Invited to Linux Administrator Interview

si20

Last week, I was offered a digital forensics position but the money was abysmal. I asked on this thread and have pretty much decided that the money is not very good for the stuff i'd have to see on a daily basis. So, I looked at what jobs were listed in my area. There were 2-3 linux jobs and 2-3 windows jobs. All of them were after people with 3+ years experience as a windows/linux admin apart from one.

One job is for a more 'junior' linux admin. They say they're not too bothered if you've not worked with debian or ubuntu, but it would be an advantage for them. The skills they're looking for include: Apache, nginx, lighttpd, SSL and Nagios.

I applied for the job. My experience with linux is that i've passed the OSCP, OSWP and studied half of the RHA030 course during my BSc, and for my MSc, i've used a lot of CAINE (command line tools e.g dd). I've not got experience with the skillset they listed, but they know that and have invited me for interview.

Am I jumping into the deep end with this? Or does it sound feasible for me to learn about those skills on the job?

Say what you think. If i'm heading down a bad path, shoot me down. If this all sounds doable, also let me know! Thanks

Legacy User

Well if they called you down for the interview it means they already know what you bring to the table. A message I got from an article or something I read and I"m paraphrasing, "when the employer calls you down for the job that means they already think you are perfect for the role, you just have to remind them that you are". Just come in confident, communicate your accomplishments and give examples how you were able to learn on the job. Just do your best and thats all anyone can ask for. Good luck!

si20

thanks dmarcisco, that is a relief. I've just watched a few videos on youtube about nagios and it looks fairly painless. It's just a system monitoring tool. I'll have a play about with it today - i've actually set up a CentOS machine. I'm going to do the Linux+ this year which should benefit them.

Clevernamehere

If it is a more junior position they shouldn't expect you to know everything right off the bat. That's how I got my foot in the door with linux. Setting up a machine is a good idea. There is no better way to learn linux than to get down and dirty with it. Although if they are a Debian/Ubuntu shop you might as well spin up one of those to get your feet wet with. The differences aren't huge and you'll learn plenty either way. Plus it never ever hurts to know the ins and outs of CentOS/Red hat.

DoubleNNs

I second using a Ubuntu/Debian machine when you're getting acquainted w/ the tools. If that's what they use on the job and you're interested in landing the position, might as well start getting used to the differences now. Could also be a talking point during the interview and the eagerness will most likely be a positive.

Try to make a small lab with 3 machines. 1 a MySQL database server, 2 an Apache web sever, 3 a Nagios Monitoring server. Try to set up monitoring checks for all 3 servers and display on a web UI. Then practice making the monitoring checks fail and recover, noting how everything looks like in both failed as well as "okay" state.

I don't have much Nagios experience but I've used Icinga2 a lot - which is a fork of Nagios. Feel free to ask me for help with the lab.

A small lab like that is fairly simple and will get you acquainted enough with Nagios, Apache, Ubuntu/Debian and basic Linux administration to have multiple talking points during the interview and show them you're both dedicated and learn quickly.

si20

Thanks guys I'll give that a shot this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting technical again. My current job isn't technical which is one of the many reasons I'm leaving.

si20

Ok guys, an update:

I had the interview yesterday. I came away feeling a bit confused. The guys who interviewed me were extremely clever guys. One of them had an insane amount of knowledge with Linux. But during the interview, they kept saying: "we saw you had security listed on your CV, and we called you in based on that". Then they shoved a piece of paper under my nose about a security role they've got coming up. I tried to avoid talking about it at all costs because i'm not interested. I applied for a linux sys admin job, but they seem to think i'll be better fitted in a security job which involves networking (My networking knowledge is poor. Mainly because I don't care much for networking and never will).

They also told me it's a 40 hour week and i'd be working shifts, which sometimes start at 2pm and go until 10pm - but of course, they usually install updates so i'd be there until past midnight. I think it's a perfect Linux job - i'd learn enough to hit 80k (£) in future - but the hours seem unsociable at best and they were very, very keen to talk about their security role. Not sure what to make of this?

DoubleNNs

Did you explicitly tell them that you were more interested in Linux?

If you took the security role, would it have a lot of Linux admin tasks? Would you be securing Linux servers?

How did you do on the Linux-centric part of the interview?

si20

They kept saying: "we know you've applied for the linux post....but". At this point, I felt like they'd already made their minds up that they were more interested in me doing the security side of things. I get the feeling that the security position is mostly networking - something which I definitely don't want to get into.

I probably got about 40% of questions right. They showed me some error messages with apache - stuff i've never seen before - stuff that isn't in the Linux+ i'm currently studying. They were fine about it and explained what it was. I can't see me getting offered the role though in all honesty. Even if they did offer it to me, the working hours don't seem very good. I'll have to see what they say this coming week.

LeBroke

Are you interested in security, though?

Because until you reach a fairly high level, most security jobs typically deal a fair amount with networking. Either managing firewalls and ACLs in a security admin role, or doing log analysis and managing intrusion detection/SIEM systems in a more direct security analyst role.

Also, I get the feeling like they didn't see you a great fit for the Linux role, but saw you as a good fit for the security role. Apache is fairly basic Linux administration, and is much more important than knowing something like awk/sed/grep syntax (the very basic awk '{pring $1}' and sed s/cat/dog are still useful to have, though). You're much more likely to set up servers or troubleshoot typical apps than you are to script stuff, since you have to know what it is you're scripting first.

Sorry, this is just my rant about Linux+ - I'm not a huge fan of the cert, and feel that it teaches more obscure but impractical knowledge than the actually necessary skills (i.e. nginx/Apache, postfix, LDAP, NFS, jBoss/Tomcat.. the bread and butter of the Linux world).

RHEL

I have been a UNIX/Linux admin for 6+ years in the large corporate world, and have been fiddling around with it on a hobby level another decade before that. Having taken and passed the Linux+, I concur that it's 90% useless facts of things that will not help you in the workplace. It's purely a test on your ability to memorize obscure facts and commands. I have several coworkers who have been in the UNIX/Linux game for 20+ years and would likely fail this test if they took it today.

Red Hat exams, do seem to have some practicality to them. You're presented with problems, not multiple choice questions. In Linux, there are a ton of ways to address a single problem. The exam realizes this and you pass based on your ability to problem solve in any way you see fit. To me, this is much more realistic and should reflect well on your abilities to employers.

Also related to your post, truly junior Linux jobs do exist. They are rare, but that's how I got my start. I happened to stumble on a very large organization (250K employees) who wanted to hire fresh grads to do Linux admin work for dirt cheap. While I did have a decent Linux background, my coworkers who were also new grads, did not. To get these roles, it's important that you realize what it is... An effort to fill otherwise highly expensive seats for cheap. If you're okay with that, go into an interview showing your complete enthusiasm to work there and learn. If you're unclear on a topic, be honest about it and show a great interest when they explain it to you.

There's some very good value in roles like this. A) you get a fancy title to put on your resume right away (one which typically pays big dollars), you get great experience, C) you'll make bank after just a couple of years.

For the record, I was hired on 6 years ago making sub-40K. 2.5 years later, I hopped companies for a 63% raise. 1.5 years later, I hopped again for 30%+. Best of luck!

si20

LeBroke wrote: »

Are you interested in security, though?

Because until you reach a fairly high level, most security jobs typically deal a fair amount with networking. Either managing firewalls and ACLs in a security admin role, or doing log analysis and managing intrusion detection/SIEM systems in a more direct security analyst role.

Also, I get the feeling like they didn't see you a great fit for the Linux role, but saw you as a good fit for the security role. Apache is fairly basic Linux administration, and is much more important than knowing something like awk/sed/grep syntax (the very basic awk '{pring $1}' and sed s/cat/dog are still useful to have, though). You're much more likely to set up servers or troubleshoot typical apps than you are to script stuff, since you have to know what it is you're scripting first.

Sorry, this is just my rant about Linux+ - I'm not a huge fan of the cert, and feel that it teaches more obscure but impractical knowledge than the actually necessary skills (i.e. nginx/Apache, postfix, LDAP, NFS, jBoss/Tomcat.. the bread and butter of the Linux world).

I've been working as a security analyst for the past 2 years (one of those being a senior security analyst) and i've learned absolutely nothing. My technical knowledge is fading very quickly. I'm trying to get into a more technical role and even considering big pay cuts so I can do technical work that I enjoy. I agree with you - they did tell me that they'd brought me in there mainly because of my security background. But as I say, networking doesn't interest me in the slightest and my current job, managing escalatings on SIEM solutions and onboarding new clients has got me braindead. I might have to go back to the drawing board.