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Companies are still hiring savvy Linux and open source staffers:
There might be lots of news stories about job losses in tech right now but research suggests there are still plenty of openings in open source and Linux to go around.
As Hillary Carter, SVP of research and communications at the Linux Foundation, said in her keynote speech at Open Source Summit North America in Vancouver, Canada: "In spite of what the headlines are saying, the facts are 57% of organizations are adding workers this year."
[...] Other research also points to brighter signs in tech employment trends. CompTIA's recent analysis of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data suggests the tech unemployment rate climbed by just 2.3% in April. In fact, more organizations plan to increase their technical staff levels rather than decrease.
The demand for skilled tech talent remains strong, particularly in fast-developing areas, such as cloud and containers, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.
So, what do these all areas of technology have in common? The answer is they're all heavily dependent on open source and Linux technologies.
[...] In their search for the right people, many companies are also looking to certification and pre-employment testing to verify candidate skills. So, while you might think certifications are pointless, research suggests 80% of HR professionals rely on certifications to make hiring decisions.
Looking further ahead, it appears that taking specific technical classes and getting certified is a really smart move to help you land your next tech job. Interestingly, a college degree is no longer seen as such a huge benefit. Businesses responding to the Linux Foundation's research felt upskilling (91%) and certifications (77%) are more important than a university education (58%) when it comes to addressing technology needs.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 17, @02:31AM
I don't know what companies these folks are talking to, but all the mid-to-large companies I've ever worked for did indeed hire or at least offer a job to a few new folks right out of college, usually people who had interned there the year beforehand so they had a pretty good idea what they would be getting. And I'm sure they ruthlessly exploit them, just like I was pretty ruthlessly exploited at my first "real" tech job at a tiny company.
But the simple fact is that to be really good, you need both the theory, and the practice. The theory tells you what you're aiming for. The practice tells you how to get there. And the experience tells you what things have been tried and don't work when it comes to both of those things.
I've never put much stock in private certifications. That's because the main purpose of those certifications is to encourage the employers of people with those certifications to use the toolset the certification trains on, e.g. someone certified in AWS is more likely to suggest using AWS for stuff, whether or not it matches what the employer actually needs.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.