Path to Linux / Unix Systems Administrator Post: 302415485

Sponsored Content

Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Path to Linux / Unix Systems Administrator Post 302415485 by rhfrommn on Thursday 22nd of April 2010 04:18:55 PM

04-22-2010

Registered User

One comment I'd have is that a large fraction of the admins I know had an experience in their career where they got thrown in way over their head and they had to learn under pressure. One of my mentors worked at a large bank, and 1 month after becoming a Unix admin the senior admin quit so he ended up in charge of hundreds of workstations and servers by himself.

In my case, 1 year after getting into Unix I was hired to be the middle person of a 3 admin team for a fairly small company. There was supposed to be a very experienced admin hired for the senior position. The day I showed up they told me the senior guy got another job offer and wouldn't be joining the company. So day 1 I ended up in charge of the entire Unix environment for a new company I'd never worked at before! Not long after that, due to layoffs I ended up the only person between both Unix and Storage teams, doing the work that was handled by a team of 6 about a year earlier. It was tons of work and stress having to come up to speed that fast and handle everything on my own. But for the long range career outlook it was great. I had experience and knowledge I never would have gotten working under a more senior admin again.

So, I guess the practical advice for you is to find a way to work on Unix, even if you think it's beyond what you can do. If you truly love it and have the talent and smarts it takes you'll manage to get by and learn more than you ever could reading books. Find a part time or entry level Unix job, or volunteer at the church/school/charity of your choice to work on their Linux or Unix systems, or somthing like that. Find a way to get real world experience even if it seems intimidating at first.

Good luck.

rhfrommn

View Public Profile for rhfrommn

Find all posts by rhfrommn

2 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. What is on Your Mind?

Unix Administrator and Linux Administrator transition

Hello Unix Experts, I'm going to be graduating with a CIS (Computer Information Systems) degree in the coming year. I have been offered an internship with a job title of Unix Administrator under a well known company. I understand that Unix is used for high-end servers in many large...

2. Advertise with Us

UNIX Systems Administrator Opportunity

Optiver is a worldwide market maker and derivatives trading firm with offices strategically located in Chicago, Amsterdam and Sydney. Attracting very ambitious, talented and results-oriented individuals to become members of a highly selective trading and support group is a primary contributor to...

LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS

time-admin

time-admin(1)							   User Commands						     time-admin(1)

NAME

       time-admin - Basic configuration of system time, date, timezone and NTP client.

SYNOPSIS

       time-admin [gnome-std-options]

DESCRIPTION

       time-admin  enables  the  user  to  configure the default timezone and current date/time on the system. It also enables the user to turn on
       auto-synchronisation of this using NTP.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       gnome-std-options	       Standard options available for use with most GNOME applications. See gnome-std-options(5) for more informa-
				       tion.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Running the main application.

       example% time-admin

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0	Application exited successfully

       >0	Application exited with failure

FILES

       The following files are used by this application:

       /usr/bin/time-admin	       Executable for time and date configuration.

       /var/spool/setup-tool-backends/backup/time
				       Backup directory for files that are modified.

       /var/run/setup-tool-backends/debug/time
				       Debug logs can be found under here.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWgnome-system-tools	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface stability	     |Uncommitted		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       Latest version of the GNOME Desktop User Guide for your platform.

       users-admin(1), shares-admin(1), services-admin(1), network-admin(1), gnome-std-options(5), rtc(1M), ntpdate(1M), xntpd(1M), attributes(5)

NOTES

       Written by Darren Kenny, Sun Microsystems Inc., 2006.

SunOS 5.11							    6 Nov 2006							     time-admin(1)