Future Unix/Linux Administrator -- of course I have a few questions!

[atmosfear]

In a few months I'm going to be a graduate from my local University. The degree I'm going to receive is a Network Information Technology Administration 4-year degree. Because I'm nearing my graduation I have a few questions to help better prepare myself for my future in the field. If you have any input for any of these questions, please feel free to respond!

- Can I start applying before I have my degree in hand?
- What experience should I have under my belt before starting to apply?
- Should I try and get an AIX, systems administrator, or other cert. before I start applying?
- I have been tinkering with many OS's, learning many things about them, are there any other OS's you would recommend to get some experience with?
- Do I need to learn a language such as Perl scripting or C fluently before I apply?
- What should I expect to make, salary-wise, as an entry level Unix/Linux Administrator?
- Any tips for me considering the little information I have given you?
- How does a typical interview go in the IT field?
- Should I get a professional to make my resume more attractive and organized?

Thanks in advance!

[b2bwild]

All this depends on your Country, Employer and Profile of the Job.

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!



If you want to be in networking, you should know what this is

All this depends on your Country, Employer and Profile of the Job.

Internet rule #001
When they don't say where they are from, they are from the USA

[elija]

Freston that's OK if you have a small home network



This is a real network!

I t wouldn't hurt to have a basic grasp of perl, bash scripting and how to troubleshoot something like the above

[b2bwild]

Internet rule #001
When they don't say where they are from, they are from the USA

Fact #001
USA have only 14 % User share on Internet.

[Freston]

Hahahaha lol


That's a seriously impressive patch cabinet Elija! I'd hate to think what happens when one of the switches dies. Aw... shall we release the dogs on whoever did the cabling?



But on a more serious note, network infrastructure is much more important than I thought it would be. Underestimating that was one of my mistakes when I started in IT (don't worry, I've been forgiven ). I thought all these devices, switches, routers, modems, printers too, that they would all Just Work. But routers need resetting, printers eat paper, cables break, maintenance crew pull the power from an entire building (incidentally the building where the signal gets distributed from the central server park to the off site locations), leaving the IT crew guessing why they have a situation of Nothing Works Anymore(TM).

[Hal343]

Looking at those cabling jobs, and some bigger ones, I was wondering if the ends of the wires are labeled, or is that only done in control boxes for industrial machines?

[D-cat]

Damn. At least in Freston's shot the cabler made an attempt at cable run grouping and there were labels.

Elija's shot is what happens when hardware is slowly added to the network over time, and the thought isn't "How can we reorganize the network with the new hardware to improve the network," it's more along the lines of "How can we add this new crap into the old network so it doesn't look like we're wasting our budget." It's so badly entangled you can't get at the back rack for anything. One rat in that room and the sysadmin's in for a major fsck'ing.

[elija]

Very true - and unless you are being paid big money to sort a mess like that out, if you see it at a job you are applying for, don't walt... run away!

Just think about what else it says about that company

[jayd512]

...if you see it at a job you are applying for, don't walt... run away!

You ain't lyin', brother! Run, and don't look back!