Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Linux Business The Almighty Buck

Linux Jobs on the Rise 219

Posted by CowboyNeal from the shopping-oneself-around dept.
Jan Stafford writes "Looking for a job at LinuxWorld and everywhere else? IT recruiting expert Scot Melland says you have more grounds for optimism than in recent years. In this Q&A, he describes where the jobs are and how much they're paying."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Linux Jobs on the Rise More

Linux Jobs on the Rise

Comments Filter:

  • True (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rppp01 ( 236599 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:00PM (#9850006) Homepage
    My last job was a SCO shop. They were migrating to Red Hat when I left.

    My current job is using linux on a lot of lower end servers.

    This is a far cry from 2000-2001, when no one would even touch the OS.
    Now, it is my desktop, and that of others.

    • My Linux career. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Nailer ( 69468 )
      1998 - Finished high school. Was career-minded kinda guy. Decided I'd rather get an exciting job than go to University (I'd done some tertiary stuff in year 12, but three years of Uni just wasn't my thing).

      1999 - I'd already had a lot of experience playing with Windows NT out of interest, so I got an MCSE to try and prove my skills to potential employers. Volunteered to assist my local 1300-member LUG at an IT show. Met my future boss, Con Zymaris from Cybersource [cybersource.com.au] *. Ended up being the 'Windows guy' at a L
      • Most of my geek buddies ended up working in Linux related areas too...

        * Leigh: Sysadmin / Developer at IT Services company. Also does the Linux column in PCAuthority now.

        * Matt: Sysadmin / Developer. Works for hosting company.

        * Daniel: Young guy, still finishing Uni. Got involved in Freedestkop.org, works as a contractor on Xorg stuff for HP last time I checked, but I hear rumors he's got a new job. Tells me all the cool shit that's happening with X.

        * David: Works for Transgaming coding Winex. Got to li
    • Found this while searching for tech jobs online.
      Live near Agoura Hills, CA? Get your resume ready.

      Vivid Entertainment is looking for a new PROGRAMMER
      for Vivid Entertainment

      Required Technical Skills:
      Linux, Design, Database design
      Job Description:

      This is an intermediate to mid-level, full-time position. In addition to the programming skills mentioned below, the candidate should have strong database design skills and some clue about Linux system administration and networking.Ability to multi-task; Can-do att

  • I don't know..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr Reducto ( 665121 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:01PM (#9850013) Journal
    I am working at a Microsoft Gold Certified partner business, and I am impressed by how well Microsoft stuff works. I am not realy that much into Linux, but I have played around with it. Microsoft gives Linux a lot of competition on interoperability, although it is only with other Microsoft products.

    Security isn't that big of a deal to lock down either, as long as you have a decent firewall configured right.
    • Security isn't that big of a deal to lock down either, as long as you have a decent firewall configured right.

      That, and forbidding users to use Internet Explorer or Outlook.

      Just my $0.02

    • Re:I don't know..... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:23PM (#9850113)
      Microsoft gives Linux a lot of competition on interoperability, although it is only with other Microsoft products.

      You keep using that word "interoperability," I do not think it means what you think it means.

      Security isn't that big of a deal to lock down either, as long as you have a decent firewall configured right.

      "security"
      ditto

      • Inconceivable! (Score:3, Informative)

        by patonw ( 747304 )
        from http://imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes: [Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up] Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE. Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
    • So, what you're saying is that Microsoft is good for interoperability as long as you don't have to interoperate?
    • The one nitpick I have with your statement is about security. MS has gotten their act together with reliability and somewhat with 'playing nice', although it pisses me off how they fuck with standards like XML, but they aren't secure at all. Nothing to do with closed source vs open source, but their development model was not designed securely from the start, and now it's biting them in the proverbial ass.

      Hopefully with the inclusion of the NX flag-aware code, most buffer overflow attacks will just throw
      • XML (Extensible Markup Language) Designed to be well, extensible, so they patented their very own XML format for MS Word documents. Fine, they can do that, because it's XML. That's what it's for. You make make your very own data containers.

        Eskimo XML - Has lots of structure for types of ice, snow, frost... not so heavy on tropical breezes.

        Porn Collector XML - has lots of types of breast size... no so heavy on plot types.

        Different markups for different folks, THAT's the point of XML. MS is free to mak

    • Re:I don't know..... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aldoman ( 670791 )
      No I totally agree with you. I like Linux, and on servers I just love it. On the desktop, I try to like it but I always go back to my windows/mac land.

      Microsoft's products are really getting a hell of a lot better aswell. They are also being much less 'ghey' towards the OS community overall. Most MS employees will freely admit of liking FireFox, Apache, PHP etc (I've chatted with quite a few). I'm actually quite sure the Billy Boy at the top loves OSS, but Balmer probably despises it. Ever notice how Balme
    • Sorry I wasn't exactly clear with my first post.

      Windows, and Microsoft products are well integrated, not interoperable. It was a poor choice of words. Microsoft products work incredibly well with each other, and an all-Windows and Microsoft network runs really smooth. By smoothly though, I mean the workflow of the end-users. the Microsoft stuff is just top notch for everyday business. Outlook destroys any of the other Email clients I have used. Word and Excel are just as good as their OSS counterparts
    • [Microsoft Windows] Security isn't that big of a deal to lock down either, as long as you have a decent firewall configured right.



      And that firewall is usually running...ding, ding, ding...Linux.

    • I'm glad to hear someone putting insight into the positive points of Microsoft software in such a way that does not offend anyone or overly extend any truth. It's very hard to make any meaningful discussion when it's all Microsoft or Linux bashing.

      Fanaticism just makes everyone sound incredible.

  • What I've noticed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by phaetonic ( 621542 ) * on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:20PM (#9850099)
    Major vendors (HP, IBM, Dell) have tech support with Linux savvy techies who can speak to a UNIX admin with very little disconnect. The other day I called HP about an issue with a DL380 G3 running RHEL 3 and they knew exactly what I was talking about and could help me out. They even give you the ability to flash your BIOS IN LINUX, as root of course. It does require a reboot to take effect.

  • Linux? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Most of the open source jobs I see are for BSD stuff. Perhaps it is because of the area in which I work (networking). A robust TCP/IP stack is vital. Linux still has a problem with this. The other issue is the lock-in that the GPL creates. Most corporations prefer the freedom of the BSD-style license.

    • Re:Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MikeCapone ( 693319 ) <skelterhell @ y a hoo.com> on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:42PM (#9850212) Homepage Journal
      The other issue is the lock-in that the GPL creates. Most corporations prefer the freedom of the BSD-style license.

      The BSD license has some things going for it, but if we look at what corporations are backing Linux and what are backing *BSD, it seems that the GPL "lock-in" doesn't bother IBM, Novell, etc.. In fact, it might encourage them since after adding lots of code to Linux, a third party can't just take the code, add a bit to it and then sell it as proprietary software -- they must give back, just like people before them did, and I'd say that's pretty fair.

    • BSD license is nice if you want to take and give nothing back. the GPL requires you to give back so only companies that want to be part of the community can take part. Now lets have a little check about major companies back Linux vs BSD eh? IBM HP Novell etc etc vs ehm Apple. Oh I am sure there are some BSD users I left out but my excuse for that is that BSD users might never notice as companies that use BSD code never need to tell. Is MS using modified BSD code? Who knows, if they used modified GPL code we

    • The other issue is the lock-in that the GPL creates. Most corporations prefer the freedom of the BSD-style license.

      I can understand this thought train if you were a development shop, but I can not understand it one bit for in use servers and workstations.

      the GPL does nothing to you if you are using it. I can write closed source evil software in linux with no requirement on license. Hell I can install SCO extensions and software I like and nobody that has anything to do with the GPL or linux can do a da
    • ...then I don't know what you're going to do.
      It was just this past week that FreeBSD finally
      announced that an EXPERIMENTAL option was
      available for SMP-capable networking. Linux has
      had that since the 2.4.xx days.

      Put your BSD on a 4-way box, or better yet an
      8-way box with hyperthreading enabled. Put at
      least 4 gigabit cards in the box. Start routing
      and serving...

      Linux TCP/IP was second to BSD in, oh, 1995 maybe.

  • How about Embedded Linux (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ClamChwdrMan ( 790007 ) <{ira.snyder} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:27PM (#9850134) Homepage
    Where I work we are developing a few different boards that all use embedded linux on an Arm9. I think that Linux may develop to take over that market really well. After all, who needs a full blown Windows installation on an embedded device? And is Windows even capable of running on an MMU-less processor?
    • Well, Linux is fine for embedded systems. There's two fronts where real "embedded" OSes may be ahead, though: Hard real-time and memory footprint. A real-time OS like vxWorks probably beats Linux hollow on things like worst-case latency, and possibly on context-switch time as well. Also, vxWorks lets you only pull in the parts you need. Linux does also, but I suspect that vxWorks can take much less memory than Linux. As time goes on, of course, this becomes less relevant, as memory gets cheaper.

      As to

  • Surfing for pr0n in the dark is not a job :)

    Kidding aside, yeah there is money to be made out there. I do part time work as a consultant and am able to make some cash on the side coding for Linux. But I really think this has much more to do with the growing demand for *NIX people as a whole, as the industry is starting to discover the wonderful fact that properly written UNIX-y software (e.g. in POSIX C) will work beautifully on Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, ... etc etc.

  • Linux Use VS. Linux Development (Score:5, Interesting)

    by redragon ( 161901 ) <codonnell AT mac DOT com> on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:28PM (#9850138) Homepage
    The number of job postings on Dice.com that required some type of Linux expertise increased 190% over the past year to over 2,200 positions.

    Not to pooh pooh this kind of increase, but it isn't as cool as jobs actually doing Linux development, or other OSS development. That would be even more exciting. Just because a job has need for Linux experience, doesn't mean that you'll actually have time to work on your favorite OSS project as part of your work. It may just mean that the company is using Linux to power some solution that you'll be working with.

    On the other hand, I've seen data that does show [infonomics.nl] that more developers are getting paid for OSS work. I would like to see a 190% jump there next year.

    CKO
    • i absolutely agree with your point, but it's just supply vs demand. When there's an increasing demand (need of linux experience), the supply's (linux development) going to increase as well, so in general it's a good sign overall.
      • It's coming soon. Alot of shops are switching from heavy iron (outdated Unix/AIX mainframes) and looking towards the future. The future, of course, is a linux cluster that can do more work for less money than the old iron could. Many city news sites (like dallasmorningnews.com) are run on Redhat clusters with load balancing. They can handle a full on slashdotting, with the only limiting factor being their allocated bandwidth. I spoke with the admins post 9/11 and they said the machines all held up nicely, b
    • Interestingly enough, I've hit a nice mix of development and usage.

      I'm lucky to be at the head of a very large linux migration for our company. I get to suggest, implement and use lots of cool linux and opensource tools every day. One of the nice side effects of this is that I also get to help with bug fixing and reporting on the projects to get them working the way we need them to work.

      A good example of this is CUPS. I've had a chance to find bugs with CUPS and get them fixed as well as feature requests

  • Ontario, Canada.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:31PM (#9850159)
    Linux is getting big here in Markham, Ontario (Home of ATI). A couple years ago IBM built a huge R&D lab right near my house.

    My first linux job was at 17 at the local soctiabank doing simple perl scripts. I had a second job at 18 programming software for a handheld device using linux. At 20 I got a job designing a sprinkler system at a local golf course that used a linux system to manage watering, etc...

    Basically, there are tons of jobs out there that use linux, and I am grateful for that.

    --Using slackware since I was 13 (now 22)
  • This is encouraging news, although I develop using WebSphere Studio under Linux, I'm not necessarily coding Linux, but WebSphere. It does make me ponder if I might be able to get a new better job in the future. Anyone know the fate of WebSphere developers?

    • Those salaries seem misleading. Very few people I know make that... Most are in the $30-40k range. (working on all these cool thingies---yes, even Linux)
  • I'm a college student studying computer engineering. I've been learning linux all summer long in the hopes of it helping me get a good job when I graduate. It's nice to know watching all that compiler output will lead to somewhere.

    Although so I don't sound like an anti-linux hitler nazi, I am very happy with the switch to linux and specifically gentoo.

    Ah damn, now I sound like a gentoo karma whore. Oh well. Show me the...high paying salary!

  • More Jobs or Less Jobs? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Matrix272 ( 581458 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @11:48PM (#9850236)
    I'm confused... recently there have been several articles about IT jobs getting shipped overseas, outsourcing, and how the IT job market in the US is pathetic compared to the relatively recent past. So does this article by someone who I'd consider to be "in the know" negate all the other articles, or is there a truly dramatic and (presumably) completely unexpected shift in IT hiring?

    • Re:More Jobs or Less Jobs? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Prof.Phreak ( 584152 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @12:18AM (#9850336) Homepage
      In my opinion, the article is a bit misleading. From my down to earth view (of having contact with literaly hundreds of IT folks) there are more jobs now than there were in the last few years...

      The jobs are different though. Most are doing fairly boring things, and salaries are in the $30-40k range. (very few are in the $50k range). There are obviously exceptions (one of my friends makes $85k), but the average is still ~$35k.

      Then again, that's better than being unemployed... And there are cently more jobs there now than there were a year or two ago. But they're crappy jobs.
    • It seems that most of the IT jobs that are outsourced are of programming or very-low end tech support. Imagine what would happen if sys admin jobs get outsourced to India (which is still possible).

      Indian Tech Support Guy (ITSG): How are you gentlemen!!
      Office Manager (OM): I need some tech support.
      ITSG: What Happen?
      OM: I'm calling because our E-mail's broken and the Exchange server has a blue screen with weird charactors on it.
      ITSG: Somebody set up you the bomb?
      OM: That doesn't sound good. I'm s

  • This is a joke, right? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @12:00AM (#9850283)
    Linux jobs could be going through the roof for all I know, but the apparent "research" done for that article is absolute cr@p.

    Counting the job postings on Dice? Please. This could be due to nothing more than Dice negotiating some special contracts with a few big companies.

    Anybody every notice that big defense contractors, and a few other institutions absolutely flood those job boards lately? Often posting over 100 jobs in a day just for one city.

    I live near Aurora Colorado, good sized Ratheon installation there. If the number of jobs posted just on hotjobs is any clue, then Ratheon must be hirering about 150 new people every day. On Dice, it Lockheed that floods the job boards.

    I don't know what kind of games they're playing, or what of deals are made; but you'd have to an idiot to think all of those advertised jobs are for real.

    Besides that, is Linux a *primary* qualification? Or is just one the many, many, qualifications that are typically thrown in along with everything else but the kitchen sink?

    And, most importantly of all, what is the ratio of new positons vs the number of people flooding into the field?
    • My first thought (admitedly not having looked at Dice for over a year), was that they added Linux to the ridiculous lists of qualifications that most ads already have. IE:

      6 years Windows XP experience
      10 years Java 2.459
      5 years JCL
      12 years COBOL ...
      5 years RedHat Linux 9.1

  • Must be nice... (Score:3, Informative)

    by morgajel ( 568462 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @12:01AM (#9850288)
    As a college graduate one year out of school with some minor sys admin experience and a couple years of web dev experience, I haven't exactly been getting many interviews. I've been searching monster, dice, career matrix, michworks, mlive and several other sites, and haven't had much luck.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is there aren't many junior linux admin positions open.

    it's a real bummer to be unemployed right now.

  • Linux becomes another HR buzzword (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stuntpope ( 19736 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @12:16AM (#9850327)
    I saw a recent posting of Unisys job announcements and was pleased to see Linux among the "looking for" skills, along with the usual J2EE, Oracle, etc etc. But they want someone with 10 to 15 years of Linux experience. Kind of like the postings for Java jobs that only Gosling could qualify for.
    • 10 years would mean experience with Linux since release of 1.0. I know many who would qualify for that (myself included). 15, OTOH, is longer than Linux has existed..

      Just halve the years of experience required (5-8 years) and you should find enough people easily. Add a few years of other *nix OS's and it's just fine.
    • But they want someone with 10 to 15 years of Linux experience. Kind of like the postings for Java jobs that only Gosling could qualify for.

      That is true if you are talking about the kernel, linux which hasn't been around as long as the other core technologies which are now used in GNU/Linux systems, like X11R6, GNU userland etc. etc. You know, the starting point of this free software thing isn't linux 0.01, it is RMS's GNU manifesto.
  • Out of the blue I've had three calls this week for Linux admin projects. 3 Years and no calls from Dice. Now I have a Baby is due any day and can't leave. :(

  • I am glad to have found a Linux job. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Eminor ( 455350 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @12:52AM (#9850502)
    I recently landed a Linux job. It was very hard to find. 99% of the jobs I looked at were Windows based. I stuck to my convictions and I eventually found the job I was looking for. I chalk it up to luck. There aren't that many Linux jobs in my city. Hopefully that is changing.

    In my shop, everyone uses Linux, and most users (and they are not very computer literate at all) don't care that they are not using windows. We have managed to make Linux as user friendly as possible.

    We impress the accountants with how cheap we can do things now. LTSP is a beautiful project which can save you time, money and hassle. I strongly suggest that any system administrator take a look at the project.

    • I stuck to my convictions and I eventually found the job I was looking for.

      It's refreshing to know that there are people who value their convictions more than a paycheck.

      The research stated that the hot areas include the defense and financial services industries which many slashdotters' believe are evil, so I guess that still means that many Linux loving slashdotters will still be out of work.
  • Not directly relevant to the topic, but you can view some pretty comprehensive salary information at

    http://www.h1b.info/lca_search.php

    The information from the database is supposedly taken from the details provided by employers filing for H1B visas, so may not 100% reflect what's out there in the market. However, I've been told the amounts pretty much reflect what US citizens would expect to receive anyway.

  • Linux certification (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Skapare ( 16644 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @01:16AM (#9850617) Homepage
    How much clout does a Linux certification have? Do employers value certifications?
    Melland: I wish that I could say that Linux certification carries a lot of clout, but so far it has not taken off the way people expected. Certification doesn't hurt, but what employers are really looking for today is experience. This is true across most technology disciplines. Candidates need to demonstrate that they have "been there, done that" rather than just proving their skills.

    Why would he wish that certification carries a lot of clout? And who is it that expected it to?

    Linux is certainly growing in market share, but it's still mostly in environments with management that values the thinking processes and figuring out the right ways to do things. When Linux finally reaches the level where it gets used by managers that don't value the thinking process, and just pick things because it might look good, or because someone wearing another tie said it was good, then we'll see certification in more demand. And they will get what they deserve, too, just like they got when they wanted an MCSE to run their Windows machines. The more the masses get certification, the less value that certification has. But that seems to be when managers want it most. How silly.

    • When Linux finally reaches the level where it gets used by managers that don't value the thinking process...then we'll see certification in more demand.

      You walk in to work. Your machine has been trashed in eight different ways. Fix them.
      You walk in to work. Your machine is trashed again, it won't even boot now.
      You have 2 1/2 hours.

      Your boss asks you to install and configure a box with some combo of RAID/LVM, network auth, a couple of Apache virtual hosts, some samba shares, FTP, iptables, etc. You have
    • >>Why would he wish that certification carries a lot of clout? And who is it that expected it to?

      Because he sympathizes with people who are finding it impossible to get started. Can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job. In today's market that's not just a cliche.

      I don't think anybody expects a cert to carry a *lot* of cloat, but it would be nice if it carried enough for somebody to get started.
  • Being a small single employee company, The Linux-world expo sales reps. contacted me for their Utrecht edition in October. Sadly however it seems that current Linux-world expo's are not what they used to be:

    http://linuxtoday.com/it_management/20040728031 2 6O PEV

    There's this Linux-World Expo planned in Utrecht (Netherlands) later this fall. Here's todays latest update on the results of attending :

    http://sites.vnuexhibitions.com/sites/linux-world/ nl/page.asp?nav_id=5415

    So what do ya say? Should i, b
  • www.jobstats.co.uk is a great website. [jobstats.co.uk]

    Linux jobs [jobstats.co.uk]

    Solaris jobs [jobstats.co.uk]

    Unix job stats [jobstats.co.uk]

    Bear in mind the scale is different so there are many more jobs listing Unix than Solaris or Linux. But the growth in jobs using Linux as a keyword is much stronger.

    Alex
  • Try to spot a paragraph without a blatant plug for them, so this is bogus and not an article at all, just an advertisement for a job site.

  • Experience (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xyote ( 598794 ) on Saturday July 31, 2004 @07:31AM (#9851646)
    Yes, experience counts but not the general all round jack of all trades kind of experience. It's usually pretty specific and involves new technologies which by definition very few people have experience in.

    Here in MA, that ususally means not only have you written a Linux device driver or TCP stack (everybody has done that, right?) but for a new protocol that hasn't even been finalized yet. That pretty much narrows the candidates down to the 3 or 4 companies participating in the standards process with a dozen or so people involved overall.

    I constantly amazed by the lengths companies will go to avoid actually training anybody. It must be some kind of game of coporate chicken where they burn through their window of opportunity trying to get somebody who will hit the ground running, with built in feedback making it all the more so.

    You see job ads indicating those kind of situations which keep getting reposted, which makes you wonder how insane someone would have to be to take the position that late in the cycle.

  • A lot of the Linux jobs out there (especially on Dice) are predicated on the idea that people know some of the big-name packages like Oracle and Veritas. There aren't a great many lower-level positions, at least in my region of the country. I did find a low-paying (well, for IT -- about double minimum wage) job about a month ago involving Linux. It might or might not be a steady job. 80% stuff out there is consulting/contract work, but I suppose that's not a Linux-specific problem (er, I personally see
  • ...of Linux based companies towards new employees. It seems that some employers think "I am a company that uses Linux, I am a Linux-professional and everyone else is a Linux-starter".

    I experienced this on a job-interview for a Linux job involving Red Hat and satellite internet. It went quite well and I thought I had made my point in being someone who could handle it, only to be rejected because they thought I wasn't good (at all) on the Linux side.

    If Linux-based employers want to grow, they need to shed
  • Yeah, jobs were available. Thanks slashdot. You ruined it all for me!!!

Slashdot Top Deals

"Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything." -- Russell Baker

Close