StackOverflow is more of a Q&A site where developers post and answer technical questions. You would need to look at candidates addressing such specific questions to see if they fit your requirements
The complete guide to hiring a Linux developer
Why do you need Linux?
Linux is one of the most sought-after open source platforms by programmers for its versatility, security, and speed. It is accessible to the public for free and the Linux community is one of the most active developer communities. Within minutes of posting a thread on any Linux forum, you can expect to get a detailed solution at no extra cost. Hence, it isn’t a wonder that developers absolutely love it.
What skills are companies looking for in a Linux developer?
Skills required for a Linux systems administrator
Experience level: 0 to 4 years
A Linux systems administrator position calls for the following skills:
- Strong knowledge of the Red Hat Linux/Unix system
- Should be skilled at hardware and OS troubleshooting, configuration, backup, security, disaster recovery, and performance monitoring
- Should be skilled at RHEL 6.x/7.x, Red Hat Cluster, and scripting (Bourne shell, C sh, Ksh, Bash Shell, and Python)
Skills required for a senior Linux engineer
Experience level: 5 to 8 years
A senior Linux engineer position calls for the following skills:
- Strong experience in Unix/Linux systems installation, operations, administration, and maintenance
- Exceptional knowledge of Unix shell and standard utilities, and common Unix/ Linux security tools
- In-depth system administration knowledge and skills of Red Hat Linux
- Knowledge of Linux security patching and NAS, SAN, and networking
Linux developer salaries
Linux Systems Administrator
According to Glassdoor, the national average salary of a Linux System Administrator is $68,884 in the United States.
Senior Linux Engineer
According to Glassdoor, the national average salary of a Senior Linux Engineer is $107,318 in the United States.
Top companies hiring Linux developers
According to linuxsurvival.com, these are the most popular companies hiring Linux developers:
Amazon Northrop Grumman Lockheed Martin Raytheon Booz Allen Hamilton Oracle Hewlett Packard Enterprise Leidos EMC CACI International
Sourcing Linux developer talent
Tech communities are full of potential hires waiting to be discovered. Here are 2 such communities from where you can source talent for free.
Hiring Linux developers from GitHub
GitHub is one of the world’s largest code hosts, with close to 31 million developers. A developer’s GitHub profile gives you a wealth of information.
Before you start shortlisting profiles on GitHub, make sure that the Linux developer is open to recruiters approaching him with jobs. Once this is sorted, follow these steps to find the best talent on GitHub:
- The first step is to create a profile on GitHub
- Once the profile is created, run a search using 3 parameters—language, location, and followers.
- By default, GitHub shows results for the list of repositories. You can change this to users by choosing it from the left hand side menu. You now have a list of developers you can reach out to.
Here are a few things to remember before you connect with potential Linux developers.
- Check their repositories to familiarize yourself with their work. This would be mutually beneficial as you can filter out candidates who you think will not fit into the job role on offer
- Cross-reference their profiles on either Linkedin or Twitter to be doubly sure if they would be a perfect fit or not.
- Don’t judge profiles on how active or complete they are. Sometimes developers do not tend to share code publicly for security reasons. Also, not having a great social following is not an indication of how good their tech skills are
For more info, download our in-depth e-book on hiring GitHub developers.
Hiring developers from StackOverflow
StackOverflow is a Q&A site for professional and enthusiast programmers. Just like GitHub, StackOverflow is also a great platform to hire amazing Linux talent.
The process of shortlisting Linux developer profiles is similar to GitHub. However, here are a few things to remember before connecting with your first Linux developer via StackOverflow:
Developers are segregated based on their user badges and reputation scores and an ideal candidate ranks high for both
Every question that is posted has tags associated with it, which can be usedfind developers who fit the bill
Some other places to find great developer talent include HackerEarth, Reddit, Kaggle, etc.
JD for a Linux developer role
Here is a sample Linux system administrator job description for hiring challenges at HackerEarth.
Linux developer Job Description
Must have:
- System Administration skills on Linux/Unix servers in physical virtualized environments
- File System Administration, Access Management Experience
- Familiarity with Unix( AIX/Solaris)/Linux/ Pearl/Ansible scripting
- Strong knowledge in Red Hat, Veritas & HACMP clusters, DR experience
- Good understanding of patching process and Red Hat satellite server
- Good analytical skills
- Excellent communication skills
- Must be self-motivated with a good understanding to prioritize and manage workload while meeting project deliverables
Good to have:
- An understanding of design patterns and frameworks
Role:
- To be involved in BAU Support. Should be able to secure and maintain servers in test development and production environments
- Perform break/fix and collaborate with application and other vendor stakeholders
- To be involved in writing and modifying scripts for application deployments as well as system monitoring
- To be involved in developing and overseeing the backup, replication, clustering, and fail over strategies
Recruiter email templates
Outreach email
Subject – Join our amazing team of developers at <Company name>
Dear <First_Name>
I am <Name> and I work as a recruiter for <Company name>. I came across your profile on <Social media or Job board> and I was very impressed with your skills, especially <describe a project or a particular programming skill set>.
We are currently looking for a Linux developer to join our amazing team and I think you would be a great fit. Here are some of the cool projects that we are working on currently – <provide a link to projects at your organization>
If this is something that interests you, please write to me and I will be happy to explain more over a call.
Have a great day, and I hope to hear back from you soon!
Best,
<Your name>
Follow-up email
Subject – Following up!
Hi <First_Name>,
Hope you are doing great!
Have you had a chance to read my previous mail?
We are looking for some super talented Linux developers to join our team at <Company name> and I thought you would be a great fit.
Our team of developers has been working on some cool projects <link some of your work> and I thought you would find them interesting.
And if you are wondering what it is like to work for <Company name>, here is a short video of what our employees think – <Include an employer branding video>
If you are interested in this opportunity, drop me an email so we can take this forward. Have a great day!
Best,
<Name>
Assessing Linux developers using a developer assessment software
Linux systems administrator assessment
The following is a test created on HackerEarth’s developer assessment software for a Linux systems administrator role:
A sample programming question with difficulty level hard
A few MCQs that you can test candidates on
Senior Linux engineer assessment
The following is a test created for a Senior Linux engineer role:
A sample programming question with difficulty level hard
A few MCQs that you can test candidates on
Linux interview questions
According to onlineinterviewquestions.com, these are the most frequently asked interview questions for Linux professionals –
- List the basic components of Linux
- What is Linux? How is it different from Unix?
- What is the difference between absolute and relative path?
- What is Samba? Why is it used?
- Which command shows you free/used memory? Does free memory exist on Linux?
- What is the difference between soft and hard mounting points?
- What is SSH? How to connect to a remote server via SSH?
- What is virtual memory?
- What does the command env do
- What is CLI in Linux?
- What is the difference between Telnet and SSH?
- What is the difference between a swap partition and a swap file?
- What is a zombie process?
Numbers at a glance
3 million
developers
1,000+ customers
worldwide
18,000+ tests
created
"70% of the candidates that passed the assessments were hired"
Phuong Huynh
Technical recruiter, Zalora