[Gllug] getting into the linux work scene

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Mon, 2002-09-02 at 22:39, ben f wrote:

> I use linux at home (yeah, I'm posting from another box now Win2K 
> via yahoo, but hear me out!). I'm learning C++ and sendmail.

Sendmail (or another MTA) is a useful skill for a network admin type
role, C++ is probably not the sort of thing you'd need. Not that I'm
knocking C++, it's a very nice thing to have, but network admin roles
are unlikely to ask for it.
 
> At work I'm an applications developer with 1yr experience of php
> with oracle and adabas (a database in case you hadn't heard of it), 
> javascript, unix scripting etc.
> 
> Though I feel this will not be wasted knowledge even if I started to
> delve more into networking I do feel a million miles away from 
> getting a job with linux or even just unix (beggars can't be 
> choosers).
> 
> I want to focus my time as best I can. What I want to know is: if
> you were hiring for a junior network admin, what do I need to add
> to my skillset to make you sit up and take notice?

Hmmm. Perl would be a good start, followed by maybe some more networking
experience. Hardware & software familiarity, Samba is very useful when
you have to interoperate with Windows, which most net admin roles will -
there are relatively few shops with no Windows machines at all. LDAP
woulnd't hurt either.

You should remember however, that a lot of these things you aren't going
to pick up easily, except by using them in a real live environment. It's
often easy to run something on a single user box, but very different to
make it into a reliable service that real users can depend on.
 
> I've thought about getting involved in linux community projects. 
> Naturally I intend to go to llug meetings to learn more too. Are there
> any exams I can pass? I use slackware at home so I wouldn't want to
> do the Red Hat exam unless I had to (don't want to tie myself in to
> a distro) but this might not be realistic? 

People who know what they're talking about tend to look for experience
rather than certifications; for the people who don't, any set of letters
will do. The RHCE is actually, from what I've heard, mostly vendor
neutral.

> I hope I can benefit from the experience of others. Please don't
> flame me to go and learn sendmail etc first (!) as I am starting
> out on a road here and do need some pointers.

Good luck,

Mike.


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug