[Techtalk] Redhat certification of value?

[Diggy Bell]

Hi Chris,

Some friends of mine recently pointed me at www.lpi.org for Linux
certification.  I did some looking around and found that IBM has some study
resources for the exams
(http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/views/linux/tutorials.jsp).  I had
been a bit skeptical about the idea of certfications but finding out that
IBM had some degree of support for LPI got my attention.

I've been watching IBM for the past few years to see how they are going to
embrace Linux.  As much as Microsoft dominates the desktop, IBM dominates
the world of 'big iron'.  IBM also has some influence at the other end of
the spectrum in terms of embedded and realtime systems, specifically for
industrial control (my paycheck du jour is down at this end).

If you look at this from the business perspective (the consulting business),
you could likely find a lot of opportunities with smaller companies that
need big company capabilities.  If the big companies are using Linux and
applications on mainframe/mini-computers, some of those applications might
be scaled down to hardware more in line with smaller businesses.  At the
very least, some of the components of the larger applications might be
useable.

If you're wanting to find more of a steady 8-5 job, you might want to look
into what it would take to get into the mainframe/mini side of things.
Larger systems require more people for administration.  As long as you're at
the admin level you are pretty much shielded from the underlying hardware
from a maintenance perspective so the differences between Linux on
mainframes/mini's and pc's should be reasonably straightfoward to understand
(I'm guessing here a bit because I haven't seen Linux on a 390 series).

So what about certification?  In both cases, IBM is associated with some
decent opportunities.  So it should make sense to say that it definitely
wouldn't hurt to have some kind of certification if you want to make
yourself the most attractive in the market place.  Based on what I've seen
so far certification isn't a must to get a job/contract, but if all other
things are equal, the person with the certification would probably be more
likely to get the job/contract than the person without.  The market is
already tough enough, don't make it any harder for yourself.

I'm not in any position to say that RedHat and/or LPI certifications are any
better than others.  I'm simply not aware of any others.  In the end, I
don't think it matters so much what particular certification you have, just
that you have some kind of certification.  The certificate really just helps
you get in the door.  Once you're in, it's up to you to know your stuff and
do the job.  In a way, college degrees are no different.  While a PhD from
MIT might impress people, I've had several of them as employees and I just
have a B.S. from a school that's almost unknown.  All the paper does is help
you get in the door.

Having said that, I'm leaning more toward the LPI certification because
there is another opportunity associated with IBM called Novell (with SuSE).
No matter what your personal distro choice might be, I don't think it's
unreasonable to expect to see an increase in SuSE over the next couple of
years.  Novell seems to be getting up steam to make an serious assault on
the desktop.  If they're successful, there may be one or two more Linux
admin jobs available out there.

My two cents...

William D. 'Diggy' Bell
Principal
DB Software Development
http://www.dbsoftdev.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "chris" <lists at semioticpixels.com>
To: <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 12:11 PM
Subject: [Techtalk] Redhat certification of value?


Hi,
What are people's opinions on the job market value of RedHat certification?

Years ago, I was a sys admin of mac servers. The past couple years, I've
been managing various linux distributions  on our home and small business
network (ie not high profile production servers) and want to professionalize
that experience to be more competetive in the job market (working on linux).

Any suggestions on the best route to take?

Thanks
-chris

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