<div> >And this LPI requires Windows or Mac for taking their tests - Linux<br>>isn't even supported?!? Credibility, gone.<br><br>I'm not sure where you got that tidbit from. LPI uses prometric or whatever<br>as their testing provider same as CompTia, who LPI writes the Linux+ exam for,<br>so they have at least that much street credibility. Possibly those exams are given <br>on Windows workstations? Who knows. Prometric sucks, no argument.<br><br>I do hear a lot more about Redhat certs, but I temper all the hype by remembering that<br>the person who first suggested it to me:<br>a. although had a math degree, failed his CS electives at uni<br>b. worked as a systems analyst for a big evil oil company<br>c. was an award winning Microsoft developer (MVP) for his work on Powershell (the<br>most gawd-awful excuse for a commandline interface I've ever witnessed - all the <br>argument I need to learn Ansible if I ever get stuck administering windows boxes).<br><br>One thing that attracts me to LPI right now is their BSD certification, which they inherited<br>from some other organisation. I can't find that anyone has even written the exam for<br>that cert. That makes it SUPER interesting to me. I guess that means hiring managers <br>are not my friends. No problem. I am Grumpy Unix guy.<br><br>I've been circling around the requirements for LPIC certs for years and I'm not worried - those are<br>rigorous certs. But certs are also BS. A degree will always trump a cert, and a cert with no<br>experience is well, paper. What I need to make up that difference is a git profile. <br><br>Which leads me back to the original question about gatekeepers...I've had every Bill and Karen<br>I can possibly find come out of the woodwork during the pandemic to stop me from building<br>this career because it represents too large a bump in salary compared to my previous work in the<br>arts. Having the sentence "Free and Open Source Software Advocate" at the top<br>of my resume has gotten me some weird reactions. Who can I talk to safely with<br>my clashing belt and suspenders about making some space to flesh out a portfolio <br>and possibly build some good references? I have a few more months of summer to sort <br>this out and then it's going to take more than my big fluffy beard to keep me warm.<br><br>So suggestions for focus and motivation in the face of gatekeepers? It's been my biggest<br>hurdle, especially since covid brought out the "best" in everyone :)<br><br>Thanks again for your thoughts and advice!<br><br><br><br> </div>