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Hey all, I posted this in a thread on the Computer forum for a person that was asking about jobs in the computer field. Anyway, after posting it I thought it would be interesting to get "day in the life of" type descriptions of other jobs that people out there are working. I know I have thought a lot about changing careers, and have often wondered what the day of the average teacher is like, or nurse, and so on.
So, please share your typical day with us! Here's mine:
Typical day in my life as a Linux System Administrator: 8:30AM: Wake up, put on jeans (or shorts if the weather is right) and my Sonic Youth t-shirt (what I am wearing today).
9:00AM: Get to work, sit down at desk, check emails to see what has gone wrong throughout the night. I check Nagios alerts to see if anything went down, and so on. If something went down, I review the logs, check to see what happened, and patch/fix the issue (if there is one).
10:00AM: After that is completed, check my calendar for any meetings. Probably go to a meeting to discuss a new project (such as consolidating servers via virtualization). The meetings are enjoyable, people joke a lot and very laid back. Sometimes they can get heated when the developers and sys admins don't agree, or the Windows admins disagree with the Linux admins, and so on.
11:00AM: Head back to my cube, sit down, check city-data, personal emails, that sort of stuff. Get on google talk and chat with wife for a moment to make dinner plans, lunch plans, and so on.
11:30AM: Write a Nagios plugin in Perl to do an SNMP query on a Cisco ASA device. The query contains information on the state of the device. The state is then updated into Nagios so that we are alerted if the ASA ever goes down.
12:00PM: Take lunch with co-workers. Drive across the bridge to a pizza joint (gluten free) and have a pizza with a few beers. Yes, have a few beers with the boss and all the co-workers. After all, boss is having a few glasses of wine.
1:00PM: Accidentally take down a system, or do something wrong (shouldn't have had those beers, haha!) and have people calling your phone off the hook, emailing non-stop, wondering what is wrong and when it will be fixed. Hurry and fix whatever it happens to be that you have broken.
1:30PM: Setup a couple Virtual Machines in a server farm to be used as mail servers. The entire installation is automated with a kickstart file and then cfengine updates everything on the box and sets it up as a mail server. Not a lot to do other than to troubleshoot if something goes wrong (e.g., cannot retrieve kickstart config file).
2:00PM: Create a couple zone files for a few domains being added to the nameservers. The zone file basically routes traffic for the domain (e.g., ftp.domain.com -> ftp server IP, and so on).
2:30PM: Browse the web, look at things for sale on craigslist. Eat a bagel. Go for a walk. Whatever.
3:00PM: Meeting to discuss security policies regarding root passwords on 4,500 servers. How are we going to manage root on all these servers? How do we store the passwords? How do we check the passwords out to the admins who need them? Meeting accomplishes very little, and ends up with a follow-up meeting to further discuss the issue.
4:00PM: Go for another walk (if you walked earlier) with co-workers. This is a routine that we do since we sit at desks all day and it's nice to get out. We typically head to a deli and get a sandwich, or we'll go get a cup of coffee. Sometimes I skip the walk and head to the break room to catch a nap. I could head down to the first floor gym that we have on-site and work out.
4:45PM: Send out any necessary emails, any other end of day work that needs to be done, and so on.
5:30PM: Take on-call cell phone and head home for the night.
1:00AM: Something has gone down and stopped some site from processing the work that they need to do. You are awoken from a deep sleep to get it fixed. There are 10 managers on the conference call on breathing down your neck as you work, half asleep.
1:30AM - 2:00AM: Go back to bed.
Average salary I think is like $65k a year starting.
PROS:
Benefits include full health, dental and vision for very cheap. 401k plan and stock options. Free parking in a parking garage downtown. Incentives for carpooling / biking to work. The option to telecommute (work from home) 4 days a week. 30 days (6 work weeks) of paid time off every year. Extremely laid back environment working with a lot of nerds -- true nerds do still exist, like the type from Revenge of the Nerds. Work 7.5 hour days and get paid for 8 hour days. I'm not salary so I get overtime when I work it. I also get to listen to music all day long on my headphones, so that's sweet.
CONS:
Not always intellectually stimulating work. Can get tedious doing the same things over and over all day long. Often is nothing more than glorified data entry. Can get lonely sitting at a desk all day long without any interaction with others. I can go an entire week sometimes without talking to one single co-worker, and that is when I am in the office. Can get really boring where there is nothing to do, to the point you're trying to stay awake at your desk. Sometimes those nerds can be real elitists, and you deal with these people who think they are the most amazing people in the world; also, nerdy people are often argumentative as well, which gets really annoying. It's not physically straining, but after some years your wrists honestly start to hurt at times. There is very little supervision, so you really have to be good at staying on task.
Hey all, I posted this in a thread on the Computer forum for a person that was asking about jobs in the computer field. Anyway, after posting it I thought it would be interesting to get "day in the life of" type descriptions of other jobs that people out there are working. I know I have thought a lot about changing careers, and have often wondered what the day of the average teacher is like, or nurse, and so on.
So, please share your typical day with us! Here's mine:
Typical day in my life as a Linux System Administrator: 8:30AM: Wake up, put on jeans (or shorts if the weather is right) and my Sonic Youth t-shirt (what I am wearing today).
9:00AM: Get to work, sit down at desk, check emails to see what has gone wrong throughout the night. I check Nagios alerts to see if anything went down, and so on. If something went down, I review the logs, check to see what happened, and patch/fix the issue (if there is one).
10:00AM: After that is completed, check my calendar for any meetings. Probably go to a meeting to discuss a new project (such as consolidating servers via virtualization). The meetings are enjoyable, people joke a lot and very laid back. Sometimes they can get heated when the developers and sys admins don't agree, or the Windows admins disagree with the Linux admins, and so on.
11:00AM: Head back to my cube, sit down, check city-data, personal emails, that sort of stuff. Get on google talk and chat with wife for a moment to make dinner plans, lunch plans, and so on.
11:30AM: Write a Nagios plugin in Perl to do an SNMP query on a Cisco ASA device. The query contains information on the state of the device. The state is then updated into Nagios so that we are alerted if the ASA ever goes down.
12:00PM: Take lunch with co-workers. Drive across the bridge to a pizza joint (gluten free) and have a pizza with a few beers. Yes, have a few beers with the boss and all the co-workers. After all, boss is having a few glasses of wine.
1:00PM: Accidentally take down a system, or do something wrong (shouldn't have had those beers, haha!) and have people calling your phone off the hook, emailing non-stop, wondering what is wrong and when it will be fixed. Hurry and fix whatever it happens to be that you have broken.
1:30PM: Setup a couple Virtual Machines in a server farm to be used as mail servers. The entire installation is automated with a kickstart file and then cfengine updates everything on the box and sets it up as a mail server. Not a lot to do other than to troubleshoot if something goes wrong (e.g., cannot retrieve kickstart config file).
2:00PM: Create a couple zone files for a few domains being added to the nameservers. The zone file basically routes traffic for the domain (e.g., ftp.domain.com -> ftp server IP, and so on).
2:30PM: Browse the web, look at things for sale on craigslist. Eat a bagel. Go for a walk. Whatever.
3:00PM: Meeting to discuss security policies regarding root passwords on 4,500 servers. How are we going to manage root on all these servers? How do we store the passwords? How do we check the passwords out to the admins who need them? Meeting accomplishes very little, and ends up with a follow-up meeting to further discuss the issue.
4:00PM: Go for another walk (if you walked earlier) with co-workers. This is a routine that we do since we sit at desks all day and it's nice to get out. We typically head to a deli and get a sandwich, or we'll go get a cup of coffee. Sometimes I skip the walk and head to the break room to catch a nap. I could head down to the first floor gym that we have on-site and work out.
4:45PM: Send out any necessary emails, any other end of day work that needs to be done, and so on.
5:30PM: Take on-call cell phone and head home for the night.
1:00AM: Something has gone down and stopped some site from processing the work that they need to do. You are awoken from a deep sleep to get it fixed. There are 10 managers on the conference call on breathing down your neck as you work, half asleep.
1:30AM - 2:00AM: Go back to bed.
Average salary I think is like $65k a year starting.
PROS:
Benefits include full health, dental and vision for very cheap. 401k plan and stock options. Free parking in a parking garage downtown. Incentives for carpooling / biking to work. The option to telecommute (work from home) 4 days a week. 30 days (6 work weeks) of paid time off every year. Extremely laid back environment working with a lot of nerds -- true nerds do still exist, like the type from Revenge of the Nerds. Work 7.5 hour days and get paid for 8 hour days. I'm not salary so I get overtime when I work it. I also get to listen to music all day long on my headphones, so that's sweet.
CONS:
Not always intellectually stimulating work. Can get tedious doing the same things over and over all day long. Often is nothing more than glorified data entry. Can get lonely sitting at a desk all day long without any interaction with others. I can go an entire week sometimes without talking to one single co-worker, and that is when I am in the office. Can get really boring where there is nothing to do, to the point you're trying to stay awake at your desk. Sometimes those nerds can be real elitists, and you deal with these people who think they are the most amazing people in the world; also, nerdy people are often argumentative as well, which gets really annoying. It's not physically straining, but after some years your wrists honestly start to hurt at times. There is very little supervision, so you really have to be good at staying on task.
Communications/Network Guy
6AM: Jump out of bed, shave, shower, shine, no breakfast, run for the car for the hour commute to work.
6:45AM Cell phone rings with pissed City Controller who's network has been down since 4pm previous day and nobody was dispatched to fix it as promised. Promise to be there by 8am.
7AM: Get to work and jump in truck and head to City Hall.
7:10AM Get cell call that entire Hospital PBX (phone system) is down. Tell them I'll be there in 10 min (lie) to buy time.
8AM Show up at City Hall to fix down network. Get cell call that 911 center is not getting caller id information on 911 calls. Tell them I'll be there asap.
8:30AM Determine fiber jumper broken on switch at City Hall... replace it and test network. Burn the tires to Hospital.
9:30AM Push the magic button and PBX back up. Go to CEO's office for A** chewing for them being down so long.
10AM Head to 911 center. Get call on the way checking status on four other scheduled jobs that I have not been to yet.
12Noon Fix problem at 911 and head out to "normal" appointments.
1PM to 6PM Perform four service calls and fix misc troubles. Get misc A** chewings for being late to all stops.
7PM Finally get back to office, read emails, enter time, return calls, check tomorrows workload.
8PM Head home.
9PM Eat supper, surf net, check personal email.
11PM Bed.
Pros: Above average pay, seven weeks vacation, excellent 401k and retirement plan.
Cons: $450 a pay for **** poor benefits, mandatory overtime, treated like a slave, on call, no homelife.
Software Engineer (Just my job title, haven't technically touched C/C++ code in a long while)
6:00 - Alarm goes off. Lay in bed.
6:10 - Alarm goes off again. Lay in bed.
6:20 - Alarm goes off again. Lay in bed.
6:30 - Alarm goes off again. Starting to think about getting out of bed.
6:40 - Alarm goes off again. I know it's pretty much time to get out of bed or else I'm going to be too late.
7:30 - Drive to work.
8:00 - Arrive at work. Read whatever emails and check on the latest status of various discrepancy reports on our problem tracking software.
9:00 - Figure out whether I can make the case to security in order to get certain software approved in the room in order to replace another solution we are currently using. The current solution wants us to pay a ****load of $ just to upgrade it.
10:00 - I get hungry, but realize it's not appropriate time for lunch yet. I get bothered by someone to come over and help them with a DOS batch script. I get it working for them and then go back to the desk. Security emails back and says no can do because of [insert bull**** reason here]. So now we're in a real bind because we are on contract to upgrade this thing but it's not upgradeable without paying more than what we bid for.
11:00 - Eat lunch in the breakroom with the T.V. and windows.
11:30 - Return to similar kind of bull**** for a while longer. Maybe get asked by someone about what it would take to update [insert piece of software I've been working on for x amount of years and really tired of working on but can't seem to get out of] and therefore further pigeon-holing me into this dismal component of the software.
2:00 - Get that really tired naptime kind of feeling when you were in kindergarten, except this time you have to act like you're doing something useful and be awake the whole time. Maybe start reading through random documents and old problem reports and get occasional laughs out of them because of how ridiculously stupid our processes/way of doing things are.
3:00 - Go to secluded lab downstairs to test out whether something would work out that could possibly approved by security. Find out it can't work because we are still using an outdated operating system on the PC.
3:30 - Go down and try another solution. I find that it would work except that it requires this extra library that has a lot of security implications if added to the system. I find that this library already exists on the Linux side of our system, so shouldn't be a problem getting approved on the Windows side. Email security again with the new possible approach.
4:00 - Browse around/bull**** until 4:30 so that I technically was there for 8 hours + lunch time.
In summary, OP, your job sounds pretty nice to me. I would love to be a Linux System Administrator.
5:30 AM - Alarm goes off. Press snooze until 6:30 or 7:00
6:30 or 7:00 AM - Get out of bed
6:31 or 7:01 AM - Wonder if playing hooky would be such a bad thing.
6:35 or 7:05 AM - Decide that playing hooky would cost me over $100 per day, so decide to suck it up and go into work.
8:00 or 8:40 AM - Show up to work. Ask someone to transfer whatever sale proceeds were collected from foreclosures and shortsales the previous day into my investors' bank accounts.
8:45 AM - Disburse money to various company accounts to provide sufficient funds for foreclosure/short sale/modification legal fees and escrow.
9:00 AM - Stare at a bank reconciliation that has a huge, unsolvable variance for about an hour.
10:00 AM - Start nodding off and decide I need to go outside for a break to wake up.
11:00 AM - 12:59 PM - Stare at bank reconciliations some more.
1:00 - 2:00 PM - Go to lunch.
2:01 - 3:30 PM - Stare at reconciliation some more.
3:31 PM - Start nodding off. Get caffeine or take a short break.
3:40 - 5:00 or 6:00 PM - Stare at reconciliation for a couple more hours.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way my boss can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way my boss can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Hehehe. I will always have a soft spot for Office Space.
I work in human resources in the benefits administration department. My boss is named BD. Here is my typical day:
8:00 AM - enter parking garage
8:01 AM - light up arrival cigarette, wondering if I will get fired today
8:15 AM - arrive at my desk and turn computer on; BD is here, so go back outside for a 2nd arrival cigarette (don't really need another, but sure it beats being around BD)
8:30 AM - begin work
8:35 AM - BD stops at to my desk to complain about something trivial; I attempt to discuss its triviality, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
8:45 AM - lecture over, now I can begin work
9:30 AM - staff meeting begins
9:45 AM - BD puts me on the spot, and I attempt to defend myself, but BD interrupts me, so I give up and look like an idiot
10:15 AM - meeting over, return to desk
10:45 AM - go outside for a mid-morning break cigarette (amazingly enough, BD requires us to observe a morning and afternoon 15 minute break)
11:00 AM - return from break
11:10 AM - I get a meeting invite for 2:00 to 2:30 PM with BD in a conference room, then spend 10 minutes preparing my thoughts for today's whine session
11:20 AM - now I can click "accept" (previously BD complained that I respond to e-mails too quickly, saying that I am not working efficiently); then get back to work
11:30 AM - BD stops at my desk to complain that I did something wrong; I attempt to explain it, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
11:40 AM - lecture over, now I can resume work
12:15 PM - BD stops at my desk to complain that it takes me too long to finish my work; I attempt to defend myself, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
12:25 PM - lecture over, now I can resume work
12:45 PM - depart for lunch, which consists of a hot dog and three cigarettes, daydreaming about what I am going to do when I get home
1:15 PM - return from lunch
2:00 PM - meeting with BD, who browbeats me non-stop, basically spending 15 minutes to say that I can't do anything right, and interrupt me when I try to say anything, even if BD asks me a question (so that means all BD questions are rhetorical)
2:15 PM - change subjects and repeat the above
2:30 PM - return to work and avoid the temptation to e-mail BD "This is the most toxic work environment I have ever been in, and I've worked crappy jobs. I quit. My badge is on my desk."
2:40 PM - resume working
3:30 PM - afternoon break cigarette
3:45 PM - resume working
4:30 PM - BD stops at my desk to complain about something irrelevant; I attempt to discuss its irrelevancy, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
4:40 PM - lecture over; not enough time to do anything productive for the rest of the day, so I read the news, organize my papers and paper clips, and make sure I have all personal belongings in my backpack
5:00 PM - leave, and don't look back, as I have no desire to turn into a pillar of salt
PROS:
it's a paycheck
CONS:
just read the above
Seriously, this is the absolute worst job I have ever had, in terms of morale. I've been looking for a job for 6 months and found nothing.
I work in human resources in the benefits administration department. My boss is named BD. Here is my typical day:
8:00 AM - enter parking garage
8:01 AM - light up arrival cigarette, wondering if I will get fired today
8:15 AM - arrive at my desk and turn computer on; BD is here, so go back outside for a 2nd arrival cigarette (don't really need another, but sure it beats being around BD)
8:30 AM - begin work
8:35 AM - BD stops at to my desk to complain about something trivial; I attempt to discuss its triviality, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
8:45 AM - lecture over, now I can begin work
9:30 AM - staff meeting begins
9:45 AM - BD puts me on the spot, and I attempt to defend myself, but BD interrupts me, so I give up and look like an idiot
10:15 AM - meeting over, return to desk
10:45 AM - go outside for a mid-morning break cigarette (amazingly enough, BD requires us to observe a morning and afternoon 15 minute break)
11:00 AM - return from break
11:10 AM - I get a meeting invite for 2:00 to 2:30 PM with BD in a conference room, then spend 10 minutes preparing my thoughts for today's whine session
11:20 AM - now I can click "accept" (previously BD complained that I respond to e-mails too quickly, saying that I am not working efficiently); then get back to work
11:30 AM - BD stops at my desk to complain that I did something wrong; I attempt to explain it, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
11:40 AM - lecture over, now I can resume work
12:15 PM - BD stops at my desk to complain that it takes me too long to finish my work; I attempt to defend myself, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
12:25 PM - lecture over, now I can resume work
12:45 PM - depart for lunch, which consists of a hot dog and three cigarettes, daydreaming about what I am going to do when I get home
1:15 PM - return from lunch
2:00 PM - meeting with BD, who browbeats me non-stop, basically spending 15 minutes to say that I can't do anything right, and interrupt me when I try to say anything, even if BD asks me a question (so that means all BD questions are rhetorical)
2:15 PM - change subjects and repeat the above
2:30 PM - return to work and avoid the temptation to e-mail BD "This is the most toxic work environment I have ever been in, and I've worked crappy jobs. I quit. My badge is on my desk."
2:40 PM - resume working
3:30 PM - afternoon break cigarette
3:45 PM - resume working
4:30 PM - BD stops at my desk to complain about something irrelevant; I attempt to discuss its irrelevancy, but BD interrupts me and continues to talk
4:40 PM - lecture over; not enough time to do anything productive for the rest of the day, so I read the news, organize my papers and paper clips, and make sure I have all personal belongings in my backpack
5:00 PM - leave, and don't look back, as I have no desire to turn into a pillar of salt
PROS:
it's a paycheck
CONS:
just read the above
Seriously, this is the absolute worst job I have ever had, in terms of morale. I've been looking for a job for 6 months and found nothing.
Oh God, that sounds awful. Hope you find something new soon!
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,027,552 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus
6:00 - Alarm goes off. Lay in bed.
6:10 - Alarm goes off again. Lay in bed.
6:20 - Alarm goes off again. Lay in bed.
6:30 - Alarm goes off again. Starting to think about getting out of bed.
6:40 - Alarm goes off again. I know it's pretty much time to get out of bed or else I'm going to be too late.
Sounds suspiciously like my mornings! LOL!
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