Junior Linux Job Interview Query

Kiith

This may be better suited to Work & Jobs forum, but i figured i'd check with you guys first. So i have an interview for a junior linux position in a data center near where i live, and i was wondering a few things.

1. While they said that we wouldnt need much experience in linux (i have some from a few years back), as its a junior position and we would get whatever training we would need, i was just wondering if anyone could give me a general idea of the kind of questions that i might get asked for a junior position in a data center. This may be a way to broad question, but maybe just a few pointers?

2. While i doubt i will get the job tomorrow, i would like to start studying Linux. Is there a recommended starting point? I was thinking the LPIC-1 to start out, then 2 and 3 eventually. Also, is there a particular OS that i should start using, or does the OS matter too much? Any other recomendations?

Blowfish

1. While they said that we wouldnt need much experience in linux (i have some from a few years back), as its a junior position and we would get whatever training we would need, i was just wondering if anyone could give me a general idea of the kind of questions that i might get asked for a junior position in a data center. This may be a way to broad question, but maybe just a few pointers?

I'd presume they'd expect you to know basic commands etc. As you don't have long until the actual interview, it wouldn't hurt to flick through the few free videos here as you'll at least get a refresher. They have some free RHCE ones too if you want a bit more.

2. While i doubt i will get the job tomorrow, i would like to start studying Linux. Is there a recommended starting point? I was thinking the LPIC-1 to start out, then 2 and 3 eventually. Also, is there a particular OS that i should start using, or does the OS matter too much? Any other recomendations?

I don't work with Linux myself (yet), but am training towards it as it's the main OS I use at home anyway. From what I've read, when interviewing and being selected, experience seems to count more than anything. In that respect, the 'families' you are familiar with will count more than the particular distro, i.e. if they use Ubuntu and you have experience with Debian, you'll be fine.

The cert that is most likely to get you past the initial non-technical HR people though seems to be the RHCE, it's what I'm going for myself.

Khannie

Blowfish wrote: »

The cert that is most likely to get you past the initial non-technical HR people though seems to be the RHCE, it's what I'm going for myself.

Yep. I'm aiming for this too.

Ok, I just did some geeking out to check what my most used commands are, so here you go. Some of these are custom scripts so if "man blah" doesn't work it's because I have my own script called "blah".

(note that I've been fluting with partitions today, so there is some bias to disk utilities).

In order of use:

2 cp
2 env
2 python
2 swapoff
3 ./build.sh
3 mkfs
3 scp
3 vmplayer
4 du
4 mv
4 umount
5 lsof
5 man
5 mkdir
5 reboot
5 rsync
5 update
6 watch
7 echo
7 less
8 sfdisk
10 mplayer
12 fdisk
12 vi
13 df
13 ssh
16 rm
19 cat
21 history
25 mount
33 mdadm
55 sudo
81 cd
81 ls

Hope that helps. Good luck with the interview.

dubhthach

The great thing about the Redhat certification be it RHCT/RHCE/RHCDS etc. is that it's a practical exam. You are given a system that doesn't work and told to
(a) fix it
(b) configure it

No multiple choice questions or the like it's a purely practical test of your knowledge. I did the RHCT there last October as part of a training course I did. My plan is to sit the RHCE later this year, probably after it's been updated for Redhat 6.

As for linux questions in interviews. Stuff like file system structure/Inodes (theory) often come up as well as questions like "name different types of IPC", one thing that might be good to read over is the concepts behind LVM (logical volume management).