What is on Your Mind?

Hi, my name is wesly. I an IT tech at the Junior Level. I have a bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. I would like to fully become a Unix Sys Admin. Can anyone please tell me what I have to do. Do I have to set up a Unix or Linux server. How about Apache. Please give me clues and tips and general advice. If anyone would rather email me, my email is ***email removed by moderator*** .

Thank you

You should join a system integrator company, find out which are the unix integrators in your area and join first as a field replacement tech there you will either pick up or lot or you will drown.

On a side note, I feel that since you are at the starting point let me share my experience being a unix engineer/sys admin of many years.

As unix sys admin in a corporate environment:

1) Unless there are new rollouts you won't be doing very much system admin.
2) Because everything is production you cant touch the system much but all the same they still make you responsible for it if something goes wrong.
3) What you will mostly learn is to support instead is your corporate legacy system.
4) And because of this and depending on how good/bad the system is, it may bring you head to head very often with application folks who will often accuse "something wrong with the system"

5) In short to be a unix sys admin is to be a lone fire fighter.

Since you are at the starting point, you should take the path of a qualified network engineer.

1) Network engineers have great job, once the network is up they are very free.
2) I have rarely seen network engineers get involved in system rollouts other than supplying IP addresses
3) When there's a problem with the system normally the fighting is between system guy and application guy.
4) Sun solaris and Aix or HPux Novell, Win2k are all different OS, but TCPIP is the same everywhere.

what do you think?