Are there hiring positions open that are mostly FreeBSD?

omardevonlittle

omardevonlittle

We all know that the job situation on IT is generally very messed up worldwide. In any case, is it feasable today to get a job that involves a lot of FreeBSD? How about training? Or the reverse sitaution, looking for people with FreeBSD experience? Would they be able to find mostly juniors that apply to every job, or a more experienced person?

Lots of questions I know haha. On my job I get to use FreeBSD, but still on a testing phase. I would like to hear your experience :)
 
A while after I closed my web dev company a few years ago, I hunted around to see if I could find a FreeBSD job. I found a remote one for a company in Minnesota pretty easily the same day.

So they're out there to be found. You just have to look for them instead of asking here.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
A while after I closed my web dev company a few years ago, I hunted around to see if I could find a FreeBSD job. I found a remote one for a company in Minnesota pretty easily the same day.

So they're out there to be found. You just have to look for them instead of asking here.
Click to expand...
Gee, thanks for the condescending answer, what makes you think I am asking for a job... in the FreeBSD forums? I am just asking for general experience. If you cared to read my post carefully instead of just reacting, you would see that I get to use the OS on my current job.

I am interested in switching the Linux servers in my company to FreeBSD, but to do so I need some advice and get to know what experiences other people had. Anyone else that has dealt with a similar situation, looking for or trying to expand FreeBSD on the enterprise?
 
omardevonlittle Didn't mean to sound condescending but I guess I did. So often I see people online asking about jobs (among other things) where a simple phone call or google search would give them the answer. I did give you my experience, which you asked for. I'm not sure I understand the relation between your use of FreeBSD at work and looking for a job.
 
omardevonlittle said:
In any case, is it feasable today to get a job that involves a lot of FreeBSD?
Click to expand...
There are very few FreeBSD jobs compared to other OSes. And most of them seem to be in the US. I'm based in the UK and have only seen a couple of FreeBSD jobs over the last 15 years or so. It's one of the few technologies that I would love to work with but have never been able to. If I search for BSD or FreeBSD on a popular UK job search site I get 0 results. if I search for Linux I get over 100 results returned. It's very disappointing. Even the FreeBSD Jobs mailing list (https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-jobs/) has only had a handful of jobs posted in the last few years.
How about training?
Click to expand...
I haven't seen much in the way of FreeBSD training other than training days at conferences etc. With very few FreeBSD jobs worldwide it probably isn't cost-effective for training companies to run FreeBSD courses as with so few jobs not enough people would require them. However, IMHO people who choose a BSD rarely require formal training, they are typically self-learners who actively have an interest in their chosen OS.
Or the reverse sitaution, looking for people with FreeBSD experience?
Click to expand...
I don't think that you'll have too much of an issue finding people who want to and can work with FreeBSD. As mentioned above, there's a FreeBSD Jobs mailing list where you can post any position that you have. And I'm sure that any job posting to the Forums would also result in a number of applicants.
Would they be able to find mostly juniors that apply to every job, or a more experienced person?
Click to expand...
There may be some juniors, but also a lot of experienced people. I guess you won't know for sure until you post a position with FreeBSD in the requirements. However, I've always thought that having a BSD on your CV (or résumé) is itself indicative of a higher level of technical ability anyway. People don't usually use a BSD to get jobs (because there aren't that many), they use a BSD because they are interested in using it in and of itself. I'm not a hiring manager, but if I was and came across a CV with a BSD on it I think it would indicate a certain technical curiosity and openness in the applicant not normally found in people solely using other mainstream OSes like Linux, Windows and MacOS. That would definitely be a big positive for me.
I am interested in switching the Linux servers in my company to FreeBSD
Click to expand...
Congratulations. I hope that you're successful. I think if I ever started a company I would definitely base it on FreeBSD. And I am genuinely surprised that more companies don't do that. I guess it's either down to a lack of exposure to any of the BSD's or the ability to always be able to find people with Linux experience, so let's just go with Linux.

With regards to hiring FreeBSD people, I would hire people with experience of both Linux and FreeBSD with the caveat that eventually you want to move to FreeBSD. You're probably going to need experience of both OSes in the short term, but anybody with experience of Linux can definitely pick up FreeBSD if they really want to. Which means you probably only need a couple of very experienced FreeBSD people to steer the ship in the right direction. Everyone else can catch up later.

Hope that helps.
 
fraxamo said:
If I search for BSD or FreeBSD on a popular UK job search site I get 0 results. if I search for Linux I get over 100 results returned. It's very disappointing. Even the FreeBSD Jobs mailing list (https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-jobs/) has only had a handful of jobs posted in the last few years.
Click to expand...
Same in my country, I get even less Linux results haha. Thanks for sharing the jobs mailing list!
fraxamo said:
However, IMHO people who choose a BSD rarely require formal training, they are typically self-learners who actively have an interest in their chosen OS.
Click to expand...
Exactly, the entire FreeBSD project is aimed towards people who want to get real serious with what the OS can do, without any external help or guides (since there are a few ones here and there)
fraxamo said:
You're probably going to need experience of both OSes in the short term, but anybody with experience of Linux can definitely pick up FreeBSD if they really want to.
Click to expand...
Sure, Linux knowledge does help, and in some situations Linux will still be there. My main worry is that we would go through the hiring process and get someone, train them on FreeBSD for a long while and then after two years, they drop out and get another gig, so all that training was misspent. I guess that is why the job situation worldwide is so messed up.
jardows said:
In the spirit of the OP, here's an article I found linked to from TheRegister
Click to expand...
Thank you! It tells an interesting story about why choose FreeBSD! Also the Alpine Linux stuff is interesting :)
 
omardevonlittle said:
My main worry is that we would go through the hiring process and get someone, train them on FreeBSD for a long while and then after two years, they drop out and get another gig, so all that training was misspent
Click to expand...
Well you know what they say... What's worse than training your staff and having them leave? Not training them and having them stay!
 
Just chiming in, but I'd say that it's probably not realistic to specifically target jobs that require expertise specifically in FreeBSD. Employers are not gonna hire fanbois that preach about how great FreeBSD is. And typically, if a job has such narrow technical requirements, it tends to be a project/gig that has a limited duration.

omardevonlittle said:
Sure, Linux knowledge does help, and in some situations Linux will still be there. My main worry is that we would go through the hiring process and get someone, train them on FreeBSD for a long while and then after two years, they drop out and get another gig, so all that training was misspent. I guess that is why the job situation worldwide is so messed up.
Click to expand...
Just about any training on any specific tech is gonna be obsolete soon. Even Linux certification is kind of dubious - just about every shop uses a different distro for its own purposes. Sometimes, youi gotta wonder, what happens to the people who made the decision to switch the company to a specific distro? What's the story? My take is, you just might discover that it was the owner's technically inclined homeboi who just happens to be a fan of mycrappylinuxdistro. And all the experts who want to ditch mycrappylinuxdistro? those experts were brought in to clean up the mess that the owner's homeboi left behind. No good way to upgrade to the up-to-date version of mycrappylinuxdistro, the very project behind mycrappylinuxdistro is falling apart, and valuable business data is stuck in files in a proprietary-format that is impossible to decode.

You gotta ask, what the company is trying to do that is supposed to be accomplished with the existing tech stack? Who gets to decide? Is there a plan B/C/etc?

If you go in with intent to influence decisions about what OS/equipment the company is using, you're probably chasing the wrong job. And if you try a consultancy as an independent business - well, you're competing directly with the FreeBSD Foundation.

Yeah, I know I'm playing the devil's advocate here, but most tech-focused jobs out there are deals with the devil himself...
 
There is no RedHat of FreeBSD (and there can't be). The market is saturated with Redhat shops. People need someone to call if something fscks up.
 
There's plenty of Ubuntu shops, too. But with even big shops like CERN and city governments in EU distro-hopping like a teenager (and finally discovering why teenagers distro-hop to begin with), getting certified on one distro/BSD is probably a waste of time.

It's a bit like getting certified to operate a Kubota backhoe on a hop farm while the real money is in cranes that lift containers in ports like Singapore and Los Angeles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top