We've previously mentioned Eric Hameleers AKA alienbob AKA Alien BOB and his run-Slackware-from-removable-media project. He even created an account here to comment on our story about that. (His sole activity here, so far.)
He now blogs
I am being laid off by my employer, IBM. Jobs in the Netherlands move to lower-wage countries like Poland and India, while IBM changes course towards a "cognitive" future in which there is less interest in the traditionally skilled technical IT jobs.
Unparalleled (because forced) job cuts in the Netherlands are the result of that change of focus. Almost 10% of the IBMNL work force is sent away in a "re-balancing" operation and I am out of a job per November 1st.
[...] As long as I still work for IBM (seven weeks), I have access to Safari Books Online where I can freely access and use the available course materials which prepare for the RHCE exam. This will of course affect the time I can spend on Slackware. I commonly spend nearly every after-work hour on packaging, scripting, and assisting people online and via email. That stops now.
[...] I also cannot promise that--when I have found a new job--that I will be able to provide the levels of support that you may have gotten used to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:42PM
What job did he do for IBM? For years, I have seen these vague "IT" jobs and "IT workers" in these worker purges, but no one ever says specifically what these people actually do. I'm curious about what work is being devalued so greatly that companies like IBM, HP, and so on basically purge their workforces of them, but I never really see anything specific about what the people do. The blog says "I managed a global helpdesk" - is that what he was doing for IBM? There's a huge shift in workforces going on, and I've been trying to pin down for years just who is being purged.
I do not know what a RHCE is. Why does he want one? Surely maintaining a Linux distro gives him bona fides? I don't know anything about slackware, and I don't know Alien Bob from Silent Bob or even Sideshow Bob or Alienware. But with Linux people in such demand, someone like him should be snapped up, right?
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by migz on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:58PM
It will be like Nokia 2.0 the PHB's cut some costs, and a couple of years later, wonder what happened to the company.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @08:25PM
I do not know what a RHCE is.
Red Hat Certified Engineer [redhat.com].
It's one of the 3 groups of computer certifications which mean something. There is RHCE (Linux system administrators), Cisco Certified (network engineers), and Microsoft Certification (Microsoft System Administrators, valuable because "reasons"... it makes sense if you consider who and what Microsoft targets).
There are two reasons why getting one would be useful. The first is that it is a checkbox to tick to get past HR or whomever. Also, a RHCE I trust (who is a very good system administrator) say that the process is legitimate and having it proves you have some real skills. Second, just because you maintain a Linux distribution doesn't mean you are qualified to do certain work involving Linux. Maybe he is just a good manager, or fundraiser, or something else. Having RHCE will prove to those less in-the-know (which is a lot more than you would think) that he is at least worth talking to.