Recommendations for becoming a system admin

[Ck]

I should clarify a little I guess. I'm 27, have a wife and three kids,
a degree/diploma isn't what I had in mind exactly. I need a change and
a challenge, and I want to enjoy what I do again. I don't want to
travel the world or get rich just happy. so I was thinking a
certificate program that would get me in the door and  I can build on
would be good. As I said before I have learned a lot on my own playing
(I'm in the process of building a network I don't really need just to
see how.) but its more or less I look things up as I need to. The
suggestions I've gotten here have helped a lot so far. Google is good
people are better. I guess my goal would be to manage a small to
medium sized Unix-like network and gain the the skills necessary to
more directly contribute to open source. It's not that I can't use
windows I just don't want to. Besides in my past experience I waste to
much time and resources tiring to stabilize and secure windows instead
of using windows. and I can't afford a mac. Of course now I waste to
much time messing up perfectly good Linux installs. That being said I
do realize I'd have to learn more about MS as well, at least a little.

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 2:53 PM, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 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).
>> --
>> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
>> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
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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.
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists