My IT career consists of five years of experience. Two of which are spent as a Technical Support and the rest as a Linux System Administrator. I have a fair share of various experiences both from inanimate objects such as printers, monitors, cpu’s, even tables and chairs but the most hilarious ones are from breathing and thinking creatures known as ‘human’.
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Popularity: 13% [?]

Our company, US Auto Parts Philippines (formerly MBS Tek Corporation), is in need of two (2) Level 2 Linux Administrators with the following qualifications:

* Passion for *Linux* and Open Source technologies!
* 3+ years of intensive Linux Systems administration (any redhat variant) in production and development servers
* Knowledge or experience with Php, Perl and Shell scripting for automation tasks.
* Knowledge or experience in e-commerce services (DNS, Web, SSL, Mysql, TCP/IP, etc)
* System security implementation, performance tuning and rollout of projects or updates.
* Strategic, cross-functional, thinker
Linux Administrators are responsible for delivering 24×7 uptime of all e-commerce and development servers. They also provide technical assistance and implementation of technology solutions to ensure system reliability and optimum performance of the servers and work with developers for application and system performance analysis and tuning.

Starting salary for Linux Administrator is Php35,000 (with semi-annual, performance-based salary increase).

If you know you got what it takes and have the desire to work in a fun, fast-paced, dynamic environment, send me your resume and you will be contacted for interview and actual exam.

You can also check out our company preview:

Popularity: 9% [?]

It’s Christmas again. Time to be cheery even though life sucks. But that’s what is great about Filipinos. Even if life is hard, we always find time to have fun and be merry. Some of us system administrators are probably at work at Christmas (I am ) but it doesn’t break our Christmas spirit, right? Lol.

In line with the holidays, Vertito has come up with a nice blog contest that everyone can enjoy. The prizes at stake are Php 1,500 for the first prize and one 300 load card for the second prize. Check out his blog contest and contest rules here.

On the other news, it really sucks to work on Christmas. Sucks big time. Not that I am complaining but what can I do? This is part of my job as system administrator.  But at least I will be home on New Year’s Eve so it is not so bad.

Are you working on Christmas too?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Being a system administrator, it is part of my job to be on-call 24/7 and keep within mobile phone signal range so I can be reached in case something goes wrong. This includes working on holidays, Sundays, off days, sleepy days, rainy days and Mondays. I remember once that I was still working in the office when Manila was struck by a very big typhoon and electric power lines are cut-off. The road is so dark I have to use flashlight to make my way to the building. No electricity, no public transportation, no restaurants. Our room was powered by an electric generator with just enough power to drive a few computers and an electric fan. The end of the world seems a few seconds away and yet I am still working. Freaking scary.

And of course, working at night is not excluded.

An article in cbsnews.com states that people who stay up at night are less likely to fight cancerous cells because of lack of sleep. This makes the immune system vulnerable to attacks. The article also points out that “scientists believe having lower melatonin levels can raise the risk of developing cancer. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people working in artificial light at night may have lower melatonin levels.”

The body’s natural processes also have a schedule that includes hormone production and disturbing the natural rhythm may drive your body haywire causing all sorts of mayhem. Stress during night shifts might also contribute to cancer.

Adjusting to the life of system administrator is tough but there a few tricks that helps me get past the graveyard shift nightmare:

• Eat enough and sleep well when you get the chance. This means you may have been sleep-deprived when you are work, but once you get home, grab the chance to get that much needed sleep. Eating and sleeping is your top priority.
• Forget about taking coffee at around 3AM as caffeine is known to stay in the body for up to 12 hours. Drinking coffee or any caffeinated drink will make you alert during your shift but be sure to stop taking it a few hours before taking off from work.
• Take a few naps during lunch break. Naps are sure way to revive a tired body so it does not hurt to take a nap during your break instead of chatting with officemates or browsing the net. Make sure you are really on-break though.
• Sleep in a dark room. When you get home, try to sleep in a dark room. I do this by putting three layers of curtains on my bedroom window and make sure that no tiny ray of sunlight passes through. This does not only shuts down day-time noises but also gives you a feeling of ‘night time’ and helps your body ‘think’ that it is time to sleep. Sleeping in a dark room also helps your body to activate certain natural body processes that only happens when you sleep at night.
• Be comfortable. Wear comfortable clothes when sleeping.Temperatures at daytime are sometimes lot hotter than at night so it decreases your chance of getting a good sleep. Make sure that you wear cool and comfortable jammies to get you sleepy faster.
• Drink milk. Warm milk is known to produces hormones that helps induce sleep so getting a glass will help you sleep faster. Make sure though that you are not lactose-intolerant like me.

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