Linux Systems Engineer looking for my next role:
Posted by moderatenerd@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 16 comments
Hi All,
I am a linux engineer with currently 3 years of professional experience as a linux engineer at a small software company. The linux support side deals with client implementations, bug fixes, and a lot of customer hand holding and teaching people how to use linux in the first place. It's a glorified application support role and the hour long meetings teaching people how to use the software I'm not terribly excited about in the first place is getting to me mentally. I do work from home and it's the best job I've had since I started my career 12 years ago, but I don't want to get left behind. The team is silo'd, has no dev culture and you can't get promoted internally. Most people here have had families and have worked together for decades are content to stay where they are until they retire.
I have 12 years of overall professional IT experience and over 20 years of self learning experience. This has ranged from deep engagement with online communities and preservation to building scalable media applications for fun. I am trying to navigate to a zero or mostly zero client interaction job and just have a team that would like my help in building applications, or working on automating internal tools inside a larger company.
I enjoy building applications in react, python, and docker. I have an active github and am actively searching/learning/building. What should my next move be?
I am guess an internal linux admin at a larger org that would get me involved with k8s some professional CI/CD and devops stuff. More hands on cloud (which I have very little exp in).
SRE - seems like this is a step above linux admin that may require k8s knowledge and professional software dev experience.
Search for a junior level software dev job or be willing to take a paycut.
If you were in my shoes or made this transition please share any stories or tips you may have for me. Any help would be appreciated.
jacob242342@reddit
Sounds like you're ready for the next level! You don’t need to be a pro dev, but with scripting and automation skills helps a lot!
s1lv3rbug@reddit
Market is not good. So, do not leave your position. Create a plan and work on it. If you wanna go k8s way, then u need to learn DevOps concepts and get certified. You will definitely need to get more than one.
beheadedstraw@reddit
This sounds more like you're looking for a DevOps role than a Linux Engineer honestly.
moderatenerd@reddit (OP)
Yup I wouldn't mind devops but it seems like companies want devops people who have come from the development side way more than the IT side.
Dependent_Mission467@reddit
I thought the same thing at first. I got started in the DevOps field sort of by accident imo. I was responsible for a doing a lot of DevOpsy tasks at my previous role but had the title of Systems Engineer as a “catch all”. When I went into the job market I was super nervous for DevOps interviews. I knew I had marketable skills and was willing to learn more as I went. I also knew I could interview decently, but still, really Nervous. Ended up finding out a lot of my interviews for DevOps positions weren’t super leet code heavy. A good amount didn’t ask that stuff at all. They were concerned with conceptual stuff and my thought processes. What tool/tech I would use, how I would set it up, a good amount of terraform convos, and gave a lot of examples of automation and how I have used it in the workplace. Pretty heavy on K8s and gitops though so I would spend some time looking at that if you have not. Plenty of free online resources.
That’s not to say things like python(could be any language essentially) knowledge isn’t important (scripting is a big part the job) but I found myself talking about my k8s cluster running on my home lab and any cool things I’ve done with automation more then any exact coding questions. As I said earlier I did have a good amount of conversations around terraform but the job roles were pretty heavy in that. Understanding a good IAC platform came kind of natural to me in my previous role but super easy to learn as well.
I will say understanding things like how to interact with different systems programmatically and application structures was/has been beneficial but I was not an developer before I got my current mid level DevOps role. Just kind immersed myself and landed alright.
Sorry if this isn’t applicable but this was my experience.
tcpWalker@reddit
Forget what companies want and focus on what skill set you have and what jobs you can do well. If you can code and know linux you'd be nuts not to read the google SRE book, learn to leetcode half-decently and practice some interview and soft skill interview skills, and apply for job from big tech to downmarket that pay quite well. Sure, learn some docker and k8s too. Not that hard.
moderatenerd@reddit (OP)
Thanks. I'm slowly grinding leetcode while building my app ideas and setup a better enterprise grade homelab.
I turned down interview offers from both Comcast and AWS because I knew I wasn't ready for the leetcode yet. But I think I can get there in six months.
t0lkim@reddit
Here’s the Google SRE book @tcpWalker mentioned: https://sre.google/sre-book/table-of-contents/
moderatenerd@reddit (OP)
Thanks, gave it a quick glance I think I am comfortable in a lot of that material already, just gotta perfect it in interviews it seems.
itsgreater9000@reddit
I can tell you from my experience that most devops people I have worked with come from an IT background, but self-taught sysadmin stuff/devops stuff.
very-imp_person@reddit
for job seekers such as you, this is most confusing, cuz tools like kubernetes, docker and other open source tools are natively built for linux in mind and not any other os, but still companies demand development experience, but since you yourself said you have some informal dev exp with react and stuff. What i have seen is people from IT have an advantage over dev people to get a devops job, cuz dev people need to be taught these tools from scratch but companies are still demanding the other way around is insane and employee abuse imo.
Awkward_Reason_3640@reddit
you're clearly skilled and motivated. your background in Linux, Python, and Docker gives you a great foundation for DevOps or SRE. keep building and applying, you're on the right path :)
Juju8901@reddit
You should apply to red hat. You seem like a self starter, who has tons of experience. I transitioned from Linux engineer to red hat associate as well!
moderatenerd@reddit (OP)
Do you work for red hat? I just saw a position I might like there too, so might be a good idea.
Juju8901@reddit
Yeah I'm a senior consultant for the North American public sector. If you have questions or anything feel free to dm me
moderatenerd@reddit (OP)
Thanks Dm'd!