Hi Shane, 

On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 08:40:30PM -0600, Shayne Patton wrote:
> OK, my first real question.  How many of you all have jobs where you 
> work w/ Linux/OSS/gnu.  

I've worked for a number of years as a software developer for Linux but
now I work for a media company setting up conferences that tend to
revolve around Linux/OSS.

> Out of the people that do, do you think having a 
> linux cert or 2 is helpful in finding a job working w/ Linux?

Good question. I'm not all that big of a fan of certification in
general. My job brings me in contact with a lot of people who are in the
Linux/OSS community (we publish Linux Magazine, I set the technical
program for ClusterWorld, PHPCon, Datacenter Computing, &c.) and I can't
think of anyone off the top of my head that is Linux or software
development certified. I sometimes run across someone certified in
Cisco but it's mainly used for educational purposes.

Back when I worked in MS shops you couldn't swing a mouse without
smacking an MSCE or Java cert. I think it's much more valuable to work
on projects that will get you noticed. If you know the interviewer has
used your project and you can say "Yeah, I wrote that," I think that
says tons more than having taken a test. 

What type of certification would you be looking at? RedHat Linux? IEEE
Software Development?

> 2nd real question.  I really would like to get involved with a volunteer 
> project or something where I can get actual "real-world" practice rather 
> than just setting stuff up on my LAN in the basement.  Does anyone know 
> of any projects around the metro where I could actually help with a 
> Linux/OSS project?

Why local? When I was publishing PyZine -- which helped me get my
current job -- I was in Los Angeles and my editor was in Texas. I've
never actually been to the office of the company that I work for. If you
can't find something local find something you want to work on and ping
the developers. Nine times out of ten they gladly welcome another set of
eyes to hunt bugs.

- Bryan