How to Become Junior Linux Admin?

I plan to relocate to the DC/MD/VA area around May and am aiming at landing a [Junior] Linux Admin position.

As of now I'm brushing up on my Linux knowledge and bash/sed/awk shell scripting. I'm going thru the Linux+ material and plan on taking the LXO-101 later this week.

Does anyone have any advice on breaking into a Linux role? (Specifically in the DMV area.) Would the Linux+/LPIC-1 be my best bet? Are there other things that would be more worthwhile looking into and studying?

Do Junior Linux Admin position really exist? I've only seen a few posted, and even then the job requirements don't seem very "Junior" to me. With little Linux experience as of now, is there another position I should aim for as being a stepping stone towards a Linux Admin in the near future?

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RHEL

Generally speaking, entry level systems administration, especially UNIX/Linux administration does not mean no experience. It generally requires several years of IT experience to get to this point. Once you get to this point, you're an entry level sysadmin.

There are certainly exceptions though; occasionally, you'll find companies trying to save a chunk of change who hire new grads and limited experience candidates into sysadmin roles. This is exactly what I found after undergrad. Sure, it's pretty shitty and you very quickly realize how underpaid you are for the level of work you are performing; however, getting sysadmin on your resume from the get go will do wonders for your career and knowledge.

Utilize every opportunity you get in such a role. Don't look at it as them taking advantage of you. Rather, you are making the most of them. My first UNIX admin role was for a global aerospace company making mid-high 30s (this would probably equal 55-60 in DC)... They paid 100% of my grad school, gave me experience, and then allowed me to double my salary 2 years later when I left. Best of luck.

UnixGuy

They most definitely do. My honest opinion is skip the Linux+, and go for RHCSA. Pass the exam, and employers will give you a chance. This cert proves that you know something and you put in hard work.

It helps that there is a big demand for Linux people now (thanks for AWS, and other factors..)

DoubleNNs

I have ~ 2 years of professional IT experience. In those 2 years, I've been exposed to Linux - but mostly just as a user.

My 1st IT job was all Linux, but realistically I ran scripts and commands out of sheer rote memorization w/o understanding what the commands or scripts did. It got me comfortable on the command line, away from the GUI, and doing remote support on servers I couldn't physically access.

My last job was more rack/stack and running company-internal scripts to set up servers. I got involved in a few cool projects, but didn't do much troubleshooting or configuration. However, I did use a few Linux dev boxes to write my own bash/sed/awk scripts in order to automate a lot of my data collection and preparation tasks and help make my OS installations easier. I wrote dozens of little ad-hoc and 1-off scipts, but I also polished a handful enough to share w/ coworkers. All who used them found them helpful.

I'm comfortable not having a graphical environment when working w/ servers - whether Unix or Linux. I also have the OS foundations down. But I have no troubleshooting or basic administration experience, which makes the jump up to Linux Admin seem incredibly steep.

I already have vouchers and practice tests for the Linux+ purchased, so I'm not going to skip the cert entirely. But maybe I'll jump straight into the RHCSA after finishing up the Linux+/LPIC-1 -- unless there are other topics outside the realm of the certifications that might be more valuable to learn first, before circling back to the RHCSA later?

Mutata

What sort of specific resume quality Linux experience do you have?

That would be my biggest question about your current ability to land a Junior Linux Admin role. For sure either the Linux+ or RHCSA would be helpful.

From a Jr perspective, I wouldn't be reaching too far out of the box beside a really solid understanding of the OS.

LeBroke

Just got an offer for a Linux sysadmin. Experience? Datacentre tech (50% NOC, 50% projects) for about 8 months, though I was pretty comfortable with command line and in Linux as a user before.

I guess I got lucky in that it was a fairly small company, ~12 people in total, with a super democratic owner. He felt that if something needed done, and you wanted to contribute and thought you could do it, you'd get the chance to do it. So I did a couple of small projects (reconfiguring and doing some scripting to make our network monitors more stable, and a few networking things), and one really large project (setting up an automated PXE system from scratch) that gave me a much better understanding of the OS and how it works than you'd expect someone with my experience.

Do I consider myself fully, 100% qualified for the job? Nope. If it was a Windows job, and I had a similar amount/quality of Windows experience, I probably wouldn't get it. But at the moment, it seems there's a massive shortage of junior people with Linux experience.

bgold87

I don't have much to add to how to get you there, but I can assure that once you get there you will be rewarded. I'm in RTP and 80% of the job descriptions for the nice jobs at the top name companies want some Linux experience and are willing to pay for it.

DoubleNNs

Passed the Linux+/LPIC-1 earlier today. I'll spend a few hours updating my resume/LinkedIn this weekend, as well as spend time putting some of the technical information I've learning into simple layman terms so I could speak confidentially about it in conversation (interviews).

I picked up the "sed & awk" O'reilly book a few weeks ago and have been itching to dive into it. Now that the cert is out of the way I can spend all my time on it and see if I can think up a few practice scripts to create in both languages. I also have "How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know." It might be a little basic after the Linux+, but I'm sure I'll learn a few new things or at least understand an existing topic in a new way that makes it easier to remember.

sed & awk (Nutshell Handbooks): Dale Dougherty, Arnold Robbins: 9781565922259: Amazon.com: Books
http://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-Superuser-Should/dp/1593275676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429296083&sr=8-1&keywords=how+linux+works

Currently, I'm planning to sit the RHCSA for RHEL 7 this December/January.

I really want to get a Junior-Mid Level Linux Role before this Spring Ends. If there's any suggested modifications to my above plans, I'd love to hear it. Or is there anything else I should do/learn immediately to both increase my chances of landing a Linux position and excel after attaining it?

hurricane1091

How was the 1st half of Linux+? I have to start that this weekend.

Chinook

You're most likely to find a "junior" Linux job working in the web business (hosting, web development, etc.). It's known as the "LAMP" or "LEMP" stack so having Apache skills is important.

On the Enterprise side of things you might want to add some knowledge of Storage (LUN's, Fibre Channel fabric, etc.) to you resume. Comptia has the Storage+ exam as a good starting point for understanding the basics. It would also help if you understood VMware (at least know your way around it). The vast majority of Linux systems in the Enterprise are virtualized.

DoubleNNs

Only been applying for a matter of days, but seems like even the Junior level positions want RHCE level experience, Python, Perl, AND bash/korn/csh scripting skills, w/ OpenStack, AWS, Chef, and Puppet knowledge - just to get an in-face interview.

DoubleNNs

hurricane1091 wrote: »

How was the 1st half of Linux+? I have to start that this weekend.

The 1st half of the Linux+ wasn't too bad. There's a lot of material to get acquainted with. My best advice is to look at manpages for EVERY command you're studying. Even if the book or video gives what you think is a clear explanation of the command and the options, still check the man page afterwards. And use a VM or machine you can freely break to try everything out.

What materials do you plan on using while studying?

ChickenNuggetz

DoubleNNs wrote: »

Only been applying for a matter of days, but seems like even the Junior level positions want RHCE level experience, Python, Perl, AND bash/korn/csh scripting skills, w/ OpenStack, AWS, Chef, and Puppet knowledge - just to get an in-face interview.

Are you working with a recruiter? Many of the job positions in the DC area post everything under the sun. Partially because they wouldnt mind someone who can do all that and partially because the person who puts out the job posting doesnt know/understand what half of what they're typing means. Especially for government and contracting req's, usually it's a non-technical PM conveying to HR or a recruiter what "they need" for a position on a specific project.

As an example, my current position listed both Oracle and JBoss as "key areas"; neither of these are related to my project in anyway. The recruiter I worked with did let me know what the project actually entailed.

Recruiters generally have a better idea of what a particular position is looking for. Plus it'll take a lot of the stress out of looking for a job in this metro area. Do you have clearance at all? If you do, definitely get with a recruiter; you'll be surprised how fast they'll try to place you.

EDIT: To piggy-back off of this, I guarantee you that the positions that are asking for perl, python, bash, openstack, aws etc, actually wants just 1-3 of those areas; sure if you can do them all that'd be great...but if you could do all that you sure as hell wont be looking for a junior level position!

DoubleNNs

I am working w/ recruiters. So far, in order to get anything above a $20hr contract, the above alphabet soup is what they've been asking for. And even those $20/hr contracts are entry-level data center racker/stackers located an hour out of DC. My paycheck would be eaten by rent and gas (lack of Metro access to these data centers) and all my study-time outside of work obliterated by the commute (hear there's an ungodly amount of traffic in the area around rush hour). Losing 2-4 hours a day in commute time (depending on traffic) would hinder my ability to lab at home and actually learn all those skills that they claim to require.

I don't have a security clearance, but I do have a clean record. And my certs should help me w/ DoD requirements.

I know I'm ranting. But the job search has been frustrating so far. And w/ all the skills they're asking for it's becoming hard to hone in on 1-2 key things I could work on short term to increase my chances of obtaining a role.

hurricane1091

DoubleNNs wrote: »

The 1st half of the Linux+ wasn't too bad. There's a lot of material to get acquainted with. My best advice is to look at manpages for EVERY command you're studying. Even if the book or video gives what you think is a clear explanation of the command and the options, still check the man page afterwards. And use a VM or machine you can freely break to try everything out.

What materials do you plan on using while studying?

CBT nuggets and the exam guide, plus WGU offers some labsim thing that has to be completed anyway. I'm doing the 1st half now. The book sucks to just be honest. Dull and boring. I've been labbing alongside though so far with Ubuntu & Mint. I get a lot of the stuff and when you do it you see it, but it's not very compelling to me. If you have some advice that would be cool.

ally_uk

I am in the same boat as yourself and would kill to land a entry level gig working with Linux. Would love to know how to get my foot in the door I have over 8 years I.T experience working technical / helpdesk roles primarily with Windows. But am passionate about Linux and Open Source tech.

Puppet, Chef, Python, Perl how does anybody find time to learn it all? lol

ChickenNuggetz

DoubleNNs wrote: »

I am working w/ recruiters. So far, in order to get anything above a $20hr contract, the above alphabet soup is what they've been asking for. And even those $20/hr contracts are entry-level data center racker/stackers located an hour out of DC. My paycheck would be eaten by rent and gas (lack of Metro access to these data centers) and all my study-time outside of work obliterated by the commute (hear there's an ungodly amount of traffic in the area around rush hour). Losing 2-4 hours a day in commute time (depending on traffic) would hinder my ability to lab at home and actually learn all those skills that they claim to require.

I don't have a security clearance, but I do have a clean record. And my certs should help me w/ DoD requirements.

I know I'm ranting. But the job search has been frustrating so far. And w/ all the skills they're asking for it's becoming hard to hone in on 1-2 key things I could work on short term to increase my chances of obtaining a role.

Hit up RobertHalf if you havent already. I've never worked with them myself, but have had colleagues go through them and they all generally say good things. Apparently they have you take a technical assessment test to help them place you better and give you feedback on things you may want to learn/brush up on - there's not too many recruiting agencies out there that do that.

Where are you trying to live vs. where are you trying to work? Traffic can be bad but it all depends where you're living vs. where you're going vs. what time of day. I've NEVER dealt with 2-4 hours of traffic in the 3 years I've been up in DC.

Anything near a metro station will be expensive (obviously). Most of the data centers are located out in Manassas, Chantilly, Centreville, Sterling/Dulles, and Ashburn. If you're trying to get into data center space, Amazon, Carpathia, and Rackspace all come to mind as they all have pretty big footprints in the area.

I'd highly suggest finding a roommate (if you're single). It's a good way to make friends in an area where you may be new/dont know anyone and you'll save a TON of money. Rent is very high in this area (as you know already).

I'd avoid the following areas (in terms of living):

Arlington (metro accessible, but super expensive. Driving is a nightmare.
Alexandria (cheaper than Arlington, but can be just as bad in some parts. Hard to get in and out of via car)
DC (dont live in the city unless you make a decent amount of money. The neighborhoods are very hit or miss and rent isnt cheap)
Anywhere in MD (I'm semi-joking as the running joke is Virginians dont like Marylanders and vis versa, but honestly beltway traffic is worse in MD than VA).

Having moved to the DC area from Hampton Roads (VA Beach area), I lived in Springfield/Annandale for a few years; it was nice. Super accessible to just about everything in NoVA (close 95, 395, and 495; semi close to 66 and 267). You'll have access to a metro station (blue line) that can take you into DC, if need be. Rent is cheaper.

Woodbridge isnt bad in terms of price, your commute may be longer depending on where you're going. Chantilly/Centreville will be cheap; lots of tech jobs in this area. Herndon will be cheap. Reston (next to Herndon) is nicer but a tad more expensive) and there's a metro line (silver) in Reston now. Herdon/Reston is known as the tech corridor of Fairfax. Fairfax isnt bad either, but it's starting to get pricier. Falls Church is weird; lots of wealthy and poor and as such you get a weird mix of apartments. Very central to NoVA and easily accessible to metro (orange line).

If you can do $1200/month for rent, I'd say you can hit up anyone of those places in my last paragraph. Aim for class B (older) apts; generally they all have upgraded amenities but because they were built 15+ yrs ago for some reason people have this stigma about them. NoVA is weird in that people really want "brand new" up here. Again, I'm going to stress getting a roommate; you'll have more bang for your buck. If I were single, that's exactly what I'd be doing.

So this reply has turned out to be really long. Just PM me if you have anymore questions about jobs, the area, where to live, things to do, etc. Best of luck!

Xavor

Do you have a degree?

I wouldn't spam send your resume, work the recruiter angle as you said you are. Also, go to all the local job fairs hosted at colleges, or other events where you can talk to someone who may be the actual manager.

Get in touch with temp agencies that can get you working asap. Since you don't have a job lined up you may have to suck it up for 6 months on the salary, have roommates, etc. Amazon is in the area obviously drop them a resume.

You said you've done random scripts already, so keep the sed/awk book for later reference and instead build some linux virtual machines. The RHCSA touches on similar LPIC content, but expects you to know how to build basic server services. If you were to interview and tell a recruiter you are a self starter with 2 years of datacenter/linux experience, LPIC, and are working on the RHCSA they should be interested.

While it would be nice to say you know the alphabet soup, imho work on Linux and networking concepts first. Understand basic virtualization concepts which you can apply to learning more linux skills.

Once you get into a shop, just be ready to hit the ground running and keep learning. Having a good idea of basic server administration, networking, and virtualization are pretty standard now.

Oh, and I wouldn't start out with OpenStack as my first hypervisor, it's an animal of content to learn. I would recommend using KVM or VMware.

Do this: http://www.techexams.net/forums/lpi-rhce-sair/109712-rhce-todo-list-other-stuff.html

[Deleted User]

Is RHCSA a lifetime certification or it a 3 year cert deal? Also, this cert is for System Administration also correct? I have heard of this cert but I plan on doing mostly network administration/engineering.

Xavor

3 year and for system administration.

Kinet1c

DoubleNNs wrote: »

I am working w/ recruiters. So far, in order to get anything above a $20hr contract, the above alphabet soup is what they've been asking for. And even those $20/hr contracts are entry-level data center racker/stackers located an hour out of DC. My paycheck would be eaten by rent and gas (lack of Metro access to these data centers) and all my study-time outside of work obliterated by the commute (hear there's an ungodly amount of traffic in the area around rush hour). Losing 2-4 hours a day in commute time (depending on traffic) would hinder my ability to lab at home and actually learn all those skills that they claim to require.

I don't have a security clearance, but I do have a clean record. And my certs should help me w/ DoD requirements.

I know I'm ranting. But the job search has been frustrating so far. And w/ all the skills they're asking for it's becoming hard to hone in on 1-2 key things I could work on short term to increase my chances of obtaining a role.

Our cert list is pretty similar so I'm hoping my advice will be well met. I currently work in a "NOC"... which is really production support where I spend 90% of my day on the command line interacting with customer devices which are linux based so my advice to you is to look at the job specifications and not the job title. This will add to my linux experience and I'm also getting the chance to stream line some of our processes with some bash scripts ... another +++ for my CV/resume.

In terms of alphabet soup, join www.linuxacademy.com and start working through their courses. It'll give you some entry level exposure to puppet etc.

DoubleNNs

Thanks for all the replies. I had to remind myself to calm down and be patient - I only just started applying and fielding recruiter calls this past Monday. I was simply initially frustrated and overwhelmed by the feedback I was getting.

I'm taking this weekend to do some passive studying and cool down a bit. As suggested, I'll skip the sed/awk book. I was excited to get into it, but it'll have to wait until later. As I already can do sed substitutions and basic AWK 1 liners, in addition to bash shell scripting, I think it'd benefit me more to go wide for now instead of going deep on a relatively obscure skillset.
Instead, I'll go over some DevOps basics and figure out whether I want to start learning Vagrant or Puppet on the side. (I think I'd rather Ansible, but at first glance there seems to be much more material out there for those 2 tools and that it'd be quicker to get up to speed on them).

I plan to obtain the RHCSA in RHEL 7 at the end of this year, and probably go for the RHCE in 2016. I don't think I could do either of the exams sooner because of lack of funds, but I'll at least start slowly studying for them now. It'd be a great way to cement the LPIC-1 knowledge I've recently gained and give me incentive to lab more. Hopefully when I land my next job I'll be able to afford a standalone server dedicated solely to labbing.

I'm going to keep applying for Junior Linux Admin positions and if I make some head-way w/ Vagrant/Puppet I'll extend that to "DevOps-lite" roles (as one recruiter today classified them). If that becomes difficult, I'll aim for Amazon or Rackspace Data Center positions, w/ the aim to use them to pivot towards more Linux-centric roles.

Edit: I also plan on learning Python Programming this summer, time-permitting. Also, thanks for the LinuxAcademy suggestion Kinet1c; I've already signed up. I think I'll use that to learn Vagrant, Puppet, etc.

DoubleNNs

As far as location is concerned, I really, really wanted to live in DC. I'm young and single. Have been neglecting my social life recently, but want to get a better work/study/social life balance. I might be a year too early w/ that goal however - I might end up increasing my study effort to close the gap between where I am now and easily being able to grab a mid-level Linux role.

I'm waiting to land my position before getting the apartment. Depending on the job, I'll decide whether I'm getting a 1 bedroom or have to get roommates and whether I can afford to live in DC or not - both because of price of rent and commute time cost. When I mentioned the 2-4 hour commute times, I meant round-trip per day. That's not something I'd be willing to do however.

DoubleNNs

Still having trouble even getting a face-to-face interview.

To help w/ the "alphabet soup" I've spent time learning Vagrant and Chef. I've gone thru video series on both, read thru the documentation, and set up lab environments. I'm now spending the next few days getting acquainted w/ Puppet and Git/GitHub.
I don't plan on being advanced on either just yet, but want to use them as talking points during interviews. I'll display that I know more than just the fundamentals and most importantly have the ability and dedication to become advanced-proficient on whatever tools my next employer uses; I see little need to devote countless hours on learning a tool that won't be useful on my next job.

I've signed up for 2 online Python classes - 1 beginning at the end of May and the other beginning of June. I also signed up for a free-tier personal Amazon AWS account; I plan to later integrate Vagrant and either Chef or Puppet w/ my AWS account as a RHCSA/RHCE lab.

Starting Monday I'll revisit my Linux+ notes, spin up a 3-server lab, and start passively studying for the RHCSA.

At the same time, I'm currently unemployed after finishing my last contract. I've been going through recruiters but they all keep getting hung up on the fact that I haven't had a previous Linux Admin position or the low amount of years of experience I have. It is frustrating.

Kinet1c

I've dropped you a PM in relation to a job in your area for someone with your skill set, let me know if you're interested.

Xavor

Also, talk to temp. agencies.