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Re: [PLUG] OT: (outta sight!) making IT in Philly?
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I haven't been following this thread to closely, but some opinions were
leaning towards the fact that it might be difficult finding Unix/Linux
work in the area?!
This is hardly the case. There is a TON of UNIX/Linux work throughout
the area. For every company that you know of that has 30-40 *nix
machines, there are another 10 you dont know of! Lets face it, Win32 is
a late bloomer in the server environment. Any company that has been
around for more than 10-15 years most likely has
Solaris/AIX/HPUX/Tru64/whatever laying around - and for those people
moving to Linux isn't that far of a stretch.
It might seem difficult to get into it since the jobs are separated by
a barrier called "ignorant staffing firms". Here's the secret... LIE.
Nobody wants to hire someone who is just learning. Get a book, install
on your home computer, and tinkering around. Then put it on your resume
and say your an expert. Get the interview, bullshit a little, bam, you
got yourself a job. If you cant bring yourself up to speed on something
within a few weeks, then you should probably find a new line of work
all together. Being a good SysAdm is about being able to learn new
things quickly, troubleshoot, and solve problems- NOT memorizing the
flags for a specific version of ps. If an interviewer asks, what does
the fourth column of 'ps -ef' represent, tell him that is a stupid
question and you dont waste time memorizing crap like that, instead you
just do man ps and find out.
-john
On Mar 10, 2006, at 2:49 PM, Benjamin Folk Jr. wrote:
This is mainly for Ronald and Floyd....
I just wanted to add that I work for a defense contractor\aerospace
company and it is a HUGE *NIX shop. Not all, but most of the
programs on the campus are *NIX development oriented. It was
difficult for me to get a chance as UNIX sys admin and it took what
seemed like an eternity to get a position in an entirely UNIX
environment. For the OP, keep sending out resumes and meet people.
There are at least 170 open positions in my building alone. Defense
contractors are big shops. Working for a defense contractor is a
little different than most profit based businesses, but as far as
getting good experience, they are one the best places to learn.
Towers Perrin at 15th and Market (Center Square East) is another local
place that has some major UNIX machines. I still keep in touch with a
cpuple of the admins that remained onboard after the EDS outsourcing.
Comcast in West Chester and iat 15th and Market (Center Square East
and West) has 300+ UNIX boxes.
I remember begging managers to do volunteer work with their UNIX staff
members just to get my foot in the door. I jumped from job to job
getting more and more experience and eventually I got what I thought I
wanted. When I got to Lockheed and saw labs of HP-UX, Sun, and SGI
workstations, I thought I was in heaven. The first 6 months were very
interesting but very shortly thereafter it becase just another job.
At the time, the secretaries there knew more UNIX than I did since
everyone had an Ultra5, or Sunblade 100 at their desks. Linux is
here and it is a great skill to have on your resume.
Keep looking and ask for help and ideas. I'll submit your resumes for
you at my place of business if you are interested. It is not the best
place in the world to work, but it is very interesting. 99% of the
interesting stuff you can't talk about so it is sort of a double edged
sword.
Sorry for rambling.....and if I offended anyone or broke any list
rules, I apologize.
Ben
_______________________________________________________________________
____
Philadelphia Linux Users Group --
http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements -
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion --
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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