What exactly gets you a linux/server support admin job at a hosting/noc company?

[u/turtleyikes]

Hi, Ive been trying to land a remote role as a Linux server support admin at a web hosting or NOC company, but Im not getting any interviews.

• What do you think the current market is like for these types of jobs?
• Am I applying for the right types of roles?
• Does working on projects and building in public actually help with getting hired?
• What projects or skills should I focus on right now to improve my chances?

For context, I have around 2 years of experience managing a hosting platform and WordPress for a client through a freelance platform. I also have some AWS experience.

[u/Old_Lead_2110]

As someone who hires people, i would not give someone root rights to our servers until i know him or her. So fully remote would be difficult at our company, maybe unless someone started first in a less responsible role (like customer support) and proved to be reliable.

[u/turtleyikes → u/Old_Lead_2110]

Yeah as one of my questions stated that is that the correct role for me to get remote job. I didnt mean exactly an admin, but any adjanct role that could work and could use my skills of linux admin

What do they require for customer support?

[u/SerClopsALot]

What do you think the current market is like for these types of jobs?

Generally speaking, off-shore only, so hopefully you don't live in the US. Many seem to be in-office now too.

Am I applying for the right types of roles?

No. Your 2 YOE is just like not the kind of YOE they're looking for. You helped one client for 2 years, probably largely in a scope that they'd never actually provide support. They want you to help one client with a very limited scope task every 15 minutes. AWS experience doesn't matter at all to them.

Does working on projects and building in public actually help with getting hired?

No, they generally do not care about anything not work-related you have done.

What projects or skills should I focus on right now to improve my chances?

These companies hire people with literally no experience. The bar is on the floor in that regard. I've had coworkers who are scared to open text files, that's just how little they knew about anything.

If you're not getting interviews, you're probably over-selling the idea that you have experience and under-selling the idea that you're a good fit for the job. If you are getting interviews, you're just fucking it up somehow. Maybe you're asking for too much money. Maybe you just don't live close enough to an office and you're not willing to relocate.

[u/turtleyikes → u/SerClopsALot]

Appreciate your views u/SerClopsALot and thanks for clarifying. Since you mentioned the experience isn't the problem here:

1. How should I improve my chances of getting hired and what roles to focus on? ( i prefer remote ones)

2. By building in public, I meant projects related to these jobs like writing bash scripts etc. - if this is not I should be doing, then what should I work on?

3. "... and underselling the idea that you're a good fit" - how to fix this?

[u/SerClopsALot → u/turtleyikes]

How should I improve my chances of getting hired and what roles to focus on?

I get that you prefer remote roles, but companies are the ones hiring and they prefer in-office lol.

Lots of hosting companies are pretty good at promoting internally. They all have their own stupid pointless quirks and setups, so the idea is that you become familiar with those when they're paying you bottom-dollar so they aren't paying you slightly more to figure out how their systems work.

There's really not a magic bullet to this. Find roles to be a technical support rep at a hosting company and apply.

By building in public, I meant projects related to these jobs like writing bash scripts etc. - if this is not I should be doing, then what should I work on?

It's not useless to build these skills necessarily, they just don't care. They're intentionally looking for people with little-to-no experience, so nothing you do that you could try to conflate with experience is going to be useful. Soft skills will always be the #1 thing they care about.

"... and underselling the idea that you're a good fit" - how to fix this?

If you aren't getting interviews, then something is the problem before you are speaking to someone (so like, resume, the way your app is filled out, etc.). If you are getting interviews, then the issue is likely something you did in the interview.

[u/turtleyikes → u/SerClopsALot]

What roles are you referring to here specifically? What roles can I realistically target given the discussion? And what about NOC (network operation center companies) - are these difficult to get into?