That is one way and _may_ work out if given time. But the problem is for
real... students who want to concentrate on this area don't >> get as many as opportunities.
I totally agree with this I finished my diploma in 2003 and there was hardly anything which was appealing if I wanted to jump onto the *nix bandwagon.
Right now I am in Melbourne, I came here to do my graduation and from what I've seen here in the last couple of years is that there is a lot of *nix requirement internationally *but* you have to know your stuff, the focus here when you go out to get a job is what have you practically done as opposed to what you have scored, not that your scores don't matter.
I am working as a volunteer System administrator at two places, I've learnt a lot from my work.
I don't remember seeing any place in Bombay where I could work without getting paid, in a technical position and still be trusted with handling a major NGO's servers (which is what I am doing right now). This is a fantastic opportunity to learn things in a real world scenario at the same time as you are studying.
Most jobs require experienced people... so what is the fresher to do?
As was pointed out work on some open source projects, start your own, put it up online, see if you can get some voluntary work positions (I'd love it if this trend took off in Bombay but then maybe we'd also get a lot of people trying to take advantage).
Perhaps we need to look at this in a serious way.
I finish my studies in march and I want to come back and work in Bombay but from what I've been seeing there is not much cope for people specialising in *nix or for that matter Security which is my area of specialisation.
Just my thoughts on this, Bhowmik