General

Bring something to keep yourself occupied, like a book or something... portable-DVD player would also be useful.

You either get sleep before the night-shift
or
You either fall asleep during that shift, and get fired.

The cons other than bad for your physical health, I think you might be more grouchier overall.

Takes a few weeks for you to get used to it.

I think the OP needs to clarify if it is only night shift or graveyard shift.

it's the worst shift
antisocial
work with other vampires

Its bad for your health but more $

I've only worked second. Right now I work 2-10pm. I think third would ruin my social life and sleep pattern too much. Second kinda sucks too, but I basically go to bed and wake up whenever I feel like it.

oh ya, the only positive I can think of regarding third shift would be it's a little more laid back, at least where I work, because there's nobody super important there. There's still cameras though.

I worked from 8pm - 4am on weekends for my first ever job. It sucked as much as you'd think it sounds. I felt tired the whole next day after my shift, trying to wake up at a regular time so that I could still have somewhat of a regular social life, since honestly it sucked so much that I suddenly could no longer go out at night with friends. I tried to justify it with my crappy-ass paycheck, but 3 months later I realized it just was not worth it.

Get a day job.

@Jedi I recently left my overnight job to work for Universal in their merchandising department. I can tell you this much: no matter where the job is, an overnight shift ruins your sleep AND eating schedule. Once you get home, you'll probably feel like staying up for an hour and then attempt to pass out, only to wake up maybe 4 hours later. Whenever you decide to sleep again after that, you'll most likely want to sleep til about 30 minutes before you have to leave for work. On your days off, you don't know if you feel like sleeping at night or sleeping during the day. The biggest thing for me was eating: I had no idea what or when I should eat because I was either too sleepy or too exhausted to make food for myself. If you feel you can organize your life properly (especially DO NOT DO IT if you go to school full or part time), then go ahead bro.

Your social life and health will be affected.
Will only be able to go out with friends if you use your vacation days or calling out

its okay. be ready to have a messed up life because of it though.

[quote=ox0Shad0w0xo]Well it depends on what you're going to be doing. Stocking up and cleaning a store overnight? Working at a delivery company lifting heavy boxes? Depending on what it is, there won't be much difference between the day and night shifts.

And the obvious con would be your sleep schedule will be horrible if you're doing something like 10pm to 6:30am. Which is pretty crappy imo. I used to work 5am to 1:30 pm and I hated that (woke up at 3am to get ready and be at work by 5). I had to be sleep by 7 or 8 pm to not be dead tired the next day. And I'd imagine overnight would be worse. The plus side to working odd hours like that is that traffic is pretty much nonexistent so you get to work quick. Closest I've had to "night shift" was working 4pm to 12:30am, and I didn't like that too much either lol.[/quote]

great info dood

I worked in a factory for the night shift so it's more busy but I get extra pay and only need to work 7 and a half hours. My schedule changed from Morning (7 to whatever), Afternoon (3 to 11:30), to Graveyard biweekly. Graveyard was 11:30 pm to 7 am, I had to adjust my schedule the night before so a late night and then sleep in the day. If you're going night shift, just know your social life will be ruined so have something else to find solace.

Well it depends on what you're going to be doing. Stocking up and cleaning a store overnight? Working at a delivery company lifting heavy boxes? Depending on what it is, there won't be much difference between the day and night shifts.

And the obvious con would be your sleep schedule will be horrible if you're doing something like 10pm to 6:30am. Which is pretty crappy imo. I used to work 5am to 1:30 pm and I hated that (woke up at 3am to get ready and be at work by 5). I had to be sleep by 7 or 8 pm to not be dead tired the next day. And I'd imagine overnight would be worse. The plus side to working odd hours like that is that traffic is pretty much nonexistent so you get to work quick. Closest I've had to "night shift" was working 4pm to 12:30am, and I didn't like that too much either lol.

if its one of those 24/7 stores/places it can be boring as hell because no one shows up when its 2 in the morning, if by night shift you mean like from 6pm to like 10pm then its almost the same as working the day