|
On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:07:21 -0700, Shane Yoder <[email protected]> wrote: 2. Regarding career paths is it better to focus on one operating system, such as Microsoft Windows, or be more of a jack of all trades and have some level of proficiency in multiple OS's. I like Linux and BSD better than Windows but I have a more access to education learning Windows Administration than Linux. Right now I was planning on completing my degree in Windows Administration and getting some professional certifications in Linux and BSD (Linux Professional Institute Certified (LPIC-1 & 2) FreeBSD and OpenBSD System Administration (BSDA) on the side. Is this a good idea? I think it might be easier to get a job as a Windows Sysadmin rather than a Linux Sysadmin - is this the case? I was kind of hoping on learning both so that if there's a job opening for a Jr. Linux Sysadmin or a Jr. Windows Sysadmin I could apply and be qualified for either position. I've made good money being fluent in more than one operating system. I started poking around in Linux back in college earning my CompSci degree, 1995 (Slackware!), went on to be a NetWare/Windows admin (1998), did some more determined poking around in Linux (2005+), moved to full time Windows administration, and kept hacking on Linux at home. Three operating system with very different approaches to how things work, each of which have taught me interesting things as well as given me a sound grounding in the fundamentals of how some things work. Heck, I ran my blog on Apache running in NetWare for a number of years, so I've seen some strange configs out there. Good education, that. Learning more than one OS in depth is a great thing, in my opinion. As tep brought up, breadth is the thing top SysAdmins strive for. Start with solid education in both Windows and Linux, especially with a CompSci background, and you start to see the commonalities in both seemingly very different systems. It's that kind of thing that will serve you best when the really strange problems drop in your lap. As for the job market, in my experience Linux/BSD and Windows still occupy very different roles in the enterprise. I do see some call for cross-OS fluency, but those jobs read like there is still a primary you have to work with and the seconday is only occasionally called for. Jobs for Windows sysadmins generally call for proficiency in one or more of the major applications (Sharepoint is a very common one these days, with IIS and $ErpOfChoice running in close second). Linux jobs seem to call for a lot of web technology with a healthy leaven of scale-out experience. I don't know which are easier to get. Good luck! - Greg Riedesel -- Law of Probable Dispersal: Whatever it is that hits the fan will not be evenly distributed. |
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
