Depends on the environment, I was a network engineer when I first left university working in a remote Data Centre hosting around 2,000 Servers all all types from Windows Servers, IBM crunches running Z Operating Systems, Sun Servers, ISS, Apache, you name it, was the easiest job in the world and paid decent money, basically the job was to be first on call if a problem was reported with any of the servers and get the ball rolling to get it back up ASAP, so we would get a phone call telling us of an issue with a server, we would locate the server within the centre and go check it out, 99% of the time was just a matter of rebooting the server, checking for any warning lights and filing a report, more serious problems, we would simply call on external support from the company responsible for the server, hence if it was a IBM server we would have a IBM engineer onsite within a couple of hours replacing parts due to warranty agreements.
The place was so strict on security that we where not even allowed to touch a server without opening a work note that would be issues to us and we would report back every action taken, even just a reboot, time dated extra, when external engineers where onsite we would supervise there work, complete the paperwork of there activities and hep them locate the server they where working, so there was no freelancing to do what you can, running updates etc, its was more tight procedure and insuring all security was followed.
Basically I was one of 4 engineers working around the clock 24/7 365, plus our team leader making 5 who would have to cover any shift that could not be covered by anyone else, the deal was there was always one of us on site at all times working 12 hours shifts, days and nights, so was long hours, and if some was off sick or holiday, there was a buddy system where you could take overtime to cover them else the team leader would have to cover no matter what, he could be away on holiday and would have to fly back to cover a shift if needs be, but overtime was so well paid, you would find a take, in 24, 36 hour shift, because the job was easy, you where there to respond in case of an issue 99% everything running smooth meant we could do anything except leave site and answer that phone when called, and I mean anything, we had our own office with around 6 work stations connected to different networks to give us some access if needed, but only when needed, plus we had a personal PC online unconnected to any of the private networks we where monitoring, that was there only for our own amusement, so we could go online to entertain ourselves, plus we had our own TV with a full sky package so could watch sports or whatever if working weekends on rota we would watch football, we had a DVD player, we coudl bring our own box sets in, I for example I watched every episode of "24" while at work amongst others, all Star Trek and I mean all from TOS to Enterprise, we had our own Kitchen so we could proper cook for ourselves, there was even a fold away bed, yes we could sleep as long as that phone was next to us and answered when called, the entire set uo was mapped out to give us max comfort to wind down long ours, and all we had to do was insure security standards where met, all paperwork was complete for any work we did, but the fact is, we could work 4 repetitive 4 hour shifts and not have to do a single thing.
The company put us all though an electrical course and made us all 17th edition electricians, for one single reason, so we could work with the electrical cables feedback the server racks, and we where been paid £35,000PA basic, after OT this was more like £45,000 PA, to land the job we needed a computer related degree although a monkey could have done it, but the company we worked for was dealing with multi-million dollar deals, at part of the contact was that there was an engineer on that site 24/7 365 to contact for any given problem, and the best part was it was not even a "Live" data centre, it was a backup data centre, yes the entire centre was constantly collecting backup date from a range of live data centres around the world, well I say world, was actually form all the UK, Germany and France, the rest of the world must of had there own backup centre for an American international company dealing with Military contracts amongst other things.
Great job to be fair, very easy but demanding on hours.