[Discuss] Aspiring Grumpy Unix Admin

[jkinney23 at yahoo.ca]

 >And this LPI requires Windows or Mac for taking their tests - Linux
>isn't even supported?!? Credibility, gone.

I'm not sure where you got that tidbit from. LPI uses prometric or whatever
as their testing provider same as CompTia, who LPI writes the Linux+ exam for,
so they have at least that much street credibility. Possibly those exams are given 
on Windows workstations? Who knows. Prometric sucks, no argument.

I do hear a lot more about Redhat certs, but I temper all the hype by remembering that
the person who first suggested it to me:
a. although had a math degree, failed his CS electives at uni
b. worked as a systems analyst for a big evil oil company
c. was an award winning Microsoft developer (MVP) for his work on Powershell (the
most gawd-awful excuse for a commandline interface I've ever witnessed - all the 
argument I need to learn Ansible if I ever get stuck administering windows boxes).

One thing that attracts me to LPI right now is their BSD certification, which they inherited
from some other organisation. I can't find that anyone has even written the exam for
that cert. That makes it SUPER interesting to me. I guess that means hiring managers 
are not my friends. No problem. I am Grumpy Unix guy.

I've been circling around the requirements for LPIC certs for years and I'm not worried - those are
rigorous certs. But certs are also BS. A degree will always trump a cert, and a cert with no
experience is well, paper. What I need to make up that difference is a git profile. 

Which leads me back to the original question about gatekeepers...I've had every Bill and Karen
I can possibly find come out of the woodwork during the pandemic to stop me from building
this career because it represents too large a bump in salary compared to my previous work in the
arts. Having the sentence "Free and Open Source Software Advocate" at the top
of my resume has gotten me some weird reactions. Who can I talk to safely with
my clashing belt and suspenders about making some space to flesh out a portfolio 
and possibly build some good references? I have a few more months of summer to sort 
this out and then it's going to take more than my big fluffy beard to keep me warm.

So suggestions for focus and motivation in the face of gatekeepers? It's been my biggest
hurdle, especially since covid brought out the "best" in everyone :)

Thanks again for your thoughts and advice!



  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.bclug.ca/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20220629/96f412fe/attachment.htm>