[lug] System Administration - First Dive?

[Rob Nagler]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Erik Lenderman wrote:
> What kind of obstacles should I expect from employers seeking 5+ years of
> experience?

Kill two birds with one stone: become a Linux sysadmin consultant.

I don't recommend learning in a vacuum.  Rather, learn by doing
something useful for someone.  It's always good to have someone
driving your requirements.  You might have to work really hard to get
almost no money, but that's a lot better than paying somebody to teach
you something that you won't retain.  Nothing like typing "kill - 1 1"
on the console to remember NEVER to put a space after the "-".   (Not
that I've ever done anything as stupid as that. ;-)

Set up an LLC, get fancy business cards, make a website (all good
skills in themselves), and off you go!  You are now in the business of
system administration.  Go out and hustle.  Tell people that you've
done Linux administration for X years, because, as you said, you've
been doing it at home for some time with GUIs.  They aren't going to
ask you if you prefer using the command line.  Rather, solve their
immediate problem.  Give them a new customer discount.  And so on.

I remember one customer for whom I started maintaining their Samba
server.  Didn't know a thing about it, but I did learn quickly. :)

Rob