On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Jason Hsu, Linux user < jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> wrote: > What types of jobs/careers involve using Linux? I'd like to hear from > those of you who use Linux on the job, whether Linux is your main job/career > or just one aspect of your job/career. > > Although I am currently seeking an embedded engineering position (working > with microcontrollers), I have also thought of turning Linux into a career > as well. An embedded engineering position at a workplace that uses Linux > would be a good way to combine the two. > Hi Jason, There are a lot of ways to "use Linux on the job" or be involved with Linux in an every day way. It really depends on what you like to do. Here are a few angles: But generally Linux oriented jobs can fall into two broad categories. Product development and support, and system administration/IT. If you think "I love Linux and I love embedded programming environments and I do that I'll be happy because I'm working on embedded Linux...." think again. Working with Linux will be, at best, 50% of what you love about your job. The things that make a job fun are: AAA (most important) ) Do I have a good manager? a) What are my hours? b) Do I have enough time to actually have a life? c) How well am I paid? d) Am I growing professionally? e) Is the culture at my place of employment positive? If you happen to find yourself doing any sort of product development, you will inevitably come up against a wall. That wall is the date manufacturing is supposed to start. And never, in 14 years in industry, have I seen a software/hardware project coast to completion "on time, on budget". (The best laid plans of mice and men...). What this translate into is a push to the finish line, and that push can last months, and those weeks can climb over 70 hours easily. And if you're on the critical path, you will likely not have a choice about those (especially if you're salaried, which you probably will be in a position like that.) So a question to ask yourself is: "Do I want to be on the critical path?" (It's not so bad if you're young and single. Just be careful not to wake up 10 years later and realize you're still single.) Also ask yourself "What's my next step?" If you don't know, that's bad. I personally was on both sides of the equation. Product Development/Critical Path, and system administration and mostly non-critical path work. Once I crossed over to the IT side of the world, I really had no desire to go back to product development and getting crushed by those sorts of deadlines and pushes. I like a steady 40-hour week that let's me plan things like familiy time and a social life. Anyway, good luck to you. I hope whatever you do makes you happy. -Rob -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20100205/ff48d862/attachment.htm