I’m trying to get a job in IT that will (hopefully) pay more than a usual 9 to 5. I’m been daily driving Linux exclusively for about 2 1/2 years now and I’m trying to improve my skills to the point that I could be considered a so-called “power user.” My question is this: will this increase my hiring chances significantly or marginally?
Honestly, it depends on the business.
If I were the hiring manager we are a 80/20 split on win vs Linux servers. You may be top tier on 20% of our systems but we have automated about 85% of the tasks on those boxes. The other 15% is being covered by the windows people.
How do I justify hiring you to do 15% of the work of the others?
In order to be paid above average, you need to be good at something others find hard. But don’t pigeon hole yourself to one thing.
Being good at windows and Linux will make you a more attractive hire. As a Linux daily driver you should have no excuse to not know virtualisation or containers. Run up some qemu VMS or some LXC containers to expand your skillset.
I make it a condition of my employment that I never touch windows servers, and I get paid very, very well.
Linux experience is far more important than windows experience, IMHO. Almost every company has Linux servers. Loads of companies don’t have windows servers.