How to Land the Best Linux Job

What are the best Linux jobs and how do you get one? I think a lot of people would agree that Linus Torvalds has a pretty good Linux job, but that’s just one position and not one I think he wants to give up any time soon.

If you’re considering a career in Linux and/or increasing your knowledge of Linux in particular areas, there are certainly some areas that are hotter than others right now. We informally surveyed our online community, reviewed job postings on Linux.com and Dice.com, and have talked to a variety of our corporate members about the best Linux jobs and the skills needed to land them. As a result, here are the top three hottest Linux jobs right now and how you can begin working on landing one of them.

1) Linux kernel developer

This remains one of the hottest jobs in Linux. If you can learn how to collaborate and work with the Linux kernel team any number of companies will pay a high price for your talent. A variety of experts have given us some great advice in the past about what to do to become a Linux kernel developer and how to particpate in the community. The bottom line is be visible: write code and participate in the community. Linus Torvalds’ offered some advice, too, in our new series 30 Linux Developers in 30 Weeks. He says, “Start small…Don’t try to revolutionize some core kernel code – try to find some really small nagging concern, and fix that one thing. Maybe a driver for hardware that you have access to that doesn’t work as well as it should, things like that. It takes a while to learn the ropes, and it really helps if people can see that you’ve done other things before you start sending more involved patches.”

If you’re still unsure about how to get started on this path, check out The Linux Foundation’s Linux developer training courses and free Linux training webinars direct from the source (Linux kernel developers).

2) Embedded Linux developer

Mobile and embedded Linux developers are in high demand due to the increasingly dominant role that Linux is playing here. The demand for this talent has been on the rise for a few years now, but it’s skyrocketing in 2012. Just take a look at the Linux.com Jobs Board and you can see a high percentage of the postings are in this area. The most comprehensive resource I’ve seen on how to get your sea legs in this area is 10 Ways to Get Started in Embedded Linux Development. It covers where to start no matter where you’re at in your career. Also of use is this Linux training opportunity: Embedded Linux Development.

3) DevOps managers

We’re told that Linux professionals make the best DevOps managers. The combination of developer and systems administration skills is not always easy to find, but a lot of Linux professionals possess this mix due to work inherent in Linux. With cloud computing and big data getting bigger all the time, this looks to be a smart career path. The Linux Foundation just announced new enterprise Linux training coureses to help address the need for these skills. Courses include Cloud Architecture and Deployment, Adanced Linux Performance Tuning, Linux Security, and more. And, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention the opportunity to collaborate with others at this year’s debut event CloudOpen. This is a huge opportunity to build your network in this area, as well as attend technical sessions on cloud and DevOps. And, there will be a variety of companies there that are hiring.

To learn more about Linux training opportunities from The Linux Foundation, take a quick look at this video. It has some useful information.