diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index b35c0fff..764099d6 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -231,13 +231,19 @@ jobs:
           NODE_ENV: test
           AWS_XRAY_LOG_LEVEL: silent
           AWS_XRAY_CONTEXT_MISSING: LOG_ERROR
-      - image: mysql:5.6
+      - image: mysql:8.0
         auth:
           username: $DOCKERHUB_USERNAME
           password: $DOCKERHUB_PASSWORD
         environment:
           MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: yes
           TZ: 'US/Central'
+        command:
+            - mysqld
+            - --sql_mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
+            - --character-set-server=UTF8MB3 
+            - --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci 
+            - --default_authentication_plugin=mysql_native_password
       - image: cimg/node:20.9
         auth:
           username: $DOCKERHUB_USERNAME
diff --git a/.docker/mysql/schema/schema.sql b/.docker/mysql/schema/schema.sql
index 89adba01..b978ae02 100644
--- a/.docker/mysql/schema/schema.sql
+++ b/.docker/mysql/schema/schema.sql
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `readitla_ril-tmp`;
 USE `readitla_ril-tmp`;
 
+SET GLOBAL explicit_defaults_for_timestamp = 0;
+
 CREATE TABLE `curated_feed_prospects` (
   `prospect_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   `feed_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 30346d3d..3c8f9c24 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ services:
       - HOSTNAME_EXTERNAL=localstack
 
   mysql:
-    image: mysql:5.6
+    image: mysql:8.0
     env_file:
       - ./.docker/local.env
     ports:
@@ -40,3 +40,9 @@ services:
     environment:
       - MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
       - TZ=US/Central
+    command:
+      - mysqld
+      - --sql_mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
+      - --character-set-server=UTF8MB3 
+      - --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci 
+      - --default_authentication_plugin=mysql_native_password