How to get a Linux Admin Job?

Often, I am getting requests for a job from freshers who do there RHCE course.

If is tough to hire RHCE freshers as they dont have any practical experiences with realtime problems.

Recently, got a mail from a guy asking for a linux admin job, after finishing his RHCE.

Here is my reply to him.

========================================================
Hi,

Nice to get the resume.

I hope you have much knowledge in linux administration.
But, being a fresher, it is tough to prove to the people
that you have much knowledge.

People hesitate to give linux admin jobs to freshers as
they could not handle REALTIME servers without experience.

This is a chicken and egg problem.

To comeout of this, show your skills to the community
and put your community activities in your resume.

The following things will give you tons of opportunities.

1. Goto schools/colleges/Offices.

  Install Linux servers there. Setup a network with ubuntu desktops.
  you can do this for free or little cost.
  only thing is, you have to go and ask the people for the opportunity.
  Most of the time, you will be rejected. But even 1 opportunity will
  give you a great experience.
  Instead of asking for jobs, you can ask your friends for this opportunity.

2. Be a active member in Linux User Groups.

  Join Chennai Linux User Group and KanchiLUG.

  http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
  http://www.freelists.org/list/kanchilug

  http://kanchilug.wordpress.com

  ChennaiLUG is having monthly meeting on every 2nd saturday at IIT-Madras.
  KanchiLUG is having every sunday at siva kalvi nilaiyam, ppm.

  Attend meetings, teach people what you know.
  you can teach anything. from simple commands to servers setup.
  This will make people to notice you.

  Both LUGs have many people who can give you more opportunities.

  Join the mailing lists and answer to the questions people ask.
  This will increase your knowledge.

  Dont miss to participate in the public events these LUGS do.

3. Answer to Forums & IRC

  There are many forums where you can answer to questions.
  This is the easiest way to increase the knowledge.

  www.linuxquestions.org
  www.ubuntuforums.org
  www.fedoraforum.org
  www.linuxforums.org

  These are the best places where you can hangout. Answer the questions
  for the server related questions.

  learn IRC. answer questions on irc.freenode.net #linux-india,#ubuntu,#fedora

4. Have a blog.

  start a blog on www.wordpress.com or www.blogspot.com
  share your knowledge in the blogs.
  Whatever you learn/do/try/fail/fear/conquer related to linux, blog it.

5. Come out of RHCE

  Go beyond RHCE, Certification is just a start. Grow beyond it. Linux is vast,
  can not fix it into a 3 books. Learn lot of things like Subversion,
  Database administration,   Backups, Security, Clustering, Virtualization, Shell scripting, LTSP,
  Any language like Ruby/Python/Perl.

  People avoid who stops learning.

6. Read / Read / Read

  Read more tutorials, how-tos, blogs, forums etc.

  www.linux.com
  www.fs-daily.com
  www.lxer.com
  www.linuxhomenetworking.com
  www.howtoforge.com

  Keep on reading and do all the experiments.

7. Use Linux

  Use linux as your desktop. Be 100% away from windows.
  Install ubuntu or fedora. Install multimedia codecs.
  Play audio/Video. Play 3d games. Create graphics using gimp/Inkscape.
  Use OpenOffice, Burn CDs/DVDs, ..

  Live with Linux.

Yes. There are more things to do.

But the above list is what I did to get a job with linux and it worked for me.
It worked for many people too.

If you do all the above said and put them in your resume,
those text will start to glow in your resume and catch the companies eyes.

They will check the links you give in resumes like your blog and
community activities.

There wont be any need for any experience than what you show to the
community in web.

You should continue them after you get the job too.
That will take you to the higher levels.

Hope you get the points.

Keep on posting us what you are doing.

Wishes,
Shrinivasan

====================================================

Do you have any other points to add?
Please share in the comments.

Thanks.