The Journey to Become a Linux Admin

[Nagarjuna]

Hello folks,

Though I'm no UNIX Zen master, it was love at first sight when I was first introduced to GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. I greatly enjoy the freedom and the merry times that I experience when I'm configuring my home system.. Now if only I could work with it for a living!

So, I come to you all for tips on making this possible. It seems that this dream will be rather difficult to obtain, but I believe it to be achievable. I believe the main thing holding me back is my lack of professional experience working with Linux/UNIX. The only business experience I have with it was a contract job at a web-hosting company which hosted on FreeBSD. I was a tier 1 technician, so I didn't get to do anything too exciting.. Mostly using SSH to access the servers, checking logs, setting up the occasional redirect and using basic command line utilities.

I've begun to work towards my LPIC-1 certification, but I realize this will never equate to good, hard experience. This leads me to question, how does one obtain professional experience with Linux when to become an administrator you usually need at least a couple years of hands-on in a business environment?

I have searched online for perhaps some kind of non-profit that will take volunteer system administrators here in South Florida, but no dice. I will however visit my local Linux User Group next month to meet folks who might be able to help me out.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Feel free to share any thoughts on this subject.

[oz]

Hello and welcome!

You can find some articles that might help by searching Google for: how to get a job as a Linux administrator

If you were on good terms with any past employers, reference letters from previous supervisors might be good to have on hand for offering up to perspective employers. I'd recommend getting started on a nice professional looking resume if you haven't done so already.

Good luck with your quest to become a Linux admin!

[Nagarjuna]

Thanks, ozar!

I will do just that. I am tinkering on a resume now, hopefully I can get it just right.

I have done some searching on the web, and have found some good advice. Though I would still love to hear advice/stories/opinions from my fellow peers here at LinuxForums however

Thanks again.

[PrinceSharma]

A small piece of suggestion :
"Getting started is key of getting succeeded."

So I will give my 2 cents to what ozar had said.

Welcome and good luck.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
I would suggest that you become a voracious reader of anything *nix related even if it's old and outdated most of it still applies to current releases. Good Luck and do let us know how it goes.

[MASONTX]

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your training and job search. A good starting point would be to read the problems posted here and think about how you would solve them.

[nujinini]

Hey! Welcome to the forums!

Hope you realize your dream. And soon!

I share your vision and wish you well!

[Nagarjuna]

Thanks all so much for your advice and the warm welcoming!

I'm curious if we have any administrators on the forums who can share with us their daily tasks and routine as a Linux admin? That is, if they don't mind, I would love to hear what a day in the life of a *nix administrator is like.

Also, I've been interested in scripting languages for automating tasks in a *nix environment. I know BASH scripting is must, but what about perl or even python?

Feel free to share your thoughts!

Thanks