Considering Linux Certification

[whatthefunk]

I may be forced into a career change in the future and am trying to plan ahead a little. I havent really decided what road to go down, but Im thinking that Linux certification may be useful in many fields and so might be worth the time and money investment. (Plus I get to learn more about Linux:P) So, for the professionals out there, I have some questions.

- Is it worth it? If I got a certification, do you think that it would help me get a job?

- What certification programs are the best?

- I wouldnt be able to attend classes, so I would be self studying. Can you recommend any books or other resources?

[GreyGeek]

Self study may not get you very far. You'll need a lot of hands on under the eye of a knowledgable professional. Unless you are a genius being self-taught stands out pretty quickly. It can also get somewhat expensive in time and money.

I've been retired too long to know exactly where the market is on Linux certification now, but, like it was 10 years ago, I'd wager that the premier Linux certification is given by RH, which also has the largest presence in corporate America.

http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/li...s,2-654-5.html

• Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator (RHCSA): The foundation Red Hat certification, which vets essential skills in handling files, working at the command line, and using system documentation, along with managing systems (boot-up, identifying processes, start/stop virtual machines, controlling systems), configuring storage partitions and logical volumes, and more. $400

• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE): The cornerstone Red Hat certification, it is designed to test and validate the skills and knowledge necessary to work as a senior level Linux system administrator. Topics covered include advanced IP routing and services, managing runtime kernel behavior, working with iSCSI, automating maintenance tasks with shell scripts, and working with networking services for Web, FTP, NFS, SMB, SMTP, SSH and more. An RHSCA is a pre-requisite for the RHCE. $400

• Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA): Red Hat’s pinnacle certification takes the RHCE as a pre-requisite, and also requires candidates to earn certificates of expertise in Deployment and Systems Management, Directory Services and Authentication or Virtualization, Clustering and Storage Management, Security: Network Services or Server Hardening, and Performance Tuning (5 in all). Each of the certificates has its own exam, where each is performance based and is up to 6 hours in length. This is a grueling, difficult, expensive, and time-consuming credential to earn, but is valued highly.

SUSE and Oracle offer it too.

[woodsmoke]

I would say that Linux certification would be a good deal however, contrary to the fervent desires of a lot of people the big explosion of Linux jobs is in Texas. if you are willing to re-locate then you would be assured of a job.

A simple search at the Texas job search gave 254 positions the salaries range from 30 to 100K

https://wit.twc.state.tx.us/WORKINTE...E_POST_BY_TEXT

The demand is so great in Austin, and the amount of work is so large that I ran across TWO people who run Linux programming business while in the Continental Club in Austin.

There were multiple big billboards on the highway doing down there advertising for Linux programmers.

And the working conditions are great, Texas is leading the U.S. in Green energy, and while Austin may "seem" to be "conservative".... all you need to do is meander down 6th street to see the lie to that!

I quit counting the number of people on bicycles and seques.

I know personally that there is a "heirarchy" to income in programming. In other words, one really does not want to take a "step down" in income, for programming because getting the next contract will be harder to do in terms of increased pay.

Howeer, that does not necessarily apply to "admin" type jobs in Linux.

The income may seem "low" but the living costs are correspondingly low. and one ends up with more "net money in the pocket".

I have a former student who was doing RPG for Cargill (that is how they move their data) and went to Austin for a vacation, and.... spent a year or so getting a Linux cert of some kind and now lives the good life in Austin. However as a caveat, his original bachelors was in a variety of languages and OS's not just windblows. And one of them was in Linux, he just never did anything with it, because he was one of the few people that could actually do RPG at the time. (fifteen years ago or so)

He's kinda like me in that he loves great food and you will get that there in abundance!

just a thought.

woodsmoke

[PDR60]

I tested the Linux+ cert last year. Although its 2 tests its not too hard. It will give you the option to attain the LPI 1 and the SuSe cert also at the same time. So for bang for the buck its not too bad. I'll be taking the RHSA this fall if time permits. My job requires a cert in an up to date os to retain the job. Since the RHSA is a bit more marketable than an AIX 7.1 I'll get the Redhat. The one thing that a cert helps with is if you are lacking a bit of experience. One opinion is an interviewer will be asking specific questions pertaining to your os and situations. If you can answer them and appear to know what your talking about, a cert may not be that important. Lacking experience the cert may put you over the top. I don't entirely agree with that. I believe if you're a practicing professional you'll have a certification to back up your experience and knowledge. Its just more professional in my opinion. That being said the Linux+ will be easier to attain as you'll take two multiple choice and fill in the blank tests while the Red hat tests are practical, meaning configuration based along with questions.

[whatthefunk]

Hmmm...thanks for the input guys. Since it seems that being a self taught certification holder with little real world experience is not going to do me much good, how about online courses? Do these have any merit?

[TWPonKubuntu]

RE:

... and while Austin may "seem" to be "conservative".... all you need to do is meander down 6th street to see the lie to that!

This is a consideration, especially if your potential employer leans "conservative". What the schools are currently turning out, in the political sense, is often a less than desirable employee/contractor. My personal decision, when I hire someone, is toward a person who can demonstrate their ability to overcome that "liberal" educational bias and deal with the real world.

While asking an applicant about their political beliefs is no longer "allowed", ie. it is not politically correct, it IS acceptable to ask about their philosophy as it relates to the job I'm offering. This is usually sufficient to reveal which side of that coin they call "heads" and "tails". And Texans like conservatives, FYI.

[GreyGeek]

Look at it from a prospective employer's viewpoint. On your job application you claim a Linux certification from an online school. A typical HR person won't be knowledgable in LInux certification. The IT department probably already listed several Linux certs that they would accept: RH, SuSE, Oracle and perhaps the LPIC certs (http://www.lpi.org/).
Some cert from a "University" which has a "campus" in one small office building? Your app goes right into the trash can. If your cert is RH and your app listed courses from:
http://www.redhat.com/training/paths...istration.html then your app will remain on the app stack. Your success will then depend on you and how you present yourself.
Even online good certs are not cheap. RH's first online course is http://www.redhat.com/training/courses/rh124vt/ and here are the costs:

Virtual training

Live, instructor-led training in an online environment.


Length:5 days , Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. EST

Price:$2,700

Training units: 9

That's not an "evenings and weekends" kind of class. It serious business that required a period of concentrated devotion and some serious cash. Good is not cheap. Be prepared to spend your entire week vaction on line, all day, if you are lucky enough to get a one week vacation.

After I installed the RH server where I worked the head of the dept was so impressed with the stability and speed of the server that he began the move to replace our aging NetWare servers with RH Linux servers. To support them he sent one of our youngest and brightest IT support people to RH cert school for a week. When TIm came back his skill set, not only for Windows but for Linux, which he had never used before and frequently mocked while I was setting it up and doing the admin on it, had improved by an order of magnitude. He was a Linux fan after that and we frequently discussed Linux and played with test servers. Remember, 15 years ago Linux wasn't common in government circules and I, as a self-taught one-eyed man, was king in the land of the blind. Tim came back with two eyes. Today, a one-eyed man would not be able to compete.

But, consider this: in the end, every student actually teaches themselves, sometimes inspite of the teacher, not because of him, and the more natural intelligence they have the better their training will be. There is always room at the top for a smart person, regardless of where they get their training or who certifies them. In most cases, a lack of certification, or a certification from an unrecognized or uncertified program, is just an excuse the employer used to "weed out" an application. So, like a college degree, it is just a door opener. What happens after that depends entirely on you and your abilities. When we hired new programmers were I worked I was, on occasions, was asked to prepare a programming quiz that the applicant could take, and then discuss his responses with him. You can bet we did the same thing with applications for server admin positions.

[woodsmoke]

I........personally really take TWPs and GGS perspectives into mind.
rw
A) If you are not philosophically compatible with the person then your coding experience will be thrown out the door.

B) GG has a lot of real world experience also....and a lot of WEIGHT behind his opinion.

C) To a large extent it depends upon the "political" in terms of "local politics power struggels" kind of thing and your actual CODING SKILLS

A........................REAL ...........................BUSINESS............... .........

will........................ahem .............

EXQUEEZE ME...................... look at the code you produced and the amount of time you took to produce that code...

um it is less than 500 bytes for the script

AND...............EXQUEEEEZEEEE MMEEE..............

whether you produced the code "by yourself" or "in collaboration".

If you REALLY want to get a cert and THEN ...GET A JOB......contact me..........I will put you in contact with some people who will give you a simple test and they will hire you or not.

[woodsmoke]

From ReadWrite by Matt Asay:

I finally found an image of all the billboards along the highway when I was driving down to Austin:



I met TWO guys how owned businesses, one very small one much larger in the Continental Club that use Linux exclusively. And that on either side of me at the bar on one night!

http://readwrite.com/2014/02/20/linu...oxjcARVuVWpp6f

BTW, turns out that right here in our fair city is a software development company for medical billing, it has 150 - 200 people which includes the "storefront" office in CA, gotta keep up that image! but, apparently most of the employees are right here in the midwest.

woodsmoke

[perspectoff]

I'll certify you. $500 fee only (cheep!) Of course, I require programmers to speak good English when working in the US (and programming front end packages / GUIs), which isn't very common these days.

[jpenguin]

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/0...ource=slashdot

[GreyGeek]

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/0...ource=slashdot

You can register for that course here. It starts in the 3rd qtr of this year and is free.

Students can either audit the course, which means they'd get access to all the course materials but not have to commit to completing the tests and assignments, or they can take the course for a certificate of completion, which will be offered for free. (On some edX classes, "verified certificates of achievement" cost a fee.)

[woodsmoke]

I make my money from the millions of taxpayers who have beat "into their dear little heads" that they need an authority figure.......like ME....to give them the laws from a mountain..........

FOLLOW GG'S ADVICE.............and just study and take the TEST!!!

they'd get access to all the course materials

Then contac BlueSystems and Volunteer to DO ANY KIND OF CODING NO MATTER HOW SMALL.........

it is called..........a portfolio.

If you can't walk the walk talking the talk is of little worth.

UNLESS you are going to go "academic"........and then......if you have not paid the money to the politically correct then you cannot actually do anything.....

in our wonderful world......of reverse this and that.........talking the talk is more important than walking the walk........unless......

you want to visit the DRAGONS...............

PROGRAM AN ANDROID APP AND MAKE A GAZILLION BUCKOLAS!!!! Jeeeze Louize....

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Woodsmoke, after I began teaching at that mid-Nebraska college I recognized the need to keep all areas of my major and minor studies fresh, so I began a regular annual review of my text books and the current literature in Physics, Chemistry, Calculus & Diff Equ, Biochemistry, Anatomy&Physiology, Analytically Chemistry and geology. This would involve at least 5-10 hours per week and I kept it up for about 30 years. Time catches up and my memory began to fail, especially on those subjects and/or areas I no longer taught. For about the next 5 or so years I reviewed only Physics and Calc. Around 2002 I tossed in the towel and stopped reviewing everything. Between 1998 and 2008 I studied only Programming and Linux. Since 2008 I haven't programmed or even studied Linux and only recently did I play around with Forth for a while and wrote a sieve for Prime numbers. Today I registered to audit that class so I could review what I've learned about Linux, correct what I've mis-learned and learn what I don't know. Mostly for kicks and giggles because I have no plans to look for work in any field, much less being a Linux admin. BTW, IF I understand the curriculum correctly this course does NOT include programming, although it may teach one how to use "configure, make and make install" to compile source code. It looks like fun!

[Feathers McGraw]

So ironic, you need flash to take a picture to verify your ID...couldn't HTML5 do this?