Should I just apply to these places even though I don't have an A+ yet? The one government place I am applying for, I know for a fact will take me and train me, but that's a (again) precarious numbers game.

Where are you looking for those spots? Anything besides USAjobs?

jobs will actually end when your shift ends instead of being expected to be on call 24/7.

Or you can hop into a department that has loads of OT and actually fucking get OT because government jobs actually have to follow labour laws.

Had a coworker who turned a 60k job into 90k because he just took the OT as much as wanted. Then he switched to a chill team once he and his wife started having kids.

Another guy would just take oncall shifts all the time because he would get paid a bit for every hour spent oncall + regular wages for any pages (or OT maybe? can't remember).

This sort of thing also means they generally can't abuse OT to a crazy degree because it fucks up their budget.

Despite all these things another friend got a shitty manager who heaped bullshit onto him and overworked him to the point where his IBS was giving him problems and his coworker was falling asleep being the wheel and causing car wrecks. Then when he tried to bring it to HR the manager stabbed him in the back and the union did fucking nothing.

Thankfully he named and shamed on social media after quitting.