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5 Jobs for Night Owls

Topics: Career Advice

When Ben Franklin said, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” he hadn’t conducted his experiments with electricity yet. If he had, he might’ve started pondering technologies that make it easier to work into the wee hours of the morning, and reassessed.

night owls
Image Credit: Vladimir Kudinov/Unsplash

Our culture reveres early risers, but if you’re a super-productive night owl, trying to force yourself to fit that mold might be a waste of time. There’s some evidence that being a morning person or a night person may be genetically coded, and even if it’s acquired from a lifetime of habits, who cares? If you’re better at getting stuff done at night, plan to get stuff done at night.

Of course, most of us don’t have that much autonomy when it comes to our work schedules. Explain to your boss why you need to work 3 p.m. to midnight when everyone else is working 9 to 5, and you might find yourself on the unemployment line.

But, when you’re contemplating a new job or even a new career, you can set goals accordingly. FlexJobs, a job search site specializing in telecommuting, part-time, and other flexible jobs, recently searched their database for positions that cater to workers who prefer a later schedule.

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These are a few of the occupations that might suit you:

  1. Copy Editor: Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, copy editors are needed at all hours, which is good news for those members of the grammar police who are also night owls. These roles can be located on-site or structured as full-time telecommuting positions, depending on the employer.
  2. Quality Assurance Supervisor: People with this job report high levels of job satisfaction in PayScale’s survey, and are also likely to have medical benefits. FlexJobs’ listing is a second-shift position in the medical/pharmaceuticals industry.
  3. Telemetry Technician: Healthcare is 24/7, which is why telemetry technicians who prefer to work at night might be in luck. An associate degree is typically required for these jobs, and some hospitals may prefer a bachelor’s.
  4. Night School Instructor/Adjunct Professor: Continuing education often means going to school at night, and someone has to teach those later classes. If you have a master’s degree or PhD, relevant experience, and want to work in the evening, this gig might be for you.
  5. Paramedic: Medical emergencies don’t care about 9-to-5 schedules, which means that paramedics who like the night shift can generally find jobs that fit with their preferred schedule.

To see more jobs and specific listings, check out FlexJobs’ post.

Tell Us What You Think

Does your job fit your morning vs. evening work preferences, or have you had to adjust? We want to hear from you. Tell us your thoughts on Twitter or leave a comment.

Jen Hubley Luckwaldt
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