Recommendations for becoming a system admin

[Tyler Aviss]

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Ck <snkiz-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I've been really enjoying fiddling with Linux the last two years, so
> much so that its been suggested that I look into a career in systems
> admin. My searches so far have been overwhelming to say the least, so
> many choices. So I was wondering... well I was wondering where do I
> start? I mean what courses would be good, collage or business school?
> what languages would I need to learn? basically everything. any
> suggestions? I should note my interest in windows is limited (not
> fun).
> --
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Not sure how old you are so I'm going to assume you might be early
20's/college age?

Not to knock your possible choices in careers, but experience (my own
and that of many friends in the industry) seems to indicate that
making a career out of something often makes it somewhat less
enjoyable as a hobby, but if you find a job that allows you to explore
new avenues then often the "wow, that's really cool, I can't believe
it got it to work" factor evens it out. Most jobs though, aren't
necessarily going to be so much about learning cool new things as
maintaining existing systems within a given routine, and possibly
spot-learning when an unexpected situation comes up.

That being said, a good IT education (degree/diploma) is usually a
good base-point for getting into the industry in general. Even if a
lot of it isn't Linux-related (and chances are it won't be) the
courses *do* build a lot of good work/planning habits. I've seen a lot
of people who are great with 'nix but have terrible
planning/coordination/group habits. Since I'm from BC I can't
recommend a particular school, but I would still say that a degree
generally opens more doors if you want to beyond being a SysAdmin (IT
manager, perhaps) or work outside of the country, etc. Co-op programs
are awesome too, since you get real experience (and in many cases, get
paid). Most college/uni courses have a good enough mix that you'll be
getting some programming, business/communication, group, hardware, and
administration experience. Knowing your way around a shell and
automating is almost always a good skill though. Paper-courses in
things like Cisco/networking also come handy in a lot of situations, I
see plenty of jobs that want good networking experience/certs on top
of the general SysAdmin stuff.

Alternately/additionally, your first job is probably going to suck
pay-wise, and may very well not be a 9-5 (a 24-hr rotating NOC
position seems standard for those first entering the workforce). It
might suck, but if you manager to push past it then things generally
get better moving forward.

- TJA

p.s. Don't completely dismiss windows. It's a lot easier to find a job
if you have mixed skills, and often enough many environments may have
both 'nix and windows infrastructure. There can still be some fun in
working in hybrid networks. Macs are cool too since OSX is to a good
extent built-on-BSD.
--
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