Thanks for the article Don! I wish the author would of wrote more but it's definitely nice to see Linux jobs rising.

I've seen about 3-4 articles this month about Linux jobs on the rise and how companies are saying its hard to find qualified talent.

In a general sense, what do you think a "qualified" person would have on their resume...

7+ years of experience?
certs?
degrees?

This makes me wonder if the LPIC-1 would be worthwhile to pick up.

Hmm....

I look at indeed, simply hired, and dice about every 2 or 3 days looking up "linux", "unix", "linux admin", "linux engineer".. I've seen an increase in companie asking for the RHCE and RHCSA..but mostly the RHCE. I RARELY see a company asking for the Linux+/LPIC-1...but I still think it's a quality exam. Some of the material from the Linux+ exam is also on the RHCSA exam, so that's a positive. PLUS..if you have pass the Linux +, you automaticaly get 3 other certs LPIC-1, Novell CLA, and Novell Data Center Technical Specialist (you have to register with the individual companies though). Also, if you pass the RHCE you can pass a pretty simple exam with Novell to get the Novell CLP. So for passing 3 exams, you can get 7 certs..that's pretty damn nice.

With all that being said, experience is still KING but certs will definitely help. By the time I pass the Red Hat certs I should have 1 year under my belt of Linux technical support..so I'm hoping companies see my experience along with the certs..and put me in a bracket with someone who has 3-6 years of Linux experience.

The Red Hat exams are expensive too..$400 each.

Very true lol

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but for what it's worth, I got my RHCSA for RHEL6 earlier this year.  I'd have taken the RHCE, but my company was only paying for the RHCSA.  In any case, the exam was hard but fair.  I don't know if I'd even bother with the Linux+ exam on my way to RHCSA.  And now RHCSA is required for RHCE too, so in either case you're stuck with it.

The exam is 100% hands on, which means that you have to know your stuff (I passed with a 100% score, so I've got it covered).  I'm obviously bound by NDA, but I'll say that if you are planning to take the exam, you need to prepare by learning what is and isn't in the man pages on a default RHEL6 build.  Memorize what isn't and know where to find everything else.  Also, knowing how to get a broken system to the point where you can actually use a man page is probably a good idea....