Which Linux Certification?

dirvish asks: "I am trying to break into the Linux Server Administration field so I have been doing quite a bit of studying lately. I figured while I am studying the subject I might as well work towards a related certification. I am leaning towards the Linux Professional Institute Certification. Other certifications I am considering are CompTIAs Linux+ and Red Hats RHCE. So which Linux certification is the best? I would say Red Hat is the most reputable of these three but I am concerned that their certification might be too Red-Hat-centric, and I don't want to be locked into one distro. Which one is the easiest/cheapest to obtain? Which is the mostly highly regarded in the industry? Are there others that I missed?"

Comments

Why Bother

[finkployd]

Ok, I will freely admit to working for a University, and not the private sector. Are certifications really held in such high regard out there? I know here they mean squat (and rightfully so imho, all they show is that you could afford to take the certification test). Heck, some departments around here will automatically disregard your resume if you put MCSE on it :)

Finkployd

Any of them or none of them.

[hey!]

Really, what you want, and works better than anything else, is a network of people who know you. Since you're just starting out, you don't have this network. The value of a certification is this: it might create a marginal increase in the probability that you will make it past the resume screening stage to a phone call, and thence to an interview. Period.

It works like this, I'm looking for a linux system admin, and I have a stack of way more people than I want to even call back.

A is fresh out of school with no particular qualifications, but he claims to know Linux. He goes in the "no" pile.

B has ten years of Windows and Novell sys admin experience, but no professional Linux experience, although he claims to know SUSE. OK, he goes in the "maybe" pile.

C has ten years of Unix system administration experience, including NIS, LDAP, and five years of professional experience with several Linux distros. He goes in the "call back" pile.

D is fresh out of school with no with a certification in Linux administration. He goes in the "no" pile, after the briefest moment of delay.

E has ten years of Windows and Novell sys admin experience, no professional Linux experience, but he has a certification from Red Hat. OK, so he goes in the "call back" pile.


You see how this works? The certification doesn't make up for your lack of professional experience. If I want an experienced system administrator, I'm going to hire one. I'm going to prefer ones with knowledge of the platform, the best way is if its on their resume, but I'm more open to a guy who has the real world admin skills that could be transferred than I am to somebody whose certification only establishes a theoretical knowledge of Linux administration.

In the end it doesn't matter much which one you get. None of these certifications are like getting a CPA, which carries weight because it implies a number of years of hands on experience plus a strong theoretical grounding in accounting. My advice would be to get the certification that you think has the greatest "brand name" recognition.

Think of it like batting in baseball. The goal is to get to home, but even a tremendously talented hitter only gets to first base on his own skills less than one third of the time. Getting the job is coming to home; getting the interview is first base. At this stage, you're very lucky if you bat .200. A certification might raise a .200 to a .210 or a .215. Which is enough to be worth considering.

But also work your network. You don't have one? Well, maybe. Don't you have friends working in the field? Suppose you have a friend working as an app developer. If he happens to drop your name to a supervisor looking for a sys admin, and follows up by hand delivering your resume, your batting average is going to go way up -- more like .800 or .900. Doesn't mean you'll get to home, but you'll almost certainly get to first base.

Also consider non-standard ways of finding that job. So, that fortune 100 company that has the full page ad for linux admins in the Sunday paper? Unless you have a resume that's going to stand out, forget it. But that small non-profit that needs a "computer guy" that has a card up in the job placement at the university? Go for it. That's how I got started.

Re:Any of them or none of them.

[hey!]

How the hell are college grads supposed to find a job if they all require previous professional experience?

Yup, it sucks, but imagine how much more it will suck on the other end of your career, when you're too senior for most of the jobs that are out there. The point is that job searching is about rejection. You get rejected and rejected and rejected and rejected. Unlike you're mom and girlfiend, they don't know how wonderful you are, which is why getting a friend to put in a good word is so valuable.

I may have painted too bleak a picture. I've hired guys right out of school -- when I'm looking for somebody cheap to fil a junior position. What I'm saying is don't expect anybody to be impressed with your "certification".

I've installed gentoo on a few boxes, repaired mandrake, used redhat 9 and SuSE, but nothing professionally. Are you saying I should start by joining in a non-profit organization and work my way up?

Not necessarily. Work your way up, yes; be aware of different avenues for finding jobs, yes. But don't expect me to count any of that mucking around as system administration experience. I think it speaks well of yoru curiosity, but it's not experience. You might get a job in a large data center, but it definitely won't be running it. Don't be to offended if you are asked to make coffee. In fact if you're wise you get that phase out of the way by getting an internship. Interns are easy shoe ins for real live jobs.

WRT the non-profit, that's just an example of the fact you can take different strategies. It's not for everyone. Another strategy is get in on the ground floor of a big outfit and climb through a Darwinian process to the top of the heap over everyone else. It's a good strategy, but every strategy has its disadvantages too. You aren't going to have a lot of autonomy to do things the way you like, until you have risen to become master of the universe. Getting to the interview stage is going to be tougher.

But are non-profit orgs professional experience? And how do we make money in the meantime?

Yes: a job is a job. If you had one or two years of professional experience in a small company (a non-profit was just an example), you're well positioned to get into the rat race. Another advantage is that in a smaller company you get more decision making power right from the get go. However I wouldn't stay in that area too long unless you want to track your career that way. For one thing, you'll miss out on having colleagues (your future employment network).

Don't let a job become a career track unless that's what you really want.

In many ways, the sweet spot for hiring a junior person is somebody with a year or two of real world experience. Somebody with an internship in exactly the kind of situation I'm hiring would be ideal, but somebody with 1-2 years of professional experience looking to change industries is definitely ahead of somebody fresh out of school.

I'm really curious as to the answer to those questions, because they're most likely the ones I'll be facing in 3 years.

You've got lots of time, but don't waste it. Go for a summer internship. Be cheerful, useful, and a pleasure to work with. Cultivate people. I you have a summer internship, keep in touch with the people you've cultivated through the year, see if you can't get odd jobs during winter break for example. Once upon a time, there were two classes of people: entrepreneurs, who worried about getting ahead, selling, networking and all that stuff.

Re:"Which one is best?"

[akpoff]

The fact that you are asking this indicates that you don't understand the question. The question isn't what piece of paper you have. The questions are can you do the job your potential employer needs done, the way he wants it done, and at a profit?

That might be true if you have applicable past experience. For someone trying to break into a new field or get their first job certification can be a valuable way of showing some level of competence. But entry-level is not where the value of certification ends. Certification can also demonstrate advanced knowledge or experience. Consider most states PE (professional engineer) designation -- PEs can certify that a certain design meets state code for best practices, structural integrity and safety. CPA is also a certification that demonstrates knowledge and competence and allows the holder to sign his/her name on legally binding documents that a regular bookeeper/account can't.

In the IT field there aren't many certifications if any that are equivalent to the PE but that's just a matter of time. Consider security-related certs like the CISSP and GIAC that demonstrate knowledge and in the case of the CISSP that the holder has documented past experience (4 years) working in security-related IT jobs. Someday IT certifications will carry as much weight as any of the current professional certifications and will allow the holder to sign and attest to the validity of the design or security or implementation of some aspect of IT

To the original questioner, reading down below it sounds like the LPIC is the harder. Frankly, I'd be inclined to get the LPIC and try and add to it a security certification like the CISSP or GIAC. If you don't have the applicable 4-year-time experience for the CISSP then you'll have to get the GIAC. Both are hard and well respected in their areas. The CISSP is a bit more director/consultant/CSO oriented while the GIAC is more engineering oriented so it may be more useful to you for now. Either way, get a security cert as well. Just knowing how to administer makes you a candidate. Knowing secure administration makes you a stand-out candidate.