[JustinGarrison]

I volunteered to start/run a podcast for the Linux Mint community[1]. I helped host, edit, and hosted the site from 2009-2011. I stopped at episode 50 because I had a kid and went back to school. Near the end of 2010 there was a call for writers for a website I was reading at the time[2] and it even paid money ($20/article). I had no writing experience except for random posts I put on my personal blog at the time. I was told later that a main reason they hired me was because of my podcasting experience.

Because of the podcast I got plugged into more of the Linux community and started attending and occasionally speaking and volunteering at my local Linux conference[3]. A couple years later I was looking to make a jump from low level manager to sysadmin. I had no professional sysadmin experience but I had these two "hobbies" I put on my resume which ended up landing me the job.

My first year at the conference (2008?) I met some people who I got along with and saw them almost every year at the conference for ~5 years. In 2014 they asked if I was looking for work (I was) but I had only been a sysadmin for ~10 months and had no other professional experience outside of helpdesk roles and manager. They hired me because of my pitiful 10 months of experience and all the additional areas where I showed expertise (podcast, writing, speaking).

I've been at the new job for 3 years now and my name is in movie credits for Oscar winning films which is something I would have never expected. I've grown a lot in every new opportunity I've been lucky enough to have.

[1]: http://mintcast.org [2]: https://www.howtogeek.com/author/rothgar/ [3]: http://socallinuxexpo.org/