Ask Slashdot: How Did You Become a Linux Professional?

First time accepted submitter ternarybit writes "By 'Linux professional,' I mean anyone in a paid IT position who uses or administers Linux systems on a daily basis. Over the past five years, I've developed an affection for Linux, and use it every day as a freelance IT consultant. I've built a breadth of somewhat intermediate skills, using several distros for everything from everyday desktop use, to building servers from scratch, to performing data recovery. I'm interested in taking my skills to the next level — and making a career out of it — but I'm not sure how best to appeal to prospective employers, or even what to specialize in (I refuse to believe the only option is 'sysadmin,' though I'm certainly not opposed to that). Specifically, I'm interested in what practical steps I can take to build meaningful skills that an employer can verify, and will find valuable. So, what do you do, and how did you get there? How did you conquer the catch-22 of needing experience to get the position that gives you the experience to get the position? Did you get certified, devour books and manpages, apprentice under an expert, some combination of the above, or something else entirely?"

Comments

Re:Knife professional

[binarylarry]

That's a bad analogy.

Being a linux professional is more like being a French Chef vs say a Windows Professional which is like a Fryolator Chef at McDonalds.

Re:Mmmmm the other white meat!

[Tesen]

Okay seriously:

* Started to play w/ Solaris on a sparc station at uni while learning C programming which got me interested in *nix.
* Installed Slackware Linux at home and really liked what I saw during my uni days.
* Spent time modifying hardcode on MU** servers and doing basic administration.
* Started working at another college where a bunch of us decided that Redhat Linux was the choice for some services we wanted to host.
* Started supporting a Linux based installation that acted as the firewall for the college I worked at.
* Started setting up Apache web servers and SMB shares for a few local companies.
* Did some side programming projects that involved dealing with some real time application needs under Linux.

While I was never a dedicated Linux admin or coder I keep those skills in my skillset arsenal. That is how I got in to Linux and I run a couple Gentoo boxes at home to support some of the stuff I am doing. I found during the Sysadmin part of my career keeping multi-OS skillsets honed was useful and during the programming part of my career (current part of my career) I spend most of my development in the .NET/MSSQL environment (it pays the bills really well) with the odd side project in Linux here and there.

So it all comes down to what you want to do when you grow-up; I scope my career based on what interests me - I have gone in to job interviews lacking a skillset they were wanting but ended up getting the job because I told them how I would learn it and I also gave an eager competent professional impression that I treat my job seriously and will learn whatever needs learned. I would conclude that while an impressive resume is always nice, the short comings can be made up by the soft skills.

I know not the exact answer you wanted...

Tes

Re:Knife professional

[ToasterMonkey]

Being a "Linux Professional" in most fields of IT is like being a "Knife Professional" working in a kitchen.

hmm ok

But it's not how you should define your career, or even your desired job. (That you're thinking of it that way might be why you keep seeing sysadmin in a Linux environment as the only obvious role.)

Disagree. If you really love knives and making exotic knife cuts and carvings in food, don't define your dream job as being a pastry chef where you don't get to chop stuff up very much.

Maybe I can give the standard /. car analogy that even if you really like using a screwdriver, it would pay to try and learn a bit about a wrench or maybe even a hammer.

Why do you disagree, his point was there is no "Knife Professional" in a kitchen where you play with knives all day. If there were, it would be because there are too many knives for cooks to maintain, and your day would be mostly spent cleaning and sharpening them, it wouldn't be a job for people who actually like doing things with knives. If you like doing something for fun, don't do it for work.

There ARE Linux administration positions, but your time will be divided amongst application support and a whole host of other activities. If a company has straight up pure Linux admins, it would be because they have LOTS of "knives" and you'd spend most of your time using tools to manage them, like Chef, Puppet, etc.

To anyone dreaming of becoming a "Linux professional", please get it into your head right now, it is a TOOL. You might choose to become a carpenter because you love working with hammers, but your work doesn't revolve around your tools, your tools revolve around your work, so if you have a problem using screw drivers and nail guns, stay out of the profession.

Re:Mmmmm the other white meat!

[CrudPuppy]

I have been hiring nearly constantly for about 10 years. 6 years hiring Solaris guys, and the last 4 hiring Linux guys. I will be the first to say that around Philadelphia anyway, the market is full of dog shit I wouldn't pay $40k. So if you want a job, figure out a way to shine brighter than everyone else. Some ideas:

-Intelligence cannot be faked, but also cannot be earned, unfortunately.
-Use spell check on your resume, have someone else read it, ugh! If you've been around the block 20 times, limit resume to 2-3 pages or it gets trashed.
-Groom yourself, even for a startup interview. Nobody likes smelly, sweaty, people in grungy clothes.
-Do whatever you have to do to NOT be/appear nervous in the interview. Relax--we're trying to get to know you, the real you!
-Do NOT put stuff on your resume that you do not know!!!! Or at least qualify your knowledge (e.g. "I am vaguely familiar with VMware")
-Learn how to shake a hand and hold eye contact (yeah yeah, tricky for some IT folks)
-For a Linux admin, you'd better have the basics down pat (resolve.conf, named.conf, ntp.conf, httpd,conf, how to change a system IP/hostname, how to add a new filesystem, how to rescue a system that won't boot, or you forgot root pass, etc etc etc)

I will say, I have learned my lesson about hiring young people without a degree. A degree shows you can think 4+ years ahead to a goal, and work hard to get there. If you don't have a degree, have a good reason why, and let them know why you can follow through on things.