The world of open source software is an ever-changing landscape. What appears to be the next big thing may fall by the wayside by some new development tool.The pace is fast and furious, and it does not look like it is going to slow down any time soon. In order to position yourself to be successful in the open source software arena, you must stay on top of the trends. If you reach a plateau and fail to constantly evolve your skill set, you are at risk of being left behind.

How do you prevent yourself from falling behind? There are a number of ways to make sure you stay on top of the trends, and thus make yourself a viable candidate for open positions.

First, make media (whether it be traditional or social) work for you. Follow certain Twitter feeds that will give you insight to market trends. Read articles from some of the leading open source software web sites. Put out alerts on Google or other search engines around topics that peak your interest. These are just a few of the measures you can take in this area. Luckily in the present, you can do all of this with very minimal effort.

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I have been specializing in IT Recruitment for the past few years. It has been a very interesting and challenging journey, which allowed me to meet many professionals at various stages of their careers. In the past few years, I noticed that recruitment for IT professionals has changed. Our clients were no longer interested only in IT skills and the technical abilities of our candidates, but also their personalities and social skills (particularly for client facing positions).

This, I realized, presented a problem for some of my technically minded candidates. Although they fulfilled all the technical requirements and flew through the IT interview, they often failed the HR interview. From a personal point of view, this was very frustrating as many candidate and client efforts were wasted due to this fact.

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We get asked about Linux certification frequently. Candidates generally want to know if it is worth their time and effort to pursue a certification. In my opinion, the answer changes on a case-by-case basis. Overall, the tendency of the answer is largely derived by experience. For individuals that are either early in their career or new to Linux, it is likely to be more beneficial to attain a recognized certification than to not have one.

Without having prior professional experience to rely on, one can show their knowledge level with a certification in hand. This assists these individuals greatly in their search for new employment or advancement in their careers.

For individuals that do have prior professional experience, the benefits of a recognized certification dwindle based on the amount of experience an individual has. As I have always stated, any education is good education.

Therefore, even if you are a very experienced administrator, it is not going to hurt you in either your current role or positioning yourself for future employment elsewhere. But, do not count on it being a difference maker for you, at least in comparison to individuals with less experience than you possess. Ultimately, if you are a person that is in a continuous quest for knowledge and feel a certification demonstrates that knowledge, by all means pursue it.

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