Trying to break in to IT infrastructure field

oldbag said:
I don't even see the point in doing Linux certs personally. Knowledge and experience are more important.
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Aside from the training benefits, a lot of recruitment consultants are basically 'box-tickers' so having a qualification can be the difference between getting past the initial screening phase or having your CV dropped in the bin. Plus depending on the qualification some companies, especially smaller ones, need their staff to have various certifications to maintain partnerships with vendors.
 
After today, I think I have decided it is time to move on.

Further up in the thread I wrote how I had spoken to my manager about wanting to get involved with doing more interesting things and that he had given me a project to work on, then basically started discussing my project with my colleague basically cutting me out.....

My colleague couldn't solve it so they had to open a case with Microsoft. Of course during the investigation the Microsoft engineer wanted to speak to the person who was leading the project before it reached that stage, so the phone was handed over to me. I mean how awkward does this situation have to be.

My manager tries to cut me out of project he gives me and then at the end of the day I'm the one who has to go through the steps with the Microsoft engineer as I'm the one who WAS leading the project. I was the one that new the technical stuff related to the case.

I was the one updating the ticket, and yet, my manager is till discussing it with my colleague.

I don't know what to say. I could say, I thought this was my project, but do I really want to deal with the awkward scenario and create a confrontation.

He doesn't like me for some reason, so is there any reason to create an issue or situation.

Also to highlight he's attitude towards me, he can help the other guys with support calls when their stuck. Me, he just gets annoyed and thinks I'm an idiot, when I cant solve something. Basically questioning my troubleshooting when in reality after about 1hr struggling with the issue himself, he must realise I wasn't being an idiot after all. But to get to that point takes a while as he has a different attitude towards me than the other guys.

Another issue today, highlighting the lack of communication. I had no idea they had implemented SSL on the connection to the IMAP server at work. Since day one (8 years ago) I was told to set up users emails as a unencrypted connection. So whilst trouble shooting some email issues I mention to him that he turned on SSL and he said "well yes, that's normal and has been for years, do we really want to be using unencrypted connections?" As if again I'm an idiot.

Thing is I set up hundreds of accounts a year. He hasn't set up an account for about 8+ years, and NEVER was I told that SSL was implemented on the IMAP server and I've been here for 8 years!!

I just felt like saying, listen, it would be nice to have been told these things. But again, do I want the aggro and a confrontation with my manager? :confused:

They will talk with them selves, but keep me out of the loop.

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Anyway, I've decided its time to just move on. I need a normal manager that operates in normal ways and has time to speak to me and help me forward my career.

I am looking for 1st line 2nd line roles with at least a mention of Linux as I want to carry on down this path. However how much of an issue/nonissue is finding a new job which isn't Linux based (more Microsoft) doing my Linux at home and then looking for a Linux admin role?

I'm thinking the fact I'm in a Linux role now would help me move in to a Linux admin role in the future, rather than leaving, going in to a non Linux role then trying to find a Linux role in the future once I've passed my exams.

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Oh want to hear something else that's bizarre? My manager cant even bring himself to make me tea! He will offer everyone else in the office, but not me.

When I make tea/coffee I always ask him.
 
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opethdisciple said:
I'm thinking the fact I'm in a Linux role now would help me move in to a Linux admin role in the future, rather than leaving, going in to a non Linux role then trying to find a Linux role in the future once I've passed my exams.
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I wouldn't get too fixated on Linux/non-Linux. I good engineer will be comfortable with both, and it's not like your current experience will completely disappear just because you don't use it for a year or two - especially if you keep your eye in by having a home lab that you use regularly.

But yeah your current manager seems a bit weird. You'll often find that if you switch employers you can kinda reset people's expectations of you - when you move you'll no longer be the new kid from 8 years ago who didn't really know anything, you'll be the guy with 8 years of good experience looking for the next step up.
 
I've started looking. I've been here for 8 years so on paper it looks like I have 8 solid years of exp. But I haven't been exposed to what I should have in 8 years!!

It will never change and I have a very odd manager. It will be painful, but the best thing for my career is a move. I know that. Just now have to implement it.
 
I've been making some applications today and sending my CV off to agents whose email address I find on the various job websites.

I see a slight issue. If I get a new job doing general technical support (Microsoft tech etc) but with a slight pay rise great. But my plan is to study this year and then get a Linux role.

If I manage to get a junior Linux admin role after my next move, the money will probably just be the same as it's a side great and a junior role. :/

Do you get what I mean? If I'm applying for a job similar to what I do know, but a little bit of a pay rise (up to 30k), but then in about a year I try to get a junior Linux role, that too will be around 30k.

Minor issue, but means for a little while I will be on the same money.

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I actually think it's quite difficult for me to do anything other than Linux and opensource. I have no experience with Exchange, we don't use Outlook. We only use Windows server as a host for the antivirus or the wsus server. We don't use Group Policies etc ect ect...

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What I can foresee happening is, there are lots of jobs for me to apply for. A handful of them mention Linux. What will happen is I will get a windows focused role and then be expected to train or gain qualifications in windows tech which isn't a bad thing, but my focus ideally is Linux. :/

Met with an old uni mate on Thu. He has just got a BIG job working for IBM. He told me at my stage of my career, I shouldn't be looking to specialise, but rather work with anything and everything so you understand the full spectrum of the IT industry.
 
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I know. I've been lazy. :o Last 5 years of my life, I was at the gym during the week and partying hard at the weekend. Career never seemed important to me back then.

But now that I've got all that partying out of my system, I realize it's time to get cracking as I'm now 34 and still in the same role, with no progress. The role it's self potentially is a good one. We have Linux and windows servers, Cisco equipment, IBM Z mainframe etc... but my manager has no interest in developing my skills.

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This is the year I do something about it. I've quit the gym which frees up my week days and I no longer go out as much as I was before.

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I'm gonna get my lab set up this month. Got my driving theory on Fri, so after that I'll be free for Linux!!

I've been thinking about what you said above regarding Red Hat. It makes sense what your saying to do a course that is in demand rather than the LPIC. However the LPIC to me looks very good! It is vendor neutral and covers the full spectrum of Linux up to intermediate level which is the level I am aiming for.

All the stuff covered, squid, nginx, apache, bind, iptables, Compiling a kernel etc etc etc are all the stuff I hear the guys in the office discussing and working on. So I can tell that from a syllabus perspective it's very good.

Here is the LPIC1 syllabus.

Here is the LPIC2 syllabus.

Even IBM have an LPIC section on there developer site.

So although no jobs actually say, "needs to be LPIC certified" I think people that know something about Linux, would be able to tell that this person knows something if they gain the certification.

What I don't like about it, is there is no official study material, other than one book by Sybex and the internet. Also the CBT nuggest etc is also quite sparse especially for the LPIC2 material.

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Now on to Red Hat. I'm not going to discredit it. I choose the LPIC for the reasons I mentioned above and price as well as relative difficulty.

I hear the Red Hat exam is tough as old boots and you have to be an actual Linux admin in your day job to stand a chance of passing. This is not what I am. This is what I aim for, so is the Red Hat still the course I should pursue?

I'm talking about the Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator course.

Do you know if Red Hat actually provide official study material like Cisco do?
Because that would be a massive plus. The LPIC doesn't have any official study material.

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On the topic of the CCNA. I get what you mean regarding the material. But, there are Linux roles out there, even junior ones that mention CCNA would be a plus. So depending on what happens over the next year or two I don't think it's a bad thing for me to do.

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Can the RHSCA be done in a year?
 
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opethdisciple said:
I've been thinking about what you said above regarding Red Hat. It makes sense what your saying to do a course that is in demand rather than the LPIC. However the LPIC to me looks very good! It is vendor neutral and covers the full spectrum of Linux up to intermediate level which is the level I am aiming for.

All the stuff covered, squid, nginx, apache, bind, iptables, Compiling a kernel etc etc etc are all the stuff I hear the guys in the office discussing and working on. So I can tell that from a syllabus perspective it's very good.

Here is the LPIC1 syllabus.

Here is the LPIC2 syllabus.

Even IBM have an LPIC section on there developer site.
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Note that the IBM pages refer to the LPIC exams as of April 2009. Given how long ago that is it may impact on whether they cover the current material.

I've nothing against LPIC, work had us do LPIC 1 about 10 years ago, but be wary of going above LPIC 1 at first as you might seem to be over qualified for the type of junior role you want.

Note a quick glance at their page seems to indicate you can leverage it into a SuSE certification still too.

Now on to Red Hat. I'm not going to discredit it. I choose the LPIC for the reasons I mentioned above and price as well as relative difficulty.

I hear the Red Hat exam is tough as old boots and you have to be an actual Linux admin in your day job to stand a chance of passing. This is not what I am. This is what I aim for, so is the Red Hat still the course I should pursue?

I'm talking about the Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator course.

Do you know if Red Hat actually provide official study material like Cisco do?
Because that would be a massive plus. The LPIC doesn't have any official study material.

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On the topic of the CCNA. I get what you mean regarding the material. But, there are Linux roles out there, even junior ones that mention CCNA would be a plus. So depending on what happens over the next year or two I don't think it's a bad thing for me to do.

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Can the RHSCA be done in a year?
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Red Hat do have official study material .... It is called their training courses and they are expensive so you won't be doing those. The book RHCSA & RHCE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Training and Exam Preperation Guide (EX200 and EX300) Third Edition is pretty good at covering the content and there are some worked examples on the Certdepot website of the sort of content. Note that Red Hat have a confidentiality clause which means that if they find you talking about the actual exam content then they can cancel your qualification (because they don't want people saying just study x, y and z and you can pass ... They want people to understand the content so the qualification means more)

Remember that it would also be applicable to systems running CentOS and Oracle Linux as well as RHEL. Oracle Linux being an interesting one given its licensing costs vs RHEL.

CCNA would be a nice to have rather than a need to have ... Personally I don't know any Linux/Unix guys who have it but we are a large company and have a separate networks department to most don't have to touch network hardware outside the labs and the general network training for Linux/Unix covers what they need.

If you put the work in then it should be possible to do RHCSA, or LPIC 1, or both, in a year .... But you would have to make sure you really understood it and you would be left in qualified vs experience conundrum.
 
memyselfandi said:
Note that the IBM pages refer to the LPIC exams as of April 2009. Given how long ago that is it may impact on whether they cover the current material.

I've nothing against LPIC, work had us do LPIC 1 about 10 years ago, but be wary of going above LPIC 1 at first as you might seem to be over qualified for the type of junior role you want.

Note a quick glance at their page seems to indicate you can leverage it into a SuSE certification still too.



Red Hat do have official study material .... It is called their training courses and they are expensive so you won't be doing those. The book RHCSA & RHCE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Training and Exam Preperation Guide (EX200 and EX300) Third Edition is pretty good at covering the content and there are some worked examples on the Certdepot website of the sort of content. Note that Red Hat have a confidentiality clause which means that if they find you talking about the actual exam content then they can cancel your qualification (because they don't want people saying just study x, y and z and you can pass ... They want people to understand the content so the qualification means more)

Remember that it would also be applicable to systems running CentOS and Oracle Linux as well as RHEL. Oracle Linux being an interesting one given its licensing costs vs RHEL.

CCNA would be a nice to have rather than a need to have ... Personally I don't know any Linux/Unix guys who have it but we are a large company and have a separate networks department to most don't have to touch network hardware outside the labs and the general network training for Linux/Unix covers what they need.

If you put the work in then it should be possible to do RHCSA, or LPIC 1, or both, in a year .... But you would have to make sure you really understood it and you would be left in qualified vs experience conundrum.
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Just as an example of a Linux role requiring a CCNA, this sort of role would be a dream job for me.
 
memyselfandi said:
If you put the work in then it should be possible to do RHCSA, or LPIC 1, or both, in a year .... But you would have to make sure you really understood it and you would be left in qualified vs experience conundrum.
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could you do the RHCSA in <6months, i have a fair bit of general experience in centos as we use that for hosting all of our servers, so general file permissions and installing programs from yum and source etc etc ive done many many times, the bits i havent done yet are SELinux and visualization and the iscsi although i have done that once before but over 18 months ago.
 
memyselfandi said:
And it's quite possible that the CCNA requirement is too.
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True, but that's probably something added by the hiring manager as a nice to have, whereas the "Linux/Unix" thing. There's probably some recruiters who don't even have Linux and Unix as separate tags on their systems.
 
I've got an interview set for Fri. It's a MS centric role, but it does look good. Lots of skills and systems I don't have (ESXi, VMWare, Exchange, etc), but they are interested in me as I have Linux skills they dont have so it's win win.

Looks a lot more corporate than I'm used to, but also looks fun. I get the impression they are the type of company very geared towards training their staff amd certifying them. May or may not impact my plans to study linux this year.

IF I get this role, it would probably mean I do an MCSE (they'd pay) and then an CCNA rather than the LPIC and the CCNA.

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It will be painful and sad to say good bye to a company I have been working for, for the past 8.2 years. But they are not expanding my career and they are under paying me.
 
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well you're well overdue a move... good luck with the interview - hopefully you can gain more experience and progress in this place
 
So after my interview yesterday with an IT solutions company 100% geared towards MS, they said I would have to do the MCSE.

I looked at the content. It does look good. And probably is slightly higher level than the LPIC 1+2 content. What I mean by this is, the MCSE is up to design and Data centre level.

The LPIC 1 and 2, is up to Linux admin level. This would include infrastructure upgrades etc but I get the impression its of a slightly lesser level to the MCSE.

Any thoughts?

Both are good. Both in demand.

But upon reflection, I still think Linux is where I want to go. It just seems more interesting that MS.

Theres a lot more interesting things happening in the world regarding Linux than MS.
 
MCSE isn't difficult. Self study for each exam and you can have it done in no time at all.

As for career progression, I'd apply for jobs at small firms (20-40 people) that offer infrastructure services. Even if you start on the helpdesk, you'll have ample opportunity to get involved in projects. Prove yourself there and move on to a proper engineering or technical architect role.

You really don't get that opportunity that often at larger firms.
 
Hellsmk2 said:
MCSE isn't difficult. Self study for each exam and you can have it done in no time at all.

As for career progression, I'd apply for jobs at small firms (20-40 people) that offer infrastructure services. Even if you start on the helpdesk, you'll have ample opportunity to get involved in projects. Prove yourself there and move on to a proper engineering or technical architect role.

You really don't get that opportunity that often at larger firms.
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I was called last week by a foreign company with a London branch of only 10 people. Second interview still to come.

I just need to get out of my current role. They are wasting my talent and time. I cant get on with my manager. I find him 'uncooperative'.

A new job will also help to beef up y CV a little as well as at the moment I only really have my current job on there. (Been in it for 8 years) Prior was just 1 month here and there trying to get my first proper role.
 
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