Some people don’t like to work during the day for many reasons. And if you’re one of such persons who would rather not take a day job, there’s nothing to worry. Actually, there’re as many as 20 superb night shift jobs near you that’re available in your area.
Before I proceed to talk about such night shift jobs near you, let’s find out some reasons why people avoid daytime jobs.
Reasons People Love Night Shift Jobs
The first reason people prefer night shift jobs is that they wish to avoid commutes on public transport that’re usually crowded during the peak office hours because of high stress such travel involves.
Others prefer to work on night jobs only for family reasons: they prefer to spend more time with the family during the day and work when they’re asleep.
Thirdly, a lot of people do night shift jobs for the extra pay. They sometimes have a part-time job during the day and wish to make more money by taking up a side gig or a night shift job.
Fourthly, there’s a common belief that night shift jobs involve lesser work because most of the people are at home and would be in bed at that time. Therefore, the demand for their services would be lesser. Often, lazy people also look for night shift jobs.
And finally, some people are often restless and prefer to find some activity, especially at night. Such night owls also love night shift jobs because they keep them busy while the world sleeps.
Regardless of the reasons for which you wish to look for night shift jobs near you, there’s no shortage of such vacancies.
In fact, many employers actually prefer people to work on night shifts for different reasons. Therefore, let’s understand what’re exactly night shift jobs.
Understanding Night Shift Jobs
In broad terms, a night shift job is also called third shift job or graveyard shift job. That’s because some companies divide 24 hours of a day in three parts to allow their employees to work according to needs of the organization.
Usually, a night shifts starts from 8pm and ends at 6am. However, you’ll work only eight hours on this job, as with daytime ones. These jobs are also known in some companies as overnight jobs because you’ll spend almost the entire night and early hours of the next day on work.
In some cases, a night shift job or overnight job comes with extra pay too. That’s because there would be fewer coworkers to assist you during a night shift job as compared over a daytime job when there’s a full staff turnout.
20 Night Shift Jobs Near Me
If you fall into any of these categories of workers and would love to work on night shift jobs, continue reading further. Because now I’ll be writing about the 20 best night shift jobs near you that you could easily get.
Some of these jobs require special qualifications while the others are open to anyone with a high school degree.
1. Overnight Courier
An overnight courier is also known as an onboard courier. This means, you will have to carry on person, one or more packages to deliver to some destination. Generally, such packages can contain precious items or lifesaving drugs or even organs for transplant.
They’re sent overnight so that the receiver at the other end gets it just before the day starts. Overnight couriers fly on night flights because they’re cheaper and airports witness lower number of passengers during those hours.
This makes Customs and Immigration clearance faster at the destination. And it also gives ample time for you to relax and return by the next available flight to your point of origin.
2. Uber or Lyft Driver
Uber and Lyft drivers also work in night shifts. If you sign up to work as a part-time driver with Uber or Lyft, you can work from 8pm onwards and make some extra money.
That’s because both Uber and Lyft have special rates for drivers that work overnight. They pay more because finding a cab during late hours of the night or wee hours of the morning is often difficult. Hence, passengers are willing to pay a little extra and sometimes, leave a decent tip too.
3. Amazon Fulfillment
Amazon Fulfillment hires a lot of people for night shift jobs. That’s because they have fulfillment centers across America where thousands of orders are processed daily.
Since Amazon wants to give timely deliveries to customers, they hire night shift staff at their fulfillment centers. Your tasks would involve fetching the right item, packaging it appropriately and preparing it for dispatch on the first available truck to ensure timely delivery to the buyer.
4. Security Personnel
Any mention of night shift jobs would be incomplete without the mention of the work of security personnel. You can serve as a security guard at any installation such as a hospital or clinic, power station or a factory during the nights.
Tasks could involve maintaining a log of persons that go in or out of the installation, keeping track of deliveries and dispatches and ensuring that no security breaches occur due to any lapses.
5. Mail Sorter
Ever wondered how the United States Postal Service (USPS) manages to deliver mail within such a short span of time? The reason is that they have mail sorters working overnight to process your mail and dispatch it to the right destination.
Of course, the USPS has sorting machines that use Artificial Intelligence to sort out mail according to their destination. However, odd sized packages require manual sorting since machines cannot process them. And mail sorting machines also need to be operated by humans.
6. Train Driver or Engineer
A train driver in America is also known as an engine operator, locomotive driver or engineer. You can also get a night shift job as an engineer with any of the railways in USA. Generally long-haul trains that travel overnight from one destination to other with few or no halts in between require engineers on night shift.
Sometimes, there’s also a change of engineers to relieve the one that brought the train to a destination, for taking it onwards to its terminal point. The work of an engineer is in shifts and you can work night shifts here.
7. Stores Stocker
Large supermarkets usually stock their shelves overnight to ensure that customers have enough stuff to purchase on any given day. Therefore, they hire stockers.
This is a purely night shift job since stores don’t usually allow shelves to be filled with stuff while shoppers are present, to avoid accidents. Also, stocking a shelf in the presence of customers isn’t something that most large stores do. Therefore, they require people that can work as stockers only overnight.
8. Baker
Most bakers and bakery assistants work overnight so that you can get fresh bread, cookies and other stuff in the morning. This is also a superb night shift job. However, to work as a baker or bakery assistant, you’ll require the right skills.
This is also a job that fetches very high salaries. Generally, large bakery chains that supply bread and biscuits in bulk to neighborhood stores and supermarkets hire bakers and bakery assistants for night shifts.
9. Fireman
A fireman works round the clock and especially during night shifts. They’re first responders for any fires, house or building crashes and other disasters, especially where human lives are at risk. You can find an excellent job with the local fire department as a fireman.
However, this isn’t a job that everyone can take. It requires very high level of physical fitness and lots of training in firefighting and disaster relief operations. Generally, such training is given by the fire department when you join as a fireman.
10. 911 Despatcher
You might have called 911 for some emergency and found a despatcher answer and respond to your call. Generally, emergencies of all sorts happen during a day. And they occur at night too.
As a 911 Despatcher, you’ll have to respond to the call appropriately, send the necessary assistance in the form of police, SWAT team, fire department personnel or an ambulance to the scene from where you got the 911 call. This is also a superb night shift job but you’ll require a lot of training to work here.
11. Air Traffic Controller
One of the highest paid jobs for night shifts is that of an air traffic controller, also known as ATC. Their job is to keep an eye on the radar screen and ensure that all aircraft are moving in a safe way, maintaining proper distance and altitude to eliminate risks of midair collisions.
They also guide aircraft to take off and land from airports while providing navigational assistance to those overflying the airspace. You can work as an ATC and get night shifts. Working as an ATC requires proper training on radar and aviation practices from a college or university. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) certifies ATCs for work.
12. Hotel Front Desk Clerk
A hotel front desk operates round the clock, 24/7/365. That’s because guests can come and depart anytime they want. Therefore, you can find a superb night shift job as a hotel front desk clerk. Usually, there’s not much work late at night because guests usually arrive earlier on in the day.
However, if you’re living in a city with a major airport, you might have a lot of guests checking in late night. In any case, this is a relaxed job that also includes night shift work. You might have to work on different shifts at the hotel.
13. Airport Announcers
Though a lot of airports in USA and around the world use Artificial Intelligence to announce arrivals and departures of flights, airports also require human announcers.
And this is also an excellent night shift job. You might have to announce the rescheduling of some flight or a delayed departure, call for check-in, security check and boarding of flights or make announcements to page a specific passenger.
This is basically a relaxed job because AI takes care of most of the work while you only have to make announcements that cannot be made using AI.
14. Immigration Clerks
While still on the topic of airports, another night shift job you can find here is of immigration clerks. This is a federal job and you’ll have to apply through the USJobs.com portal.
This job also requires special training from Department of Homeland Security and other departments. Your job is to check the passports and visas of incoming passengers and stamp them appropriately.
You would also have to process outbound passengers. Since airports and international flights work round the clock, you can get a night shift job here as well.
15. Emergency Medical Technician
Emergency Medical Technicians or EMTs are the crew that travel on ambulances and provide medical help to accident and emergency victims. Basically, the come under the category of paramedics.
This is a very noble profession and requires special training and certification as a paramedic and EMT from government authorities. However, since accidents and emergencies can occur at anytime of the day, you can get a night shift job as an EMT too.
16. Janitor/ Janitress
Janitors and Janitresses work during the night only, especially when they have to clean large office and apartment buildings. That’s because such premises have to be very clean to receive visitors from morning till evening.
Hence, all the cleaning and scrubbing work is done after the offices close or residents of apartments have gone to sleep. Working as a janitor or janitress requires no special education. However, a school or high school degree can help you get the job faster.
17. Takeaway Restaurant Crew
People can be hungry anytime. And sometimes, they drive to the nearest restaurant for a takeaway. Therefore, restaurants that function round the clock hire takeaway crew.
You’ll be in charge of taking the order, passing it onwards to the kitchen, packing and giving the food parcel to the customer. Sometimes, you might also get a tip from some happy customer for your service. And at the same time, you can get a night shift job as a takeaway restaurant crew too.
18. Machinist
A machinist is someone that operates machines. And all sorts of manufacturing companies require machinists to do night shift work. That’s because they produce something for the market and hence, don’t close shop in the evening.
Instead, such manufacturing plants work around the clock to produce goods. This job requires special training on a specific type of a production machine, depending upon the industry. And you can work as a machinist for night shifts.
19. Night Editors
Since lots of newspapers and TV channels now operate online, you can find the job of a night editor too. This means, you’ll be working from 8pm or even later for an eight-hour night shift. This is a very respected journalism job. Look for such jobs on JournalismJobs.com.
As night editor, your tasks are to keep a watch for breaking news and developments around the world and ensure they go on the website or TV channel immediately. You will have a team of night reporters and subeditors to assist you in this work.
20. Weatherperson
A weatherperson is basically a meteorologist. It means, they keep track of the weather and create forecasts for a region or even your own city. They do so by keeping tabs of satellite images and other readings given by instruments at a weather observatory.
Since aircraft, ships and militaries require round the clock monitoring of weather conditions, you can find a night shift job as a weatherperson too. This job requires special training, especially a degree in meteorology to qualify. However, this is a fairly simple job and has little or no stress.
In Conclusion
You can select any of these top night shift jobs near you, depending upon your educational qualifications, skills and passion. There’re no shortages of night shift jobs, if you look at the right place.
Generally, job boards carry a lot of night shift jobs. You could search and apply for one through these job boards. You can also find amazing night shift jobs on Facebook Jobs and LinkedIn. However, look at the terms and conditions of pay.
Because some night jobs offer more pay compared over a daytime job. That’s because not everyone wants a night time job and some people actually shun night shifts or overnight jobs.