What is on Your Mind?

How does one know that he/she has the skills and enough knowledge of Unix to start applying for unix sys admin jobs? I am learning by telneting into a free bsd system. Will this prepare me for a solaris job?

Short answer - No.

Details -

A Solaris sysadmin job is generally going to require some real experience in I.T. where at least part of the time you were working on Unix systems. For example, as a helpdesk or tech support person in a mixed environment with some Unix, or an operator with duties that included Unix systems. Just self-teaching as you describe won't cut it with most employers looking for a sysadmin. The basic thing is a Solaris admin is not an entry level job . . . .

However, the fact that you are learning Unix is pretty impressive and would give you an advantage trying to get one of those entry level jobs. I would suggest you shoot for one of those support or ops positions and after a year or two of experience then go for a sysadmin job.

The one possible exception is if you found a very large site with many (I'm thinking 10-15+) sysadmins hundreds of machines. A place like that probably would hire some junior Unix admins to do the crappy day to day work that the more senior ones don't have time for. Password updates, creating users, home directory quotas - real basic stuff like that. A position like that would be awesome to get experience from, but most smaller shops don't have the need or money to hire very junior people just to do those things.

As an example - I work for a division of a big company. In my group there are 8 Unix admins. Somebody without at least a couple years experience can't even get an interview to be an admin on our team. I have been an admin over 5 years and I'm actually the 2nd most junior guy here. But the corporate IT group (which is much larger) does employ people to be account admins and level 1 helpdesk type jobs where they work on Unix systems and can get that experience. If you were going to apply for my company you'd have no chance with my group, but might land a job with the corporate IT department in one of their junior spots.

Of course, all of the above is just my opinion. Hopefully others will give theirs so you get a more balanced response to think about.

One last point - studying any type of bsd isn't too good for learning Solaris. Sun quit using lots of bsd and went almost completely sys V when they switched to Solaris (from SunOS) back in the mid 90's. I'd suggest downloading Solaris x86 and finding some old PC to run it on for learning purposes.

Thank you for your advice and opinion. I appreciate the information and will act on it in my pursuit of becoming a sys admin. Thanks again.

Guys - just thought I'd move this to the O/T forum seeing as it isn't really a "technical" question - I thought it would be more appropriate here.

Soon I'm migrating to Australia (hope my boss isn't reading this - not told them yet ) - and now that I've got my LPI Linux SysAdmin Certification, plus a good few years SysAdmin experience (in Windows/HP-UX/Linux(SUSE)), I'm *fairly* certain that I should land a pretty good Linux sysadmin position.

Cheers
ZB

Zazzy let me be the first to say welcome to the land down under! (I'm in Syd)

As for the topic.

I started out 3 1/2 years ago working with a company just with basic knowledge of Linux (IT though for 4 1/2 years) . Over the years I was there I learnt Solaris pretty good for self taught on the job. When I left there I didn't have enough experience to be classed as a Snr Unix admin (About 1-2yrs off) and I had too much to be classed as a Jnr so wasn't to much going for me. I did however knock back jobs as I wasn't willing to travel interstate right now.

Anyway I'm now a Technical Consultant Make me sound smart doesn't it heehee. I work cross platforma nd I'll be working on getting certs just to help me get a Unix admin role, not as a Jnr though.

But what I'm getting to is I'm working in IT, it's easy for me to move around I've worked on jobs/contracts that give me a good range of skills. Making it easy to move. I would suggest that you just go for a helpdesk/entry level role if your not in IT already! The hardest thing is breaking into the IT world. Once your in it's pretty easy if you're will to do some hard yards

Other people make differ from what I'm about to say. Though most people I know who work a *nix system know Windows, MAC, networking, Backups, hardware, programming etc. For me to know just Unix can't be done, Unix just helps make you shine in what you do best. Unix is the tool that makes everything run smoothly as it is a smooth O/S itself.

@woofie: Cheers! My wife is an Aussie and we're relocating to Melbourne - the UK is pants (i.e. not a place I would like to bring up my daughter) - and although a born Brit I can't wait to get out to Oz and show them how to use Linux properly

I've gotta agree with what woofie is saying. I think a solid background in programming (amongst other things) is a good prerequisite for any job. I am (dare I say it) very proficient in automation through shell scripting, plus I know a good deal of Java, PHP, Perl and C. The "logic" of programming gives you an immense understanding of computing at a "lower" level (even with high-level languages!).

Whilst using Linux at home, I moved into my Windows job, and automated a lot of Windows tasks through shell scripting via Cygwin (Linux emulation layer on Windows). This enabled me to move within the organistation into HP-UX and Linux administration by showing my seniors a thing or two about saving time

When I first started working with *nix OSes I thought "My god, what flexibilty" - I am by no means starting a OS vs OS debate here, but I was amazed by *nix's way of getting the OS to work for you, rather than you working to get the OS to do what you want it to....

BTW, Woofie - if there are any jobs going in Sydney, we'd be willing to move up there!

Also; I am looking for developers to help me with some of my Open Source projects - I've got so much on the go at the moment it's hard to keep track of everything. If any of you would care to take a look at my site (http://www.zazzybob.com) and would like to help out, please drop me a line. Something I'd like to do is port my ZSysInfo script to Solaris, and develop my ZBKB application further (look at /sbin on my site... you'll see what I'm on about). None of this work is commercial, all of it is GPL'd, and I'd love to collaborate with like-minded individuals to expedite development.
Cheers
ZB

i often see people going this way:
1-3 years trainee -- teached by a senior admin
2-5 years administation -- like a better callcenter, supporting the staffers
and then they became a system-administators, for one or two specific enviroments.....

the peoples who love stress and are good enough are working as a systems-engineer. systems-engineers are primarily specialising in one domain, they need to know everything the system-administrators don't know ;-)

well, the best paid job is for sure the SE but the admin job is more stressless......

gP