RE: Certification

[Flood Randy Capt AFCA/GCF <randy.flood@scott.af.mil>]

Many people are interested in Linux, but only get tangencial experience from
their job.  Say that 90%+ of the stuff you do at work is with Windows NT,
and that only a small part of it is with Linux if any.  How can you
transition yourself to do more Linux-related work?    

There are two things you can do.  The first is getting a certification.  The
second is getting more Linux experience.

In my case, I accomplished the first goal by getting my RHCE certification.
The second goal I am working on by running a Linux related website
(www.rhce2b.com).  

Would I expect my RHCE certificate alone to get me a job?  Probably not in
and of itself.  But I am happy to say, that someone who liked my website has
recently offered to pay me to do some Linux related work.  Assuming that
they powers that be at my work approve it, then I will accept.  And All of
this work will go straight to my resume...  And by induction, I hope to do
more Linux related work, thus gaining more experience.  

So, in conclusion, I recommend getting certified, and trying to increase
your experience.  It seems to be working for me so far.

Randy




-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Pritchard [mailto:steve@silug.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 5:20 PM
To: silug-discuss@silug.org
Subject: Re: Certification


Mark said:
> I hire people for my company and we don't care about certifications (Linux
> or otherwise).  We care about your past experiences and how easy it might
> be for you to learn our system.

That's fine for you, but how about the people who aren't experts in
the field they are hiring people for?  I know that in an ideal world
$manager would have enough experience in $job to hire somebody
qualified, but, let's face it, this isn't an ideal world.  Not only is
$manager often not the slightest bit qualified, but often hiring is
done by some random HR person without a background in computers who
can only see years of experience and applicable certifications.

For a real-world example, let's say I needed to hire somebody who had
Cisco experience.  Well, I know a little about Cisco equipment, so I
could probably tell if a person's experience meant anything.
Unfortunately though, I don't know enough about Cisco equipment to
actually be able to judge whether a person *really* knew any more than
I do.  Some kind of Cisco certification would at least give me a tiny
bit of confidence...

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7320             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/
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