Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: Advice on pursuing a career
The Lounge What is on Your Mind? Advice on pursuing a career Post 302173148 by Smiling Dragon on Wednesday 5th of March 2008 06:53:43 PM
Old 03-05-2008
The unix job market is quite different to the windows one in that qualifications are usually treated as a positive point but the actual subject of the qualification is largly irrelevant - it's more of an indication you can study and learn. The windows makret is generally interested in seeing a list of certifications and quals to get your foot in the door.

Unfortunately, this means that it's quite difficult to get into an interview for a good unix job. As well as knowing your stuff, you need to find the opportunity to show it. Without getting lucky or knowing someone, you might well have to work your way up from a lowly sys-admin or operator.
The job markets that put more weight on certs are easier (for those that have the certs) to get to the interview stage where they can sell themselves.

Skills that are sought after in a unix engineer that might help get you onto the interview list:
  • Experiance: Ok so that's not going to be much of an option for you but try to get some part time work (even free work) to give you exposure to unix in the 'real world'.
  • Understanding that Unix isn't DOS and Linux is not identical to all other Unix'es.
  • Hardware: Do you want to get into this? If so, start learning what's what and the various platforms and their architecture. You don't have to know the latest stuff but being in a position to appreciate how something new works will be very vaulable to employers.
  • System V vs BSD vs The hybrids - understanding the differences - try and get some time on several different unix's. Irix, Solaris, Digital Unix (AKA Tru64), AIX and HPUX would be a good start.
  • A solid understanding of server security: Get the hang of the basic concepts of security under unix - both at the network level and at the filesystem level. Learn how to user the multi-user nature of unix to seperate all the different subsystems from each other to minimise the damage of a security breach.
  • Knowing the commands is nice but knowing a wide range of ways to find the syntax for a new or unknown command quickly is better.
  • The phrase "No, I'm not familiar with that one but I'm keen to learn about it!"
  • Documentaion - Most engineers are crap at it, try not to be like most engineers Smilie
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Cybersecurity

Want Urgent career Advice

Dear All, I have finished my MS in chemical engineering from US university and presetly on OPT work permit. I do not have software background. I have received call from consultant company. They are offering me AIX UNIX training for four weeks and find me a job. My question is how difficuilt... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: saarth_desh
0 Replies

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Want URGENT Advice:Career as UNIX Systme Administrator

Dear All, I have finished my MS in chemical engineering from US university and presetly on OPT work permit. I do not have software background. I have received call from consultant company. They are offering me AIX UNIX training for four weeks and find me a job. My question is how difficuilt... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: saarth_desh
5 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Career advice

I am new to scripting and I need some direction on which language to learn. Can you please advice and which skill is very marketable career wise.Thanks in advance. (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: etcman
1 Replies

4. What is on Your Mind?

Career advice

I am a junior unix sys admin (Tru64) I have been in this job for 9 months and I am quite worried. When I first got the job I was delighted as I was finally in a job where I could have the chance to be a specialist in a field rather than being a general support guy (i graduated from uni and got... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: supadid
5 Replies

5. What is on Your Mind?

career Advice

Hi all, I need a career Advice. About myself -- I have 2 years of work experience as a System Administrator (Linux and Solaris). I am Sun Certified System Administrator on Solaris 10.0 currently working in a MNC. As for career growth, I am doing 3 year MBA course from distance learning,... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: vikas027
4 Replies

6. Solaris

Career advice: Solaris & SUN support

I'm looking for career advice here. I've been working as a support engineer for Sun partners for 2 years now, and I worked with a lot of servers, tape libraries, and SAN storage. I have also done a lot of server installations and gone to a lot of trainings. Now, I'm offered to do Solaris... (13 Replies)
Discussion started by: Sun Fire
13 Replies

7. AIX

Need career advice please

Hi all, I'm a Solaris/linux sysadmin with a good general UNIX skills and with a little tiny background on AIX with no exposure to IBM's hardware ( just reading ) , but i think i can cope with it . UNIX jobs nowadays are rare here ( i mean hp-ux , solaris , aix ) not linux specially after the... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: h@foorsa.biz
6 Replies

8. AIX

Career Advice Asked

Dear All i am working on windows plattform and i am interested in Aix so i have done IBM Aix certification, can you please suggest Aix filed is good for my carrier,currently i am working as Desktop admin edit by bakunin: please understand that the question you raised has nothing to do with the... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: manzur13
1 Replies

9. What is on Your Mind?

Career Advice

Hi, I not sure if this is the right place to ask this question and if I'm wrong I apologize. I'm a systems administrator and have about 5 years of experience. I have worked on Solaris HP-UX *linux Visualization ( VMWare ) And I'm comfortable with shell and Perl. Of late,... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: maverick_here
0 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Need advice for my career growth being solaris/linux admin

Hi All, I am having 5+ years total unix admin exp in india (5years solarisadminand 2+ years on linuxadmin).Please advice me which technology I need to learn for my career growth and salary growth. Is it good to go for EMC SAN storage or vmware for higher packages. Please advice me or I... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: SolarisLinux123
4 Replies
Aspect::Advice::Around(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation			       Aspect::Advice::Around(3pm)

NAME
Aspect::Advice::Around - Execute code both before and after a function SYNOPSIS
use Aspect; around { # Trace all calls to your module print STDERR "Called my function " . $_->sub_name . " "; # Lexically alter a global for this function local $MyModule::MAXSIZE = 1000; # Continue and execute the function $_->run_original; # Suppress exceptions for the call $_->return_value(1) if $_->exception; } call qr/^ MyModule::w+ $/; DESCRIPTION
The "around" advice type is used to execute code on either side of a function, allowing deep and precise control of how the function will be called when none of the other advice types are good enough. Using "around" advice is also critical if you want to lexically alter the environment in which the call will be made (as in the example above where a global variable is temporarily changed). This advice type is also the most computationally expensive to run, so if your problem can be solved with the use of a different advice type, particularly "before", you should use that instead. Please note that unlike the other advice types, your code in "around" is required to trigger the execution of the target function yourself with the "proceed" method. If you do not "proceed" and also do not set either a "return_value" or "exception", the function call will return "undef" in scalar context or the null list "()" in list context. AUTHORS
Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org> COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright 2010 Adam Kennedy. This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. perl v5.14.2 2012-02-01 Aspect::Advice::Around(3pm)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:49 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy