[abbietmp]

On the Linux side, you may still be able to get a system administrator role, but these days all the hipster shops want "DevOps" or "Platform Engineer." Just means you need to show you know how to setup, configure, and manage Jenkins, Teraform, and Kubernetes, on AWS with a bit of Python. Companies often have a minor variation on that stack, but it's so cookie cutter right now it'll be changes like GCP instead of AWS or CircleCI instead of Jenkins. Maybe just put together a blog post about hosting that "over engineered" blog using all of the above. AWS and GCP provide enough free resources that you can probably host the entire thing for free. Go deep into details then link to that site from your resume. It's not easy, but it is likely to give you a great way to get close to playing around with Linux in your day job.

If you're good, security free lancing using sites like HackerOne, Bugheist, Bugcrowd, and YesWeHack can make some modest cash for results. It's tough work, and don't expect to make big bucks without some serious time investment as you improve your efficiency and abilities. You can often use these to build a public list of confirmed bugs found and put that in your work history if you spend a solid 8-12 months doing it. The downside here is given your degree, I assume you have debt. Your first actual vulnerability may take a month or more of what are effectively 12 hour days, and often the bug you find isn't going to be super valuable. It's pretty rough putting in that much to earn like $200. I know a guy who does this now full time and makes a decent enough living, though it dramatically varies. His big wins are usually what help pull through weaker months and he sometimes works with teams for things like the Pwn2Own and other high value hacks.

You said you also like Android development. Sadly, I have no advice here. It's dev work. It pays alright. It's going to be in demand as long as people continue to demand native applications and use smart phones. But, many tech companies are websites first and the apps team are constantly under staffed and pressure to get feature parody with the web experience.

Honestly, my suggestion is going to be find a career path that puts you in the business "profit centre." Essentially, jobs fall into two categories, ones that make the business money directly, and those that are required to make money. If you can find roles that fit the first one and include your interests, you'll probably be able to get decent enough money working on things that you enjoy. That said, just because you like the thing doesn't mean working with it will be fun. Most of your work satisfaction is likely down to mission and team. A crappy boss or pointless project for long enough will make you bitter and leave. It may even burn you out and make you not really want to play with these things on your own time. So be careful fully following your passion. You can use your passion to level up your skills faster than you could if you did something you can't stand, but remember that work shouldn't be what you live for. Try to only work in order to live.

[mothered]

The OP Is banned, hence will obviously not respond to suggestions.

Thread closed.