Re: Linux administration course - thoughts???

["Aaron D. Turner" <aturner@pobox.com>]

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[As always, my advice is worth exactly how much you paid for it.]

My personal experiance for what it's worth is that:

1)  Not having a college degree doesn't hold you back in entry and
mid-level admin positions, especially in todays job market.  Experiance is
the deciding factor.  I'm not saying that a degree is worthless (I'm still
going for mine).

2)  Never stop learning.  Ever.  If you ever get a job where you're no
longer learning something almost every day, find another.

3)  Learn by doing.  Learning computers in the classroom is like learning
to drive a car in the classroom and is about as effective.

For the record, I have taken numerous Novell classes (I'm a CNE BTW) and a
Sun admin class.  Most of what the classes stress is preping you for the
exam which is about as un-real world as you can get.  I've maybe once come
out of one of these classes feeling the the money was well spent.  
Luckly, it was always the company's money so it didn't hurt that much.  
:-)

Bluntly, these classes and exams for certification are IMHO a scam.  
There are a few exceptions- Cisco's CCIE really means something.  CNE,
MSCE, and such aren't worth the paper the certification is printed on.  If
someone I was interviewing told me they took a "linux class" I'd probably
use that against them.

Conclusion:  Don't fly to Colorado.  Stay home with some Orielly books and
setup NFS, NIS, apache, TACAS+, etc on your system at home.  Find a
company that is willing to help nurture you.  Someone that can mentor you.

Talk to some headhunters.  Be honest about what you can do and tell them
exactly what you're looking for and not to bother you until they find it.
Look on www.dice.com.

- -- 
Aaron Turner           | Either which way, one half dozen or another. 
aturner@pobox.com      | Check out the Red Hat Linux User's FAQ Online!
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On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Micah Yoder wrote:

> Not *really* on topic, but I'm wondering if you guys think this would ve
> valuable.
> 
> Eklektix (the LWN folks) are holding a Linux administration course in
> Boulder, CO the last week of April.  I'm thinking of taking it but the
> price is a bit steep.  (It's actually a good deal as far as specialty
> courses go, but steep for me!)
> 
> Here's the URL:  http://eklektix.com/training/
> 
> Would this help substantially in finding a good Linux related job, or
> increase the potential salary?
> 
> Thanks for any advice....
> 
> Micah
> 


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