Review• Please turn in your homework and practicals• The GUI

Today• Linux in Corporate America• Interviews• Picking a job• AM(A)A• Testing

Quick Note• I did not get you current grades and missing

assignments• Therefore, you may turn in late work all the

way up to next Monday

• However, this also means how much additional work I get will directly correlate to when I’m able to submit grades after the course

Linux is Getting Bigger• Amazon uses RHEL• LAMP stacks power the web– ESPN (Disney), Amazon, Carnival, Germany,

Google • “The Cloud” is Openstack – usually Ubuntu– Rackspace, HP, eBay, Google

• HPC – High Performance Computing– Supercomputers

• Apple, Android, iOS, RaspberryPi, embedded

All Linux

• They’re just Linux boxes with packages installed

• OpenStack? Just an application (or collection of five applications)

• Supercomputers? Just a RHEL box with “Beowulf” application (or another)

• All have config files, all need basic services and actions we’ve gone over

Troubleshooting

• It’s just a matter of figuring out how many dependencies and packages run at the same time

• ESPN – Java (and JVM), tuning, memory mgmt., and config files– Seriously, the guy was mad I didn’t know how to

tune a JVM• Don’t be intimidated with buzzwords, they just

sit on a Linux system and do stuff

What Do You Want To Do?

• Search Craigslist to get an idea of what types of jobs are out there

• Seattle.craigslist.org– internet engineers – game & web developers– software/ qa / dba – classic programming– systems / network – Microsoft & Linux admins– technical support – remote and phone support– web / info design – web developers

Anatomy of a Job Posting

• Corporate fluff (we’re exciting!)• Responsibilities– Try to match these, or have equivalencies

• Desired Qualifications– Get roughly close (ish)

• Most jobs are written to the ‘ideal’ candidate - not the one they expect to end up with

Red Flags• IT/Network Administrator (Marysville, WA) • compensation: DOE• Fast growing Footwear Company in Marysville, WA

Position: Full time

Requirements: 4 yr degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or a related field 3+yrs and experience in systems management w/server 2003, Server 2010 and sbs2008.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to. EDI setup and maintenanceSystem software support Website maintenance Server and PC hardware and software maintenance and installationMaintain Network TCP/IP (DHCP, DNS)Facebook posting and management.

Desirable Skills: Strong customer service orientation; Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communications skills; Strong problem solving/analytic skills; Good organizational and time management skills with a commitment to success; Ability to work effectively both within a team and individually; Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

• do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers

Every IT person thinks they're a Jack of all trades, it's just how you define trades. In our case we define it very broadly...hardware, software, phones, internet, printers, managing the website and it's content, point-of-sale servers and printers in the [sales locations], a little data entry and puling records into the DB, lots of reports from the server, growing the database, extending the use of the DB, lots and lots of e-blasts.

We are looking for a high energy person, a curious person, a resourceful person, a flexible person. You run the show, alone. If any of the offices or 11 [sales locations] need help you need to help NOW.

We'll work your behind off yet this is not a $50+k position. If you need that kind of money, PLEASE don't apply, as that'll waste a lot fo time. You will not convince us.

The [sales location] Nation is always on the lookout for hardcore unemployables. We hire revolutionaries who posses and unwillingness to follow the status quo. [The sales area] is a Revolution. We go to the front of the fight and stay there. We require humor, speed, creativity, dedication, and thick skin. Did we say speed? Did we say thick sin? Expect mischief, mayhem and chaos. Only those who are aggressive survive.

Are you [Sales location]?[SLs] work hard [SLs] take risks.[SLs] are willing to shun titles and personal financial success in the pursuit of the greater good[SLs] pursue the long shot[SLs] have respect for diversity[SLs] are never satisfied to rest on past laurels[SLs] ignore the accepted patterns and blaze their own trails[SLs] have raw talent and focus on that talent[SLs] are honest with themselves and others[SLs] are rebels[SLs] have one foot in reality to let them get the job done, but they are, nonetheless, led by their dreams

We do not plan, budget, forecast, or waste time on getting bigger. We only wish to get better.You will be interviewed by a decision maker. Ties are not recommended for the interview, nor slacks or jackets, all of which are banned by our dress code -- or would be if we had one.

The following are banned words: great, excited, end-of-day, execute, throw down, great question, may I say something, may I ask a question, devil's advocate, on one hand, in the long term, depends, synergy, build brand awareness, dude, Oh my god, spaced it, 24/7, close the loop, working on, ball in my court, on my radar, proactive, dear, reach out, same page, brain storming, in progress, behind the eight-ball, and others.

Do not be offended if you do not get a form letter in response to your application. If we received it, it will be read and given consideration. We have no HR department so may not have the answers you think we should have as a business. That's because we are not, we are a revolution.

Details and Qualifications

• 1) Company should not be sketchy• 2) Experience should be solid systems,

versions, tools, applications– TCP/DNS/HTTP is NOT a solid system/version/etc…

• 3) Qualifications should be realistic– An “analyst” or $30k job will not be master of 20

different apps and have been in the business 10 years

In An Interview

• VP of HR for Microsoft– 1) Ask informed questions– 2) Take notes– 3) Expect it to take all day w/multiple individual– 4) Business casual dress (button-up, jeans/khakis)– 5) Expect a Google/social media search• If you have LinkedIn, keep it updated

– 6) Follow-up

My 2c

• I have not been qualified for any of the jobs I have applied for– If you match 75%, try it

• Enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject helps– I could speak well to security, was keeping up in it

• Make sure you like it!

I Am A

• Security Engineer for Hewlett-Packard’s Cloud• I have worked in IT for trading, health care, &

consulting, and also held non-IT roles in NFP, event planning, food services, machining, and auto-repair

• I went to community college and transferred twice

• Ask me (Almost) Anything– Day-to-day, interviewing, skills, negotiating salary,

resume building, coverletters, etc…

Test Taking

• Final is ~45 questions (or a bit less)• 2 versions (actually 3, but the 3rd is too hard)• 2 hours, same as others– Open book/open note– No collaboration

• Comprehensive– Expect “what is a kernel”, intro commands, vi,

redirection, processes, directory structure, regexs– And more

My “Cheatsheet”

• I would start with a clean sheet of paper• command <flag> <argument> in the middle• Splits out – one column where order doesn’t

matter, on column where it did• I would study using manpages (and manpages

on Google)– How do determine command usage– How do know what a flag does, or find a flag

Fill in the blank (Space)

• I would have a picture of the Linux directory structure, as well as building paths, and absolute vs relative paths– Like the “Tom” diagram I like– Including the full path of the “well known” files

I’ve used (log and config)• I would have redirection and examples next• Processes/jobs/top/ps overview

Finishing Up

• Could go into quick overview/examples of subjects

• Anything else obscure I’ve mentioned that’s important

• I’d have the regex and vi cheatsheets immediately after

• I’d have all practicals/hw in a pile off to the side (again, not too much time to flip through for every question)

Test Taking

• Read the page you’re on• Some teachers say read the whole test (and

the last question or one at the bottom of the page will say, “if you turn this in without any marks you get 100%”)– I think that’s cruel, most brains don’t work like

that (mine certainly doesn’t)• Mark the hard ones (or mark the easy ones,

whichever works best for you)

And Get Down To It

• Do the easy ones• Read the hard ones• Then go to the next page and repeat the last

slide• Come back to the hard ones at the end, but let

your brain have time to process it• Sometimes you’ll see helpful stuff in other

questions

My Tips

• Watch your time• Halfway through your “easy” questions should be

almost done• Approach the hard questions “programmatically” – the

same way every time• 1) find the question• 2) identify what it’s asking for • 3) put something down• 4) modify as needed• 5) best guess and move on

Finally

• 1) find the question– I do introduce a new topic, and give an overview,

however the fix is something we’ve worked with• 2) identify what it’s asking for – Don’t give a path when I ask for a command

• 3) put something down– Leaving it blank is a 0, putting down

“sed –n ‘/ /p’ /etc/hosts is ½ (if the question calls for sed and /etc/hosts)

Review Wednesday

• If nobody has questions I’ll just start at the top of the review sheet and go down