Because I have the magic word "Unix" all over my resume, I get a lot of calls from people with Unix systems administration positions to fill. A surprising number of people do not seem to understand that not everyone who works with Unix systems is a Unix systems administrator.
The system administrator is responsible for keeping the machines running smoothly - for installing and configuring the system and software, for making backups, for adminstering user accounts, and other things along that line. I have picked up a little bit of systems administration experience on Linux, NetBSD, HP/UX, and Solaris systems, and I might be qualifed for a position that required up to two or three years of administration experience on these systems (especially if there were a focus on system security needs); but if you're looking for someone with AIX administration experience, or with six years experience, I'm not your man.
My background is mostly in software development - creating the programs that make the system do the things we want it to do. Those programs might be used only in-house, or might be sold as commercial products, or anything in between. But the skills and knowledge needed to create them are very different than the skills and knowledge needed to keep up the systems that run them.
-Tom Swiss
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