I just had an interview with a recruitment agency up North, and we went over my technical skills. One thing that I found interesting was that although I have 2 years M$ experience, they talked almost exclusively about my involvement with Linux (which I casually mention on my CV in 'personal interests').
Unfortunately, with the economy taking such a nosedive, there were no jobs to offer me, but still, it's an encouraging thought. Seems there are a lot of ISP's in that area, and they want people with Linux/Unix/Solaris experience/knowledge.
So, if you are a newbie like me, there's yet another reason to keep plugging away at this wonderful OS...
Ricardo