I’m trying to get a job in IT that will (hopefully) pay more than a usual 9 to 5. I’m been daily driving Linux exclusively for about 2 1/2 years now and I’m trying to improve my skills to the point that I could be considered a so-called “power user.” My question is this: will this increase my hiring chances significantly or marginally?
I’ve hired for junior positions on a sysadmin team and Linux as a hobby is the number 1 thing I look for. It moves your resume to the top of the stack.
Oh nice!
Yes. Yes it does.
Look for job listings that require command line Linux skill.
The candidate pool who can get around on a Linux command prompt is growing, but it’s still pretty small. It gives you some advantage toward networking, Cybersecurity, systems administration, and cloud deployment.
I interview developers and information security people all the time. I always ask lots of questions about Linux. As far as I’m concerned:
- If you’re claiming to be an infosec professional and don’t know Linux you’re a fraud.
- If you’re a developer and you don’t know how to deploy to Linux servers you’re useless.
So yeah: Get good with Linux. Especially permissions! Holy shit the amount of people I interview that don’t know basic Linux permissions (or even about file permissions in general) is unreal.
Like, dude: Have you just been
chmod 777everything all this time? WTF! Immediate red flag this guy cannot be trusted with anything.If you’re a developer and you don’t know how to deploy to Linux servers you’re useless.
Welp, found your red flag
sudo chmod 000 /- What are basic Linux permissions?
- What does
chmod 777do?
Can I ask if the reverse applies, eg is having no idea how to use non Unix like OSes (like Windows) any kind of red flag? Kinda been considering trying to go into a tech career so that I can have a 9-5 office job (I’ve until recently worked in what would be considered “blue collar” jobs, recently switched to an education job, would be nice to just sit down in an office and use computers for a living). I’ve used (GNU/)Linux from a very young age (parents had an Ubuntu laptop), as my primary OS/daily driver since I was 13, and exclusively (i.e. got rid of my Windows partition due to Windows enshittification) since I was idk maybe 16 ish? So I’m pretty comfortable doing things in Linux. But I have a reputation for being a tech person among my friends and they ask me to fix their stuff sometimes and whenever it’s a Windows problem I literally have no idea how to use the OS lol. So are Windows skills and knowledge also expected for tech jobs or just Linux/Unix-like?
Depends on the tech job. A lot of corporate IT support jobs care a lot more about troubleshooting windows because that’s what the employees use
There’s not much to learn in Windows land! Learn how to set file permissions, how the registry works (and some important settings that use it), and how Active Directory works (it’s LDAP) and you’ll be fine.
If you’re used to using Linux nothing will frustrate you more than being forced to use a Windows desktop. The stuff you use every day just isn’t there. You can add on lots of 3rd party tools to make it better but it’ll never measure up.
When you have to go out on the Internet to download endless amounts of 3rd party tools the security alarms in your head might start going off. Windows users have just learned over time to ignore them 🤣
If you’re used to using Linux nothing will frustrate you more than being forced to use a Windows desktop. The stuff you use every day just isn’t there.
Absolutely. I tried using Windows for gaming some years back when Wine wasn’t as good and it was such a struggle. I was used to thinking there’s more software for Windows since it’s more widely used, but I was shocked at both how much software I used was Linux (or POSIX-compliant) only, some of which had no Windows alternative. I remember struggling so much to just try and get some files off a LUKS-encrypted drive on Windows and was shocked that there was basically no option at the time. I also hate how Windows users just download random exes off the web for all their programs. I only ever used chocolatey to install anything for that brief Windows stint.
Learning Linux was probably the very best thing for my career.
The fact that I use Linux as my primary OS has been a positive in almost every interview I’ve been in as the interviewee. Linux has been used everywhere I’ve been, and that represents a huge amount of upskilling they can skip.
As an interviewer, I’d say that developers who use Linux generally understand their development stack better.
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It will. Keep in mind that, depending on the type of job, you’ll have to keep learning new tech just to keep up: virtualization, containers, orchestrators, automation, backups, logging, auditing, scripting and God knows what else. It’s a good starting point to get you the jobs that the Windows crowd won’t touch because of the command line.
Depends on the job, a lot of places don’t use Linux
However Linux jobs tend to pay more than the non-Linux equivalent if you can find one
Most places deploy to Linux, and for those knowing Linux helps a lot. Also a lot of places will give MacBook pro, expect you to know the CLI so a lot of Linux knowledge will be useful there.
When I got into IT, I had years of experience with Mac OS, UNIX, a bit of IRIX and VMS, BSD and even a bit of Linux.
And then I spent 10 years mostly managing a Windows shop. I still ran OpenBSD on the internal support servers, but had to support a full Microsoft stack for anything customer-facing.
What will increase your hiring chances is being adaptable and having a portfolio of success stories to reference during interviews.
To give yourself a better chance, learn things like:
- Bash scripting
- Docker
- Docker Compose
- Kubernetes
- Oauth2 and and an authorization server like Keycloak
- Build and deployment tools like Jenkins
Also learn how to deploy database and web servers manually.
It sounds like a lot but they’re things you’ll be expected to use.
Deploy database? You mean something like SQL?
Yeah, or a nosql database. The point is to know how to deploy and manage servers manually as well as using the tools to do it.
If you’re applying to work with my team. A big Yes.
Seeing a developer use Windows is a big turn off, I can clearly see all the future dev environment problems I’d need to assist them with.
And if you understand linux permissions, the architecture, bash, common tools, etc. I can envision how you will make the dev experience better for everyone and contribute to fix any deployment issues. Unlike windows, you won’t be introducing ovearching solutions to problems which can be solved with a simple bash script.
Depends on the job!
Linux opens up a lot of possible job openings
- don’t call yourself “power user”
It might just be me but it gives off “I can set up a printer, yay!” vibes.
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Even a simple “I know how to setup a network-wide ad blocker on docker by using my own image” can get you far, so yep.
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I’m in data engineering and that market is dominated by Microsoft. Understanding an os is essential if you’re, say, a sysadmin.
I’d recommend looking into some certifications. Some businesses are very sensitive to those.
