[Sussex] Re: Linux job opportunities

[Chris Jones]

Hi

On 7:57:52 pm 24/08/2005 Alan Delaney <hairy.one at virgin.net> wrote:
> unfortunately how do you get that experience in the first place?  The

I can't speak for everyone, but for a lot of people their first start is an
ISP. I got a job on the helpdesk of a small ISP and about the same time
found out about Linux and the place I worked for ran it (as many ISPs do,
or at least some kind of UNIX), so I taught myself as much as I could and
started helping with admin tasks. I only stayed for 8 months, but by the
end of it I was able to look after a bunch of Linuxy related things.
Another way is to introduce Linux somewhere - if you take a job running the
network of a small company there's a fair chance they have a cruddy IT
infrastructure. You can tell them honestly that for the price of a few
books and a test server they can have an integrated, stable and secure
setup. I've done this in companies too and it seems to be a good way of
exposing yourself to a huge range of tasks, albeit at quite a learning
curve.
Also don't underestimate the impact of running your own (or
volunteer/nonprofit/charity) networks - if you can detail a complex setup
of mail/web/dns/etc even for a few users, that ought to get you looked at
for junior admin posts and if you sound like you know what you are talking
about in an interview you will get something.

> though is that I'll opt for one of the above schemes just to get
> *somewhere* (and if if works out I give it a month before I start to

There's nothing wrong with having those kinds of qualifications and jobs -
once you are trained up on that you can still gain Linux experience in your
own time. Also there are lots of mixed windows and linux environments, so
there is a lot to be said for having exposure to both.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
---
Chris Jones
  cmsj at tenshu.net
  www.tenshu.net