Landing a UNIX/Linux Administrator Position

[sariputra]

I've grown to be a very passionate Linux user over the past couple years. I can spend hours tinkering with my Arch Linux system at home, just for fun. I have come to the realization that it would be a dream come true if I could work with this wonderful operating system for a living. So, I have begun my journey to becoming a Linux administrator. It will certaintly be a long path, but I think it's possible.

So, I come to you all for just a little guidance. Perhaps a couple tips, or maybe some words of wisdom from any UNIX/Linux admins out there. I'm afraid that I don't have a clue as to how I can get my foot in for such a position, for I lack experience working with Linux in a professional environment. The only business experience I have with it was a contract job at a web-hosting company which hosted on FreeBSD, IRIX and RedHat. For three months I was a tier 1 technician, so I didn't get to do anything too exciting.. Mostly using SSH to access the servers, checking logs, setting up the occasional redirect and using basic command line utilities for troubleshooting. All the fun, getting your hands dirty stuff I was forced to escalate to the higher tiers with their fancy root access!

Unfortunately, the project they needed me for ended and they had no need for any extra employees. So, I'm moving on. I am studying for my LPIC and plan to knock all the levels out, however I know that certifications will never equate good, hard-earned experience..

I am hoping that you great folks here at Dice can give me some advice in getting my foot in the door. What can I do that will help me attain my dream-job? 

Any replies will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced for any knowledge you share

[bg6638]

Do you have a bachelor's degree, because lack of a degree will k/o your resume from the viewpoint of most employers?  I also hope that you aren't living in an area hard hit by unemployment!

[sariputra]

Sadly, I'm afraid not

It's something I seriously need to consider however, and it's been on my mind a lot lately. I just need to figure out someway to afford it without putting my self in financial hell.

Thanks.

[hoapres]

You would be better off looking at NON IT employment.

[Job Talk]

You may be qualified from a skills standpoint, but you are up against some pretty heavy hitters who have more experiance and a degree competing for the same jobs. Employers know this, and from their perspective they may label you to be unqualified, even if it is technically untrue.

Using personal connections is always the best way to go, however I realize that's almost never helpful since if you had good connections you wouldn't be having trouble finding work in the first place.

You have to keep pegging away until you find an employer willing to try you.

You can try to tilt the tables a little bit and say you are willing to let them try you out unsalaried for a week or two. Be prepared for this to backfire.

IT is not easy, and even once you make it in, it hasn't been a rewarding career for many of us this past decade.

[walterbyrd]

From a UNIX/Linux admin:

Today, a sysadmin needs to know more the OS. Two very big areas are virtualization (i.e. VMWare), and storage area networks. Other skills might include cisco router configuration, database administration, firewall configuration, and scripting (especially bash and perl).There are many other skills that may be required, every job has different list of requirements.

On the Linux side, I think the RHCE may be more valuable than the LPIC. I see the RHCE requested in job ads a lot more often. A VMWare cert may be more valuable than either. A CISSP might also be valuable, since that is a bona-fide requirement in some environments.

These days, employers often ask for degrees, or certs, but it's experience that is absolutely essential. The experience must be professional, enterprise level, recent, and verifiable. Don't bother doing volunteer work, nobody counts that as worth anything.

Good luck.

[bg6638]

---

walterbyrd wrote:

On the Linux side, I think the RHCE may be more valuable than the LPIC. I see the RHCE requested in job ads a lot more often. A VMWare cert may be more valuable than either. A CISSP might also be valuable, since that is a bona-fide requirement in some environments.

---

The "OP" is currently "S.O.L"  for an CISSP cert  because .........................

You must have a minimum of five years of direct full-time security work experience in two or more of these 10 domains of the (ISC)² CISSP CBK®:

• Access Control
  Concepts, terms of subjects and objects, implementation of authentication techniques
• Application Security
  Security and controls of the systems development process, life cycle, application controls, change controls, data warehousing, data mining, knowledgebased systems, program interfaces, and concepts used to ensure data and application integrity, security, and availability
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
  Preservation of the business in the face of major disruptions to normal business operations
• Cryptography
  Business and security requirements for cryptography, principles of certificates and key management, secure protocols
• Information Security and Risk Management
  Identification of an organization’s information assets and the development, documentation, and implementation of policies, standards, procedures and guidelines that ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability
• Legal, Regulations, Compliance and Investigations
  Computer crime laws and regulations, the investigative measures and techniques which can be used to determine if a crime has been committed, methods to gather evidence if it has, as well as the ethical issues and code of conduct for the security professional
• Operations Security
  Identify the controls over hardware, media, and the operators with access privileges to any of these resources
• Physical (Environmental) Security
  Threats, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures that can be utilized to physically protect an enterprise’s resources and sensitive information
• Security Architecture and Design
  Concepts, principles, structures, and standards used to design, implement, monitor, and secure, operating systems, equipment, networks, applications, and those controls used to enforce various levels of confidentiality, integrity, and availability
• Telecommunications and Network Security
  Structures, transmission methods, transport formats, and security measures used to provide integrity, availability, authentication, and confidentiality for transmissions over private and public communications networks and media

Note that if certain circumstances apply and with appropriate documentation, candidates are eligible to waive one year of professional experience:

• One year waiver of the professional experience requirement based on a candidate’s education
  Candidates can substitute a maximum of one year of direct full-time security professional work experience described above if they have a four-year college degree OR Advanced Degree in information security from a U.S. National Center of Academic Excellence in information Security (CAEIAE) or regional equivalent.
  
  OR

• One-year waiver of the professional experience requirement for holding an additional credential
  on the (ISC)² approved list
  Valid experience includes information systems security-related work performed as a practitioner, auditor, consultant, investigator or instructor, that requires Information Security knowledge and involves the direct application of that knowledge. The five years of experience must be the equivalent of actual fulltime Information Security work (not just Information Security responsibilities for a five year period); this requirement is cumulative, however, and may have been accrued over a much longer period of time.  

[walterbyrd]

---

bg6638 wrote:

The "OP" is currently "S.O.L"  for an CISSP cert  because .........................

---

I should have said CISSP Associate. As far as DoDD 8570 is concerned, it's just as good.

[Rmthompson]

If you are young enough and a u.s. Citizen you should consider joining the national guard or the air national guard. They will train you in system administration and give part time experience. And they pay 100% of your tuition at a state college or university.

[dougbone7]

There are over 1K jobs for Unix /Linux with 20 miles of my home and it doesn't matter the level of your knowledge, get the certs it is at least a piece of paper that says you have not fallen off the turnip truck. Get VMWare Certs, who says you can not learn Perl, or python it's free on Linux and you can download it or it may already be three. Go to school get something even a class.