Re: [tlug] Linux, Solaris & AIX

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@??>]

Amy & Don Johnson writes:

 > I was thinking of getting some type of Unix/Linux certification
 > before I start looking for work in 10 months - specifically, I have
 > been thinking about studying on my own for the Red Hat Certified
 > Engineer exams. Is this a good idea or would there be a better way
 > to prepare during the next 10 months for a Sys Admin position?

Are you preparing for a position, or for a job interview? :-)

RHCE, MCSE, a Cisco cert, etc, will help you get in the door.  If
otherwise you have confidence in your skills (including interviewing!)
then it's worth collecting relevent certs even at the price of paying
for a class (and that may be the most efficient use of your time,
too).  No interview, no job, in most cases.

But remember that an exam is not a live exercise, that the map is not
the territory, and that preparing for an exam only indirectly prepares
you for the position.  You might be better off picking some typical
sysadmin tasks (installing an OS, setting up a mail system, creating
user accounts, adding an issue tracker, configuring a webserver) and
practicing those.  Or combine the two, taking notes on how the RHCE
studies correlate to your real-life exercises.