Join the on-call roster, it'll change your life

2 days ago

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Joining an on-call rotation can significantly impact a software engineer's career and personal development.
On-call duties involve responding to system alerts at any time, including late nights, which can be stressful but also educational.
Living in a different timezone (e.g., Australia) adds complexity due to peak traffic times occurring during local nighttime.
On-call experience teaches stress management, leadership, coordination, and deep system knowledge.
Handling incidents leads to a better understanding of system interactions, CPU/memory constraints, and runtime intricacies.
Physical constraints arise from needing to stay near a laptop and reliable reception, limiting personal activities.
Frequent nighttime alerts can disrupt sleep, leading to exhaustion and potential long-term health effects.
Despite challenges, the author advocates for trying on-call rotation, emphasizing it's reversible and offers valuable learning.
Health should not be compromised; finding ways to minimize on-call's impact is crucial.

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