Junior Linux Administrator

[ChristopherB]

Hey All,

I'm on the lookout to further my career in the Information Technology industry as a Linux Administrator.

I have been using Linux for a few years now, and definitely have tamed this wild fire.

I'm willing start working as a Junior Administrator, doing all daily duties required from a Linux Administrator. I'm very serious about my career and to build my reputation in a company as a hard working employee.

If you know of anyone or even if you are looking at employing someone as myself in the Western Cape area, Please pop me a message and I'll gladly forward you a copy of my CV.

Yours Faithfully,
ChristopherB.

 

[Kasyx]

This section is for Linux tips, assistance, and discussion, not for job hunting.

 

[ChristopherB]

I'll move it, thanks for letting me know.

 

[ChristopherB]

I cant post in the jobs or classifieds section, I guess today is just not my day for getting things approved.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

ChristopherB, sadly Linux Sysadmin has to be about the lowest paying job at the moment. The industry took a massive knock this year and a lot of admins our out their looking for work. Not trying to put you off doing it, but keep your salary expectations to non-existent for know. Check out PNEt and also consider Technopark in Stellies - lots of Linux place there.

But as someone who followed his passion at the age of 31, all I really want to say is go for it. Nothing beats working in your dream environment.

 

[Urganny]

Is there any specific reason why the "industry took a massive knock this year"?

 

[ChristopherB]

ChristopherB, sadly Linux Sysadmin has to be about the lowest paying job at the moment. The industry took a massive knock this year and a lot of admins our out their looking for work. Not trying to put you off doing it, but keep your salary expectations to non-existent for know. Check out PNEt and also consider Technopark in Stellies - lots of Linux place there.

But as someone who followed his passion at the age of 31, all I really want to say is go for it. Nothing beats working in your dream environment.

Ah I see, Well I'm not only interested in Linux Admin, I would like to do everything based with computers, but the main role would be System Administrator.
For pay wise, what you call as a low income I call an average income, I'm currently working as a Graphic/Web Designer Developer, and now that is a LOW paying job.
You must be able to do everything for pennies and shillings.

So that's why I'm willing to start out in the low of low, just as long as I can start my career in that direction. One thing I don't understand from looking at ads online is that, they'll state they want a Junior System Admin, but then the applicant must have 5years experience, how can that be a Junior System Admin?

 

[Ancalagon]

One thing I don't understand from looking at ads online is that, they'll state they want a Junior System Admin, but then the applicant must have 5years experience, how can that be a Junior System Admin?

Because employers want to have their cake and eat it. They want you to have 5 years experience but pay you a junior salary, and when they cant find anyone willing to work for that little, they complain about a skills shortage.

Anyhoo... good luck!

 

[Logo]

ChristopherB, sadly Linux Sysadmin has to be about the lowest paying job at the moment. The industry took a massive knock this year and a lot of admins our out their looking for work. Not trying to put you off doing it, but keep your salary expectations to non-existent for know. Check out PNEt and also consider Technopark in Stellies - lots of Linux place there.

But as someone who followed his passion at the age of 31, all I really want to say is go for it. Nothing beats working in your dream environment.

Damn I am pretty surprised at some of the salaries offered. Just out of curiosity I checked out Technopark that you mentioned. And looking in the job section I saw this add for a "support engineer". Listed as requirements are B.Sc in Computer Science or B.Comm Computer Science. Solid SQL experience and PHP experience. And under recommendations they say someone who can write/speak French or Arabic. And just as an insult they are offering 6 - 9000 a month.

Okay fair enough I have been out of the job market for a while now but that is a ridiculous salary.

 

[ChristopherB]

The worst ad I saw. Lynax Administrator - Needed. Must have a 3 year Computer Science Diploma, with X amount of experience........

I honestly wanted to send them an email and ask " If I show you how spell Linux, would you consider me for the job?"

 

[NeonNinja]

Computer Science Diploma?

 

[ChristopherB]

Yes, I would presume that the person was trying to say that you must have a degree or something to do with computers.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Damn I am pretty surprised at some of the salaries offered. Just out of curiosity I checked out Technopark that you mentioned. And looking in the job section I saw this add for a "support engineer". Listed as requirements are B.Sc in Computer Science or B.Comm Computer Science. Solid SQL experience and PHP experience. And under recommendations they say someone who can write/speak French or Arabic. And just as an insult they are offering 6 - 9000 a month.

Okay fair enough I have been out of the job market for a while now but that is a ridiculous salary.

That sounds normal at the moment and its just insane.

 

[Urganny]

Okay fair enough I have been out of the job market for a while now but that is a ridiculous salary.

I feel your pain... Ive been looking for the exact job for almost a year now. Also willing to start from the bottom. But cant even get a foot in....
I even went and got LPI certified. (Not worth much in my opinion!)

 

[w1z4rd]

ChristopherB, sadly Linux Sysadmin has to be about the lowest paying job at the moment.

Speak for yourself. I earn a fat salary doing linux, also ALL my linux friends are earning at least 20k and above. My one friend works with linux on HP Blade servers and earns 60k a month in Jozi.

 

[Logo]

I feel your pain... Ive been looking for the exact job for almost a year now. Also willing to start from the bottom. But cant even get a foot in....
I even went and got LPI certified. (Not worth much in my opinion!)

No I just meant that I haven't been looking for a job for some time as I am permanently employed and had no idea what the starting salaries are at the moment.

The funny thing about the LPI exams are that they are suppose to be vendor independent exams which in theory gives you a better understanding of Linux in general. But employers however see that as a negative as they work with Suse or Red Hat and want people with those specific skills.

 

[ChristopherB]

Speak for yourself. I earn a fat salary doing linux, also ALL my linux friends are earning at least 20k and above. My one friend works with linux on HP Blade servers and earns 60k a month in Jozi.

Hmm, Whose twine did they spine to get that kinda income? I also know someone that earns a lot of dough each month just by being a Linux Administrator, but the things is, he got the job because his uncle knows someone, that knows someone, that knows someone, that knows someone.

For someone that just moved to Western Cape, I wish I had a chain of 'someones' that could do that.

 

[Kasyx]

No I just meant that I haven't been looking for a job for some time as I am permanently employed and had no idea what the starting salaries are at the moment.

The funny thing about the LPI exams are that they are suppose to be vendor independent exams which in theory gives you a better understanding of Linux in general. But employers however see that as a negative as they work with Suse or Red Hat and want people with those specific skills.

Funnily enough, I experienced that the other day. I've just started with a new team, and they use SuSE. They immediately asked me if I know SuSE, and I was like "I know Linux...", and they were all "No, do you know SuSE in particular?".

It's like getting a job on a farm: "Can you ride a Fresian?", "I can ride horses, yes.", "No, we mean do you have experience with Fresians?"

... It's a ****ing horse, the differences are not that vast.

 

[ChristopherB]

Gee that sucks, Well I started out my Linux journey using Linux DSL, at the time that was the only thing I could download, it's 50mb all in all.
Now I use Ubuntu as a desktop OS and Ubuntu Server to play around with.

It's nice and all, but since you posted your experience with the Suse and Red Hat, should a person rather then just use Suse as a OS, just not to feel bad when
you tell them "Yes I can use Suse"......

 

[Kasyx]

Gee that sucks, Well I started out my Linux journey using Linux DSL, at the time that was the only thing I could download, it's 50mb all in all.
Now I use Ubuntu as a desktop OS and Ubuntu Server to play around with.

It's nice and all, but since you posted your experience with the Suse and Red Hat, should a person rather then just use Suse as a OS, just not to feel bad when
you tell them "Yes I can use Suse"......

From my own personal experience, I have found that the following distributions are generally used in production scenarios the most:

Red Hat
SuSE Enterprise Linux (not opensuse)
Centos (bleh)
Fedora (bleh)
Slackware (on occasion)

Some companies are starting to go with ubuntu server (I have no idea why. The day has not yet arrived wherein I trust an Ubuntu server).

So yeah, familiarize yourself with SuSE at least. Red Hat, if you can. If you can't get Red Hat, go with Centos - just make sure you never use it if you're running processes that require a version of Python released in the last two years.

If you're just looking to learn, I recommend Arch Linux and Gentoo, and, if you're feeling brave, Linux From Scratch.

At the end of the day, the only major differences between most distributions is package management and directory trees. Except for SuSE and YaST2. I still can't get the hang of that. Then again, I'm not much a fan of the server GUI...