Jason, I want to throw in my advice on your job search. It sounds like what you have is some solid basic level skills, a need for experience, and a willingness to learn. Those are valuable things. I would do this: identify positions that you _easily_ qualify for. For example, help desk / tech support. I know this isn't what you want to do long term, or even medium term (even short term), but bear with me. The idea is that you want to aim a little lower, so that you (hopefully) get more openings to consider. Then, when you get interviews, you want to do as much to interview the employer as they're doing to interview you. Ask yourself these questions about the prospective employer: are there opportunities there you to move into a job that's more to your liking? Are there people there that you can learn from? (this is huge). Is there some latitude about how your job is done that allows you to experiment and innovate? If you can find a situation like that, you'll be in something more like an apprenticeship than a straight up job. You'll be learning on the job, and getting paid at the same time. The tradeoff is that you're accepting a position where you can easily perform the duties, and you're making a little less money, but on the upside you're learning from someone more experienced, and you're establishing a track record for yourself. You might find that before long your employer realizes you'd be more useful doing Job B than Job A, and they'll move you there. Companies by their nature want to optimize how they're using their resources (good ones anyway). Find one that thinks that way, and there's no limit to where you can go. Good luck, Erik On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 11:19 AM, Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> wrote: > I am seeking a position as a computer forensic/recovery specialist. (I would appreciate any leads at Kroll Ontrack.) The world of Linux opened up a world that was completely invisible to me in my Windows-only days. I now know that a Linux live CD can be used to rescue data from an unbootable Windows installation. I also know about the various forensic/recovery live CDs and even started the forensic edition of Swift Linux. > > As a result of working on Swift Linux, I now have experience with Bash scripts. > > Are there other career paths I should consider? I've heard that I should consider becoming a systems administrator. What do you think of this career? What are the best ways I can get relevant experience? (I'm thinking along the lines of setting up an old computer at home as a firewall or server.) > > Are there other career paths I should consider? > > -- > Jason Hsu > Creator of Swift Linux > http://www.swiftlinux.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -- Erik K. Mitchell -- Web Developer erik.mitchell at gmail.com erik at ekmitchell.com http://ekmitchell.com/