The Linux Job Market


A career in Linux technology has always been extremely rewarding for many and seems to be evergreen and recession proof. In case you are having an idea of pursuing a course in Linux, then you can be sure that the demand for Linux certified professionals will zoom up in the near future which is sufficient and stable.

The Linux job market is very hot right now, particularly for those with system administration skills. Everybody is looking for Linux talent. Recruiters are knocking down the doors of anybody with Linux experience as the demand for Linux professionals is increasing day by day. With the development in technology, Linux is the best operating system to explore.

How vastly is Linux being used?

In today’s world, if you watch closely the various mobile applications, internet websites, devices etc., you will be surprised to learn the fact that all of them use Linux-based infrastructures on the server side. The top web companies in the world like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix operate at such a large size and scale with Linux servers. As Linux is growing rapidly in the corporate arena and huge part of web content publishing business is being run on Linux, PHP, MySQL and Apache, more and more programmers are in demand. Linux runs every Android phone and tablet on Earth. You can find the same with iPhone’s or a Mac or a Windows machine.

If you take a look at the day to day applications like WhatsApp, Uber, Flipkart, Zomato, Ola etc. we can understand how many requirements must be existing for handling the Linux servers. Right from ordering food online, the smartphone you use on, the TV you watch, to call a cab, to track health parameters, to read books or to connect with friends, all use the Linux technology for its operations.

Have you ever thought with such large usage of Linux in the current market today, how many Linux professionals would be required to get to speed? Have you ever thought about how many users are being supported and from where does the data for each of them get stored, retrieved, processed? All of them need huge backend infrastructure which again uses Linux servers.

Types of Linux Jobs

The three primary areas of operation with Linux skills will be as a technical support or a developer or a system admin.

Area of OperationDesignation
Linux Workstations and DesktopTechnical Support
System, Network and Webserver AdminSystem Administration
System and Application developmentSystem Administrator

Technical Support

The job most involves performing partitioning, installations, services, and managing users, troubleshooting network, basic scripting and operating system problems.

System Administrator

You will be responsible for managing important services like user administration, creating file systems, FTP, HTTP, DNS; Cron jobs, setting up backups and other administrative tasks. Secure systems and servers, firewall management and package management. Acquiring a good expertise on Linux OS, Networks, Administration, and Troubleshooting, will yield you massive growth as a Linux Administrator/Operations Engineer/Site Reliability Engineer/DevOps Engineer. Maximum Linux system admins are working on server-oriented distributions which include Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Ubuntu.

Application and Web-Programmer

Linux programmers are responsible for developing, debugging and documenting computer programs for the Linux operating systems and related software applications. It includes writing plugins, codes in multiple languages like c++, python or any other programming languages, design databases and applications, add-ons, script in various languages and manages services.

Some other job profiles which require Linux skills are as mentioned below.

  • DevOps Engineer
  • Security Engineer
  • Java Developer
  • Network Engineer
  • Python Developer
  • C++ Developer

Linux System Administrator Pay scale

A Linux Systems Administrator earns an average salary of Rs 389,576 per year in India. However, according to your experience, the pay scales are very attractive. Skills that are associated with high pay for this job are IBM AIX, Apache Tomcat Application Server, Nginx, Shell Scripting, and Python. Looking at the current trend, companies like amazon, Cisco, EMC Corporation, Intel really have a heavy pay scale waiting for their employees in the field of Linux. Becoming a sysadmin can be a challenging, interesting and rewarding career path.

Recommended Certifications

Here are some of the recommended best Linux certifications for IT professionals working in Linux server environments. Researchers have found that these are the certifications which are highly in demand on several job portals when hiring new employees.

  • CompTIA Linux+
  • RHCE
  • RHCSA
  • RHCA

The benefits of planning to pursue a course in Linux can quite simply get you a job as the demand for Linus certified professionals are never ending.

Ten years ago, the smart way to earn more money was to learn Linux and it still remains the same. Linux is ubiquitous and it’s only becoming more and more common. Today Linux has found its way as the default operating system for cloud, Big Data and mobile, the big trends that are remolding industries.

Updated on: 21-Jan-2020

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