant and learn a TON. I also get paid a ton more money which was secondary to why I took the job but still nice.

I have seen a lot of people stop and go with their studying and ultimately fall short of their goals. That will not be me if I can help it. I know my own nature to procrastinate if I allow myself to. I'm about 5 years in and have achieved much in this time. My goal is to have my CCNP, CCNP:Security, and M.S. done by the end of the year or by the end of the first quarter of next year. After that, I tone down and head right to CCIE land. It may take me years of studying, labbing, etc but I can accept a easier pace while doing it. If I can have the CCIE done by the end of the spouse's residency (4 years from July), then I don't think I'll do much else in terms of certifications. We'll enjoy a better work-life balance at that point and I'll probably be making good money wherever I go.

Dr IT · January 2013

Iris that's some real motivation & personal drive you have . I wish i had half of that

Well thats why i love TE to see where all you brillant people are and what i need to do - to get there

Good Luck

Rakurai · January 2013

So.... my typical day is not a typical one for any IT person,can't devulge into detail, but trust me.

3:30 - ~4:45 - Wake up, shower/shave, if needed iron suit shirt, make food for the day
5:00 - 5:20 - Drive to work
5:45 - 1800 - Shift work, stupid Tier 1/2 helpdesk (aka resetting passwords and unlocking accounts. I miss being deployed and doing Satcom/Point to point LoS/ VoIP/Network admin stuff) along with other "tasks"
1800 - 1845 - Fight the DC area traffic home
1845 - (2200-2300) - Make dinner, relax, maybe watch tv

After all that repeat it depending on the week. Either I work 5 days a week or 2 days a week, to include weekends. And yea, sleep is for the weak, I am used to only about 3-4 hours of sleep from being deployed, and doing 18 hour work days, plus being woken up in the middle of the night for things that wern't my responsibility.

paul78 · January 2013

My goodness- Iris and Rakurai - you folks wake up early. I wish I had that type of fortitude to be disciplined.
@ Gorebrush- do you have to switch from day to night shift often? I imagine that could be very difficult on you sleep patterns.

I can't really say that I have a typical day. I would love a typical day. I do strive to have a typical week though.

If I am not traveling- I try to do the following each week:

1) Wake up between 6:15am and 7:15am. Depends on what I am doing the night before.
2) Twice a week try to drive my daughter to school.
3) I don't eat breakfast during the work week but have 3 cups of coffee in the AM.
3) About twice a week, I work until around 9-10pm in evening.
4) I don't typically have dinner with the family but I will spend at least one evening doing school work with my daughter.
5) My work week consist mostly of meetings involving:
A) Customer contract reviews.

Daily operations status.
C) Budget review and funding issue.
D) Project portfolio reviews.
E) Dealing with escalated problems.
F) Various incidents that are above a threshold.
G) Review security posture of organization.
H) Architecture reviews.
I) Sales opportunities.
J) Dealing with way too much email....

Basically my day at work is to deal with stuff that needs attention.

N2IT · January 2013

Get up get the kids dressed
Verify their homework is completed
Take them to school wish them a great day
Come home and work out for 1 -2 hours
Go to the cigar bar and smoke 1 -2 Padron 64's drink a Starbucks iced Caramel Macchiato
Come home straighten up do laundry dishes etc
Pick up my kids and sit down with them and do homework
Take the kids to the park if the weather is warm enough, if not play games with them
Mon - Weds - Sat take my son and daugther to Krav Maga
Drink a glass or 3 of scotch or beer
Go to bed

It's been very enjoyable and I absolutely love it. Not looking forward to going back to work.

I can honestly say I feel much better spending time with my children than I do working. I have a decent size contigency so I have the flexibility to do this.

shodown · January 2013

Wake up around 9-10

Read morning emails reply to important ones, others make reminders to respond in the next 24 hours.

Start up numerous IM sessions with friends, co-workers.

VPN into whatever project I'm working on and get a few task done.

Lunch

Work on the design for the next customer. Try to find customer who have similar requirements and get them to all choose the same or as close to the same design as possible to eliminate extra work for me.

Lots and lots of SRND reading figuring out whats compatible and known bugs that are show stoppers

VPN into the customer and dick around find out what makes there VOIP/VIDEO tick

Respond to emails and close up shop around 5.

A few nights a week, after 10PM, a lot of magic happens. New site cuts, Call center scripting changes go into play, new dial plan updates and so on.

MAC_Addy · January 2013

Iristheangel wrote: »

8:00-10:00PM - Pretending like I'm studying when I'm really watching TV shows

This is exactly what I do around about the same time, too. My wife and I usually have the TV on while she's doing homework (she's about to graduate with her bachelors in graphic design). I find myself peering over my book and getting sucked in.

N2IT wrote: »

Go to the cigar bar and smoke 1 -2 Padron 64's drink a Starbucks iced Caramel Macchiato

I am jealous. I haven't been able to smoke a cigar in quite a few years. Unfortunately my wife does not condone smoking of cigars, of any other type of smoking for that matter.

GAngel · January 2013

Mine is pretty boring.
In work at 7
security log sweep
meetings (or flight to branch office)
meetings
lunch
meetings
meetings
home

Bokeh · January 2013

Seems a lot of us have the same daily rituals.

Wake 5-530am, check news and traffic
Shower at 6, dressed by 620am
Wake lil lady at 630am, force her out of bed (she is NOT a morning person!)
Pack lunches by 645, out the door by 715-730 at latest.
Arrive work 815-830.
830-noon - Support emails, calls, misc projects from company president.
1230-5pm - same as above
5pm-545/6pm - await lil lady to arrive from her work place (we care pool, saves us $$)
Home by 615-630pm.
Dinner, relaxing, studying till 930-10pm.
10pm-1030pm - catch up on news stories on Zite. Then lights out, alarms set, and sleep till morning.

chaser7783 · January 2013

wake up at 5:15am
leave by 5:45am
5:45am - 7:00am drive to work(eating breakfast while commuting)
7:00am Start work
11:30-12:30 lunch
4:00pm leave work for the day.
5:00-5:30 get home from work(traffic is awesome!)
~6:00 get dinner ready
6:00pm-12:00am Eat dinner, study for ccna:security, gcia, and read blog post, security sites, and try to catch a dvr'd show before I go to bed.

f0rgiv3n · January 2013

Wow, I guess I need to start waking up earlier

6:45AM - Wake up, decide it's too early and change alarm to 7:30AM
7:30AM - Wake up, get ready for the day
8:00AM - Leave for work
8:15Am - Arrive at work, go and get a cup of coffee
8:20Am-9AM - Check email, TE, etc...
9AM-12PM - Meetings, random break/fix stuff
12PM-1PM - Lunch@home usually
1PM-5PM - Meetings, break/fix or study if there's downtime.
5:30PM - 6:30PM - Gym 2-3 days a week
otherwise 5:30PM - 11PM - chill with the wife, do errands, play games, watch shows.... I'm currently in the middle of a "studying break" so I'm not doing afterhours studies.
11PM - Set alarm for 6:45Am thinking to myself "alright, tomorrow I'm going to do it, I'm going to wake up at 6:45AM", repeat.

Weekends?
Up till 2-3AM, sleep till 11AM-1PM depending on how late I was up.

shodown · January 2013

Iris works on another RPM. We need to catch up

Rakurai · January 2013

Appearently I need to go to sleep later to catch up..... I was doing about 3 hours of sleep a night before, just couldn't do it anymore. Today is not a typical day for me, if I get one more call or AnyConnect issues.... I don't know what I would do.

Aldur · January 2013

Man, I know that everybody's sleep needs are different, but if I don't get at least 7 hrs a sleep a night I'm dragging all day. I'd love to be able to function on 4 hrs of sleep.

My typically work day is as follows

10 AM: roll out of bed, eat breakfast
10:30: head down stairs, fire up the computer
10:30 - 11:00: check emails
11:00 - 3 PM: work on current project (Might be developing courseware chapters/labs, developing learning bytes, or something else Ed services related)
3 - 3:30: lunch
3:30 - 7: work on current project, head up stairs and eat some dinner when finished
7 - 11: spend time with family, play some video games, workout, wind down for the night

My day might vary, in working longer hours if something is due soon, or if there's just a lot work to do, then that 7 - 11 time turns in to work time.

Need to put some studying in there sometime, have to recert my JNCIE-SP this year.

WiseWun · January 2013

I would say my work-life schedule is well balanced. If I'm doing the graveyard shift (12hrs) and I need to drive back home, I sometimes sleep at work (during my lunch/breaks combined). Lots of downtime so things I would be doing at home usually gets done at work (reading, surfing, labbing, etc). I make sure I get at least 5 hrs of sleep but with a newborn, it's hard to maintain a fix schedule.

networker050184 · January 2013

f0rgiv3n wrote: »

Wow, I guess I need to start waking up earlier

6:45AM - Wake up, decide it's too early and change alarm to 7:30AM
7:30AM - Wake up, get ready for the day

Sounds about like my mornings.

kgb · January 2013

6:30-7:00: Wake Up
6:45-7:00: Get daughter ready for grandma
7:00: Load up all 50 bags of stuff my daughter apparently needs everyday in the wife's car
7:30-8:30: Arrive at work (15min drive)
8:30 - 9:30: Coffee and breakfast
9:30-11:30/12:30: Read random emails from my boss while I shake my head (youtube, facebook, forums, stackoverflow, javaranch, etc)
12:30-1:30: Lunch
1:30-3:30-5:00: Discuss random emails from my boss (youtube, facebook, forums, stackoverflow, javaranch, etc)
4:00-5:30: Arrive at home
5:30: Pretend I'm not home yet so I don't have to start dinner
6:00: Unload my daughter and her 50 bags of stuff she apparently needed throughout the day
6:15: Wife yells at me for not making dinner
6:30-7:00: Dinner with my wife and daughter
7:00-9:00: Getting bullied by my almost 2yr old daughter. I build cool stuff and she smiles and destroys it. It's starting to bother me.
9:00: Put the bully to bed
9:05-11/12/1: Program (java/ruby/etc) / watch some TV / Irritate the wife / Ask for forgiveness and get grabby with the wife.
SLEEP---RINSE and REPEAT

RomBUS · January 2013

6:35-8:00 AM - Get up, take a shower, get dressed, go online for mindless surfing/news for 10 mins, drink a glass of milk for breakfast, check emails for emergencies or anyone on my team that is calling out so I know. Drive to work

8:45-9:00 AM - Usually arrive at work if no traffice delays. Say good morning to everyone. Check emails once more and open daily programs I use (email, phone queue application, AS/400 terminal etc)

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM - Work/waiting for phone calls/network support/and other physical activities that the job requires. I fit in a decent amount of study time here during dead hours. I go to Lunch around 2 PM

5:15 PM - Drive home. Takes about an hour on a moderately heavy traffic day

6:30-7:30 (somtimes up to around 8 ) - Hit the gym...its a stress reliever and I feel better about my health doing it (5 days a week)

7:50 PM - 11:00 PM - Take another shower. Eat dinner. Relax at home. Watch TV (sports mostly). Play video games. Study a little more (most of my studying on weekends)

gorebrush · January 2013

I work 2 day shifts, 7am-7pm then two night shifts, 7pm-7am then 4 days off, fixed pattern. Currently working my 2nd night shift.

swild · January 2013

gorebrush wrote: »

I work 2 day shifts, 7am-7pm then two night shifts, 7pm-7am then 4 days off, fixed pattern. Currently working my 2nd night shift.

LOL! No, just no. Couldn't do it for any appreciable amount of time.

I'm sad to say that I have been totally useless for the last 4 months while being unemployed. Could be finished with my CCNP by now, but I have just been enjoying spending time with my wife, catching up on TV shows and video games that I have missed over the past couple of years. I start back to work a week from tomorrow and will have the normal 8am to 5pm routine again. Just having the job in the near future has me working on my SWITCH studies again.

Iris is an inspiration. If she can do it, I should be able to since I'm a year younger.

Iristheangel · January 2013

I'm 100% caffeine-powered.

I was really struggling for money for my early 20's and fell on some bad times so I feel like I work 2x's as hard to compensate for the lost time and to make sure I never get put in that situation again. On an intellectual level, I know that I'm secure financially and can get a job in almost any location but part of my brain won't accept it unless I get myself to a good ending point where I can correctly label myself "expert" and not just "professional."

DB Cooper · January 2013

5:00am Hit the ground running.
6:00am Kiss the wife and daughter goodbye, and on the road. Start working on my plan for the day.
6:45am The magic begins, reply to last nights emails. Remote into all my servers, make sure they are happy. Give a little love where needed.
Work on projects, this week config and deploy three new servers.
1:30pm: Late lunch as always, go do the gym.
2:30pm Like my lovin, I get my lunch on the run. Eat while I work, and watch/listen to a CBT Nugget video.
4:30pm Most of the company leaves, and if I have my work done. I'll do some work on my lab that's sitting on my desk
5:30pm Time to roll, and spend time with my girls. I have a 4 year old daughter that needs some daddy time.
6:15pm We play steam roller, hide and seek, candy land, and play My Little Pony.
7:00pm The family has dinner.
7:30pm Jr gets a bath
8:00pm I put the kid to bed, we read a book or she plays on her Kindle.
8:30pm Spend time with the wife
10:00pm Time for bed

We have a great balance in our family, and it works for us.

I love my job and what I do, but my girls come first.

joshmadakor · January 2013

Iristheangel wrote: »

I'm 100% caffeine-powered. I was really struggling for money for my early 20's and fell on some bad times so I feel like I work 2x's as hard to compensate for the lost time and to make sure I never get put in that situation again. On an intellectual level, I know that I'm secure financially and can get a job in almost any location but part of my brain won't accept it unless I get myself to a good ending point where I can correctly label myself "expert" and not just "professional."

I really look up to you. You have mad certs and really seem to be about your business. I want to obtain expert status myself one day as well...

Your typical work day.

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