As someone who has hired Unix System administrators, web developers, designers, etc for large and small companies, I will say that to me, experience trumps certificates, but studying for the right certificate may be the best first step for experience.
>From there, I have seen 2 effective ways to overcome the catch 22 of no job/no experience, no experience/no job: 1) Find one or more internships with experienced professionals in a department that is very over worked. The pros will teach you a ton, and the work overload will force you to perform. You should be able to do this in a weekend and evening capacity while you keep your 'day job.' Much of this work can now be done remotely, but working with the experienced pros in real time will make help you learn much faster. 2) The other way to go, or to do at the same time is to put yourself out there on services like odesk and elance as an administrator / tech and under cut the folks with a lot more experience. Only take jobs you are comfortable that you can accomplish, even if it will take a little research to accomplish. Pricing yourself on par with the much less expensive international candidates, while being in the same time zone and a native english speaker will put you at an advantage for getting the gigs and help build your portfolio. These two approaches will help you learn and build your resume at the same time. Johnny On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Matthias Johnson < [email protected]> wrote: > > > On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Matthias Johnson < > [email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> If anyone wants to get together to study from the LPI I would love to, >> let me know I should be at the meeting tonight. >> >> > Err next week rather :-P > > > > -- > Matthias A. Johnson > matthias.a.johnson aut gmail dot com > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College > Mar 7 - Desktop Shootout - 9th Anniversary of MHVLUG > Apr 4 - An Intro to Chef > May 2 - May 2012 Meeting > > -- Johnny
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Mar 7 - Desktop Shootout - 9th Anniversary of MHVLUG Apr 4 - An Intro to Chef May 2 - May 2012 Meeting
