[Klug-general] Methods of Gaining Linux Skills to Work in Industry

[Hubertus A. Haniel]

Paul Littlefield wrote:
> Hi Folks
> 
> I have been using my Linux self-taught skills in a professional working basis for the past 4 years. This has served me well, but always felt I needed some kind of official qualification in order to proof my worth.
> 
> So, 2 years ago I decided to study for and take the first exam (101) in the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) at the Expo in London. This I passed, and a year later took the next exam (102) which would give me Level I Certification.
> 
> I have told the various clients I currently do work for, and have put this onto my CV - but apart from a 'warm, fuzzy feeling' it has not made a lot of difference yet!
> 
> In October this year, I am taking the 201 exam and plan to take the other 3 exams after that - mainly because it makes me feel better, but also to 'prove my worth'.
> 
> If anyone would like any more information, just ask.
> 

Hi,

Certifications are a good think to have if you work for a consulting 
company of some sort or a hardware/software vendor. (In fact most of 
them demand it) - I never really did and don't take them seriously now 
as they are very broad and may not actually fit a specific job and they 
are version dependent so in 3 years time it will be out of date.
My main job function for the past five years has been Linux. Most of it 
has been on a well known distribution, customizing and deploying it in a 
large global organization. Some of it was designing deployment methods 
for the VMware ESX console OS. I started 9 years ago in this 
organization as a graduate doing 2 years of AIX and 2 years of Solaris 
support and deployment before Linux became an interesting OS for large 
enterprises.
My point is that I advise anybody who wants to build up IT skills to try 
to get into a large organization with multiple platforms and then you 
have the ability to switch between them and learn about the ones you 
don't know.
Even though my main job function is Linux I still do the odd project on 
AIX and Solaris to keep me entertained ;)
I would advise anybody not to just focus on Linux - Linux is a great OS 
and I have been using it since Slackware 3.0 but it has some serious 
shortcomings and Solaris 10 on the x86 hardware is currently a very 
strong opponent and will take a large chunk out of the linux market in 
the large enterprises. After all it is all UNIX ;)

regards
Hubba