VACANCY: Linux Systems Administrator

[Ege Turgay]

Job Title: Linux Systems Administrator
Location: Uxbridge, UB8 2JP
Salary: £20-40k per annum depending on experience
Company:Maglabs Limited
URL: http://www.maglabs.net

Please apply by EMAIL ONLY by sending an email to jobs at maglabs dot
net. Please, NO agencies.

We are looking for Linux Systems Administrators to expand our team. This
will involve Junior/Mid/Senior roles as we may hire multiple people.

You will be a part of a team responsible for maintaining the linux
servers for bluechip and corporate clients.
Holding an RHCE certificate would be a preference but not a must as long
as you get the fundamentals right.

40 Hours per week, 25 days holiday per annum with flexible working hours
(participation in an out of hours coverage schedule and on call
rotations).
You will be eligible for an Employee Profit Share Scheme.

Required Skills:

- Strong knowledge of CentOS/RHEL Linux Distributions (or similar
distributions)
- XEN/KVM Virtualisation
- Web Hosting services (BIND, Apache, Postfix, MySQL)
- Systems / Network Services (LVM,XFS,SE Linux,NFS, Samba, OpenVPN)
- System Monitoring (Nagios, Cacti, SNMP, MRTG)
- System Management (Spacewalk, RHN Satellite)
- Security (FreeBSD PF, Linux Iptables)
- Network Administration and Analyzing, Network Sniffers (Wireshark)
- Scripting Languages: Bash, PHP, SQL
- Comfortable with compiling open source software, kernel and packaging
RPM packages.
- Knowledge of Linux/UNIX scripting and automation.
- Familiarity with Ethernet networks (including switch and router
configuration)
- Some experience of using and administering Windows.

[James Roberts]

Post by Ege Turgay
Job Title: Linux Systems Administrator

<snip>

Post by Ege Turgay
40 Hours per week, 25 days holiday per annum with flexible working hours
(participation in an out of hours coverage schedule and on call rotations).
You will be eligible for an Employee Profit Share Scheme.

I am not picking on this advert in particular, and have seen this in
other job offerings here - but I am puzzled by this. To the best of my
knowledge this is not a permissible holiday offering: DirectGov (for
example) gives:

"you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave - 28 days
for someone working five days a week (capped at a statutory maximum of
28 days for all working patterns)"

Does someone know something about this that I don't? Are such offers
including or excluding Bank Holidays?

MeJ
--
Stabilys Ltd www.stabilys.com
244 Kilburn Lane
LONDON
W10 4BA

0845 838 5370
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Nix]

Post by James Roberts

Post by Ege Turgay
Job Title: Linux Systems Administrator
40 Hours per week, 25 days holiday per annum with flexible working hours
(participation in an out of hours coverage schedule and on call rotations).
You will be eligible for an Employee Profit Share Scheme.

I am not picking on this advert in particular, and have seen this in
other job offerings here - but I am puzzled by this. To the best of my
knowledge this is not a permissible holiday offering: DirectGov (for
"you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave - 28
days for someone working five days a week (capped at a statutory
maximum of 28 days for all working patterns)"
Does someone know something about this that I don't? Are such offers
including or excluding Bank Holidays?

Almost certainly the latter. I hvae a similar contract, 20 days plus
bank holidays plus benefits -- last year, they boosted that by one day,
because the number of bank holidays had gone up by one.

[Robert .]

I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols. Add the
B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets more complex
when the company is American based even if they have offices here in the UK.

This job would probably be ideal for someone like me as I'm lacking
experience and therefore knowledge in Linux, but I've all but given up on
applying for Linux jobs. these days I'm just trying expand experience at
home, and trying to find some FOSS/education place I can volunteer or
something.

Shame, I currently work in Uxbridge for my sins.

Post by Ege Turgay

Post by James Roberts

Post by Ege Turgay
Job Title: Linux Systems Administrator
40 Hours per week, 25 days holiday per annum with flexible working hours
(participation in an out of hours coverage schedule and on call

rotations).

Post by James Roberts

Post by Ege Turgay
You will be eligible for an Employee Profit Share Scheme.

I am not picking on this advert in particular, and have seen this in
other job offerings here - but I am puzzled by this. To the best of my
knowledge this is not a permissible holiday offering: DirectGov (for
"you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave - 28
days for someone working five days a week (capped at a statutory
maximum of 28 days for all working patterns)"
Does someone know something about this that I don't? Are such offers
including or excluding Bank Holidays?

Almost certainly the latter. I hvae a similar contract, 20 days plus
bank holidays plus benefits -- last year, they boosted that by one day,
because the number of bank holidays had gone up by one.
--
NULL && (void)
--
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Jason Clifford]

Post by Robert .
I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols.
Add the B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets
more complex when the company is American based even if they have
offices here in the UK.

No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Nix]

Post by Jason Clifford

Post by Robert .
I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols.
Add the B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets
more complex when the company is American based even if they have
offices here in the UK.

No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

It gets more complex *for the company*, but multinationals already have
to operate under multiple legal codes so presumably have all the
necessary procedural machinery set up for that sort of thing.

[Christopher Hunter]

Post by Jason Clifford

Post by Robert .
I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols.
Add the B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets
more complex when the company is American based even if they have
offices here in the UK.

No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

The Americans seem to believe that their Laws apply to everyone,
throughout the world! I've just had some clown in the USA try to
prosecute me under their silly DMCA!! I'm still getting daily
nastygrams from his clueless lawyer (I hope it's costing him a fortune!)

Chris



--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Alain Williams]

Post by Christopher Hunter
The Americans seem to believe that their Laws apply to everyone,
throughout the world! I've just had some clown in the USA try to
prosecute me under their silly DMCA!! I'm still getting daily
nastygrams from his clueless lawyer (I hope it's costing him a fortune!)

Will you share the details with us ? I would be interested in case I end up
(somehow/somewhen) being on the receiving end of such a thing.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about how the USA seems to be extraditing
UK subjects for things are are felonies/crimes in the USA but legal here.

[JLMS]

Post by Christopher Hunter

Post by Jason Clifford

Post by Robert .
I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols.
Add the B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets
more complex when the company is American based even if they have
offices here in the UK.

No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

The Americans seem to believe that their Laws apply to everyone,
throughout the world!  I've just had some clown in the USA try to
prosecute me under their silly DMCA!!  I'm still getting daily
nastygrams from his clueless lawyer (I hope it's costing him a fortune!)
Chris

I would be extremely careful. The US is exercising the unfair
extradition treaty with the UK to its fullest extent, I am sure those
clueless lawyers are fully aware of this.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Post by JLMS

Post by Christopher Hunter

Post by Jason Clifford

Post by Robert .
I am currently employed by a company that only offers 20 days hols.
Add the B/H to that and you have 28 days. But also I believe it gets
more complex when the company is American based even if they have
offices here in the UK.

No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

The Americans seem to believe that their Laws apply to everyone,
throughout the world!  I've just had some clown in the USA try to
prosecute me under their silly DMCA!!  I'm still getting daily
nastygrams from his clueless lawyer (I hope it's costing him a fortune!)
Chris

I would be extremely careful. The US is exercising the unfair
extradition treaty with the UK to its fullest extent, I am sure those
clueless lawyers are fully aware of this.

I do not know the details of the case, but I think that if you have a
web site, and its sole purpose is to make copyright violations easier,
you are asking for trouble.
In my view it is a shame that sites like megaupload have gone the same
way, because that was very useful when doing android development. Not
any copyright violation involved at all with Android development, but
it died because the site also had copyright content.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Robert .]

Post by James Courtier-Dutton
I do not know the details of the case, but I think that if you have a
web site, and its sole purpose is to make copyright violations easier,
you are asking for trouble.
In my view it is a shame that sites like megaupload have gone the same
way, because that was very useful when doing android development. Not
any copyright violation involved at all with Android development, but
it died because the site also had copyright content.
--

Would you not use GitHub or similar for something like that?
I think that legit users can always find alternatives and so won't feel the
problems so much.
I do also feel that the problem with people sharing what they have on their
computers is being viewed from the wrong angle, where would the world be if
we didn't share?.
If software companies have problems with losing money due to sharing then
it's up to them to develop ways to restrict that loss. A CDkey has never
worked, companies developing something new and innovative might be a more
realistic use if resource rather than hunting down individuals.

[Dimitrios Siganos]

Post by Jason Clifford
No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

You obviously haven't been reading the news lately:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16544335

It would seem obvious that a Briton could/should not possibly have to
worry about breaking US laws while operating in Britain. Alas, that
doesn't seem to be case.

Obviously, you are talking about employment law. And in that case, you
are right that US employment law doesn't apply here. But I thought you
might find it interesting that there are cases when US law does apply in
Britain. It seems to apply whenever you undermine Hollywood's "God given
right" to "print money" unchallenged.

--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Chris Vine]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:46:47 +0000

Post by Dimitrios Siganos

Post by Jason Clifford
No it doesn't. The law is no different for foreign companies. All
employment within the UK is subject to UK (and EU) law not US law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16544335
It would seem obvious that a Briton could/should not possibly have to
worry about breaking US laws while operating in Britain. Alas, that
doesn't seem to be case.

As it happens, if there really was a conspiracy to infringe copyright,
then that is an offence here in the UK as well as in the US, albeit one
that the police here probably don't spend as much time worrying about.

But there are many grey areas and oddities in relation to extradition
from the UK, because a lot of it depends upon individual treaties
negotiated between different states, and many do not necessarily
require the conduct complained about, if it were to have been done
in the UK, to be an offence in the country of residence (England and
Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) of an accused UK subject as well
as in the requesting country.

As an aside, note also that within the UK there are three separate legal
jurisdictions and the law in Scotland in particular can be different
from other parts of the UK (the law in Northern Ireland is very similar
to that in England and Wales) although an arrest warrant issued against
a UK subject for an offence committed in, say, England can be executed
throughout the UK, and civil judgements of, say, Scottish courts can be
enforced throughout the UK.

The Extradition Act 2003 provides uniform procedures for extradition,
but what comprises an extraditable offence depends on the individual
treaties. The EU has a uniform extradition framework directive to get
some uniformity on that as well.

The curious feature in the O'Dwyer case is the reach of US law in
respect of copyright infringement, which then feeds into extradition.
That reach has mainly arisen because of the internet, and the fact that
US citizens can download illegal content from servers located in other
countries. If US citizens could not download the content alleged to
have been made available by Mr O'Dwyer, very probably an offence in US
law would not arise.

Note also that because of the internet the courts of England and Wales
have excelled in exporting their law of defamation to other countries.
A google search into the Ehrenfeld case (note the spelling) is
instructive: that case led Congress to pass the SPEECH Act of 2010,
aimed at our own Mr Justice Eady.

Chris
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Ege Turgay]

Hey,

drop your CV to us then, we consider Juniors too and we are based in
Uxbridge.

Ege

Post by Robert .
Shame, I currently work in Uxbridge for my sins.

[John Hearns]

Post by Robert .
This job would probably be ideal for someone like me as I'm lacking
experience and therefore knowledge in Linux,

Well.... errr..... apply for it then?
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Robert .]

Post by John Hearns

Post by Robert .
This job would probably be ideal for someone like me as I'm lacking
experience and therefore knowledge in Linux,

Well.... errr..... apply for it then?
--
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

Great, thanks for that enlightening and supportive input, glad you made the
effort.
I've already looked into it a bit more and discovered the location isn't as
central in Uxbridge as I need since I move about on public transport these
days.

Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a
daily basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with
Linux, or did you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances at
your employeer ?

[Martin A. Brooks]

Post by Robert .
Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a
daily basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with
Linux, or did you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances at
your employeer ?

I mostly made the change of circumstances happen. My first "proper" IT
job was with a law firm who got went from a 64k ISDN line (for 500 seats)
to a whole 0.5Mb leased line. A caching proxy and NATing firewall was
needed, so I started learning out Linux and Squid.

Since then I have largely progressed self-taught. I got into the habit of
trying to solve problems that interested me but then writing HOWTOs to
share that knowledge with other people.


--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[JLMS]

Post by Robert .

Post by John Hearns

Post by Robert .
This job would probably be ideal for someone like me as I'm lacking
experience and therefore knowledge in Linux,

Well.... errr..... apply for it then?
--
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

Great, thanks for that enlightening and supportive input, glad you made the
effort.
I've already looked into it a bit more and discovered the location isn't as
central in Uxbridge as I need since I move about on public transport these
days.
Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a daily
basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with Linux, or
did you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances at your
employeer ?

To be fair, you asked for it :-)

As for how one falls in the Linux space, it used to be just by
chance, but now that it is a fully professionalized field I suppose
you would study operating systems in Uni and then move on to an entry
position in a place where Linux is prevalent.

Most companies nowadays won't take self thought people (a shame
really) and with the prevalence of certifications many are not
evening considering applicants without one.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Nix]

Post by JLMS
As for how one falls in the Linux space, it used to be just by
chance, but now that it is a fully professionalized field I suppose
you would study operating systems in Uni and then move on to an entry
position in a place where Linux is prevalent.

Well, I dunno. I studied CS in uni but the only parts that were actually
useful and I didn't alrady know were the compiler theory course and the
introduction to algorithmic complexity -- and that would have been
useful in software development anywhere, Linux or no (unless you think
that GCC hackers didn't need to know about compiler theory until
recently!)

Post by JLMS
Most companies nowadays won't take self thought people (a shame
really) and with the prevalence of certifications many are not
evening considering applicants without one.

Well, a lot of Linux distributors would like a CS degree, but if you can
demonstrate that you possess equivalent knowledge in the interview
they're generally happy to take you -- as long as you possess the
*other* knowledge they will be looking for. And most of *that* is
self-taught. You can't learn binutils hacking or PEP writing at Uni: you
learn it because you get involved with those development communities
yourself, probably (hopefully) without ever once considering 'ooh this
will look good on my CV'.

[Robert .]

Post by JLMS
As for how one falls in the Linux space, it used to be just by
chance, but now that it is a fully professionalized field I suppose
you would study operating systems in Uni and then move on to an entry
position in a place where Linux is prevalent.
Most companies nowadays won't take self thought people (a shame
really) and with the prevalence of certifications many are not
evening considering applicants without one.
--

It's a shame if it really is/goes that way. I do believe that an education
establishment is right for many fields and individuals in this world, I
wouldn't want to go see a self-taught doctor for example.
However in the world of IT when so much freely available information is
provided to users to learn in their own way, it allows people to cultivate
their own creativity and to learn from their mistakes. Their way of
thinking will possibly be very different (out of the box?) to a classroom
of 20 people studying together. Neither is right or wrong, but both deserve
respect for the time and effort put into them. Often the creative types
cannot afford formal education, would be a shame to slow down progression
because self-taught individuals are left behind

I've recently read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and although I don't totally
agree with every view he has, he covers topics such as how woman become
"accepted" in classical music which was rarely the case in the past. I took
the message as "to create opportunities by not neglecting others for their
differences".

[JLMS]

Post by Robert .

As for how one falls in the Linux space, it  used to be just by
chance, but now that it is a fully professionalized field I suppose
you would study operating systems in Uni and then move on to an entry
position in a place where Linux is prevalent.
Most companies nowadays won't take self thought people (a shame
really) and with the prevalence of  certifications many  are not
evening considering applicants without one.
--

It's a shame if it really is/goes that way. I do believe that an education
establishment is right for many fields and individuals in this world, I
wouldn't want to go see a self-taught doctor for example.
However in the world of IT when so much freely available information is
provided to users to learn in their own way, it allows people to cultivate
their own creativity and to learn from their mistakes. Their way of thinking
will possibly be very different (out of the box?) to a classroom of 20
people studying together. Neither is right or wrong, but both deserve
respect for the time and effort put into them. Often the creative types
cannot afford formal education, would be a shame to slow down progression
because self-taught individuals are left behind

I'm not arguing against self thought skills, the only thing I am
saying is that I believe they will no longer be enough to get your
foot in the door for most positions (if this is good or bad is open to
debate, the fact is that having a shiny RHCE will help you pass lots
of filters).

Post by Robert .
I've recently read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and although I don't totally
agree with every view he has, he covers topics such as how woman become
"accepted" in classical music which was rarely the case in the past. I took
the message as "to create opportunities by not neglecting others for their
differences".

If one has the time to do so fine, but it is difficult to do if one
has 50 CVs in front applying for the same position. One needs to find
shortcuts to filter the CVs and is unlikely to use "self thought" as
the main filter in such a situation.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Rob Crowther]

Post by Robert .
It's a shame if it really is/goes that way. I do believe that an
education establishment is right for many fields and individuals in this
world, I wouldn't want to go see a self-taught doctor for example.

An IT degree is useful for a grounding in underlying concepts, but for
the majority of IT jobs a willingness to continue educating yourself is
more important than the fact that you've received some education.

Rob
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[DL Neil]

Post by Rob Crowther

Post by Robert .
It's a shame if it really is/goes that way. I do believe that an
education establishment is right for many fields and individuals in this
world, I wouldn't want to go see a self-taught doctor for example.

An IT degree is useful for a grounding in underlying concepts, but for
the majority of IT jobs a willingness to continue educating yourself is
more important than the fact that you've received some education.

There's a difference between initial training and continuing education.

I would hesitate to take-on someone whose initial training relied upon
his/her own efforts. At the same time, I recognise that such an
individual has 'drive' which is likely a reason to put him/her back 'on'
the list.

The problem is that when we don't know (about) something, we do not know
what we do not know! As you (loyal reader) will be aware, I am not a
SysAdmin type. I am self-taught in Linux (albeit with an extensive
background and experience in IT, blah-blah - which for the purposes of
this point is a bit of a 'cheat'). I know (and likely most of you) that
there are great yawning holes/gaps - chasms and crevasses, in my Linux
knowledge. This is because I have only learned that which seemed
necessary in the moment - and for which I had the (spare) time. I had no
idea if ignoring certain points was valid or if such a decision would
come back to haunt me... (and periodically they do!)

So... would I hire me as a SysAdmin.
No!

There again, I used the term "experience" above. It is (also) widely
bandied-about in the work-place and on job applications. However there
are wide differences in what it means. Does "ten years" experience mean
that the person learned some new skills in each of those ten years, or
does it mean the he repeated the same skills learned in the first year
ten times (or God-forbid, ...learned in the first month, 100+ times).

Turning it all around. How many organisations offer half-way decent
training cycles and career progression/development plans? Not many! Even
the HR luvvies in those companies know this. Whether they can take the
next step in their own 'awareness' to realise that someone who has taken
the initiative and drive to do something about his/her own progress,
themselves, and in their own time - is quite another matter. Again, I
like to see 'drive', 'initiative', ...

However we still have the issue of 'Fred' applying for a job which
requires skills in (let's say) virtualisation. He lacks any work
experience, excepting standard 'bare metal' but claims to be self-taught
and running a KVM set-up on three old desktops at home.

What does this tell us about Fred?
Really tell us?
How much work do we need to expend to tell honest-Fred from CV-bloat-Fred?

I wonder if someone who has completed a recognised STRUCTURED course
(argue what this might mean) would (all other things being equal) be
better received than someone who has simply made-it-up as (s)he went
along? Hence as the OpenU, et al, don't seem to be quite as detailed in
their coverage, as we might like, we're sort of driven to the
certifications, eg RHCE, etc. Indeed, might we be looking for shorter
and possibly individual (but still 'recognised') courses rather than
multi-course certificates?

(NB earlier poster's comment about weeding through a mass of CVs still
applies!)

[Keith Edmunds]

Here's our criteria for selecting Linux support consultants. There are
three requirements:

1. You must be passionate about Linux
2. You must be a smart person who gets things done
2. You must have have excellent written and verbal communication skills

An intangible is that you must fit our existing team.

I'll write a little more about those below, but for clarity: we are
completely uninterested in academic qualifications. Linux qualifications
will support item 1 above; RHCE will give a slight edge.

Passionate about Linux: because that's what we do. If you don't believe,
it isn't going to work. If you are passionate about Linux, you will have
experience of it (not necessarily commercial).

Smart person who gets things done: because that's what we do. If you can't
get things done, it isn't going to work. You'll need to be smart because
some of the things we do are hard.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills: because that's what we
do. If you can't communicate professionally and effectively with our
clients, it isn't going to work. Most of our work is carried out remotely,
and so the impression our clients form of us will be influenced by the
communications.

So, a candidate who presents themselves eloquently, has gained some Linux
experience by setting a server up for a charity, and who asks for a chance
to prove themselves in a commercial environment stands a good chance. A
candidate with RHEL and a degree who believes that it is acceptable for the
pronoun "I" to be written "i" will probably not get an interview.

[Martin A. Brooks]

Post by Keith Edmunds
Here's our criteria for selecting

...

Post by Keith Edmunds
A candidate with RHEL and a degree who believes that it is acceptable for
the pronoun "I" to be written "i" will probably not get an interview.

So, presumably, you'll be giving yourself a stern ticking off for the
schoolboy grammar error in your first sentence :)




--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[JLMS]

Post by Martin A. Brooks

Post by Keith Edmunds
Here's our criteria for selecting

...

Post by Keith Edmunds
A candidate with RHEL and a degree who believes that it is acceptable for
the pronoun "I" to be written "i" will probably not get an interview.

So, presumably, you'll be giving yourself a stern ticking off for the
schoolboy grammar error in your first sentence :)

Well spotted.

Some people hiring in such a harsh basis should eat a bit of humble
pay once in a while, some of these people (not necessarily the grammar
lover on this thread) then moan about shortages of skilled
professionals, but some of them make hiring decisions on the most
bizarre of basis discarding perfectly capable professionals that don't
fit their very narrow view of overall competence.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Keith Edmunds]

Post by Martin A. Brooks
So, presumably, you'll be giving yourself a stern ticking off for the
schoolboy grammar error in your first sentence :)

Absolutely!

[John G Walker]

Post by Keith Edmunds

Post by Martin A. Brooks
So, presumably, you'll be giving yourself a stern ticking off for
the schoolboy grammar error in your first sentence :)

Absolutely!

Actually I don't consider it to be a grammatical error, but, rather, a
colloquialism.

But please note that the adjective from "grammar" is "grammatical", not
"grammar"!

The trouble with being pedantic about the English language is that you
run the risk of making errors yourself. On the other hand, I'd be a bit
wary of someone who used "i" in a formal document, unless they
happened to be e.e.cummings,

[Tethys]

Post by Robert .
Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a
daily basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with
Linux, or did you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances
at your employeer ?

I was already working with Unix and started using Linux at home in the
early '90s. Gradually, the companies I was working for started including
Linux in their IT strategies alongside (and later replacing) commercial
Unixen.

Tet
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Post by Tethys

Post by Robert .
Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a
daily basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with
Linux, or did you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances
at your employeer ?

I was already working with Unix and started using Linux at home in the
early '90s. Gradually, the companies I was working for started including
Linux in their IT strategies alongside (and later replacing) commercial
Unixen.

Where I work, it is less specific to "Linux" jobs but more focus being
put on "Open Source" solutions.
More customers are seeing benefits of "Open Source" solutions, and
Linux is a part of that.
So, I would say, if you are looking for a "Linux" job, try to expand
your knowledge in "Open Source" solutions out there.
Try to put some focus on it, for example, SOA (jboss, wso2 etc.) or
big data (e.g. hadoop) or OSS (Operational Support Systems) and
reliability engineering.
One person can never know enough detail in every open source product
out there, so try to focus and get to know a particular area of them
well.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[David Damerell]

Post by Robert .
Just out of interest, for those of you that do work in linux jobs on a daily
basis, did you choose, train for, and aimed for your career with Linux, or did
you find it just happened due to changes of circumstances at your employeer ?

Not that I work at anything right now, but I've always been a Unix
admin, and there's more and more Linux every year, so...

[Simon Wilcox]

Post by James Roberts
"you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave - 28
days for someone working five days a week (capped at a statutory
maximum of 28 days for all working patterns)"
Does someone know something about this that I don't? Are such offers
including or excluding Bank Holidays?

In a typical governmental sleight of hand, whilst they increased the
statutory holiday allowance to 28 days they also removed the requirement
(if indeed it was ever explicitly there) to give people bank holidays off.

Companies are also entitled, although I'm not entirely sure if it's
under statute or just via employment contract, to mandate when you take
holidays. Many companies for instance will close down between Christmas
and New Year and insist that those days be taken from your annual
entitlement.

Combine the two and you get 28 days holiday of which 8 are mandated to
be the bank holidays. So right back at square one of 20 'real' days per
year.

Employment contracts should have been updated to reflect this but of
course what should happen and what actually happens are two different
things.

Anyone advertising just 20 days holiday is being sloppy, or very honest.
It's surely much better (fsvo 'better') to advertise 28 days holiday and
only later mention that 8 of those are on mandated days.

S.
--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Jason Clifford]

Post by Simon Wilcox
In a typical governmental sleight of hand, whilst they increased the
statutory holiday allowance to 28 days they also removed the requirement
(if indeed it was ever explicitly there) to give people bank holidays off.

There has never been any entitlement to bank holidays off as extra to
the holiday entitlement of your employment in the UK. The entitlement
was previously 4 weeks (which equates to 20 days for full time
employees) including bank holidays. A couple of years ago the government
agreed to implement EU changes firstly to 24 days and then to 28 days so
that the entitlement would be 4 weeks plus bank/public holidays. These
figures are for full time employees. Part time employees are entitled
pro rata.

Post by Simon Wilcox
Companies are also entitled, although I'm not entirely sure if it's
under statute or just via employment contract, to mandate when you take
holidays. Many companies for instance will close down between Christmas
and New Year and insist that those days be taken from your annual
entitlement.

That has always been the case.

Post by Simon Wilcox
Combine the two and you get 28 days holiday of which 8 are mandated to
be the bank holidays. So right back at square one of 20 'real' days per
year.

No. Previously you could have had 12 days plus bank holidays. Now it's
20 plus. That is a net gain for most people.

Post by Simon Wilcox
Employment contracts should have been updated to reflect this but of
course what should happen and what actually happens are two different
things.

They didn't need to be. The statutory change automatically changed all
employment contracts that needed to be changed.

--
Gllug mailing list - ***@gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

[Ege Turgay]

Hey,

just to clear that up for this ad, 25 days holidays exclude the english
bank holidays.

Ege

Post by James Roberts
Does someone know something about this that I don't? Are such offers
including or excluding Bank Holidays?
MeJ