Wish I could help you. My only suggestion is to ignore the requirements. It must be tough though, a programmer can send samples, a designer can send a portfolio, but what can a sysadmin do.
A sys admin can set up a virtual network on EC2. He can blog about it, he can then ask to take his laptop to the interview (check beforehand if WiFi / ethernet is available, otherwise perhaps a 3g dongle) and they can demonstrate everything they can do.
Just imagine a sysadmin turning up with their laptop and demonstrating...
1. Provisioning of servers where they've created the *nix build, deployed a web app, mysql etc
2. They show off their system monitoring capability, take down a few services and then show off their e-mail alerts. Bonus points for twilio integration with SMS :)
3. They then show the backup process they have and how they verify their backups
4. The sysadmin then runs a series of security tests against a server and shows the results
In the case of a sysadmin job, this is how I would do it: start showing some expertise in configuring Linux virtual instances, discuss why and how you manage them, share tips and tricks you learned. That will do you a lot of good on your resume, help you land interviews, and help you convince during those interviews. Especially if you are competing with other college grads with 0 experience, you'll stand out.
