I’m trying to decide whether it would be worth spending an additional 2 years upgrading my associates to a bachelor’s in CS or not.
I don’t see much of a demand for the RHCSA in my area (Toronto, Canada) but I see that basically every job posting has a degree requirement.
I’d be 25 by the time I finish school with the degree but I honestly just want to start applying for jobs I don’t want to waste time.
I have the A+, CCNA and LFCS. I get my associates next week.
I’m aware that I’ll probably get a bunch of responses of people saying “I don’t have a degree or certifications!” but I’m genuinely confused as to how you’re in IT without either of those things unless you knew someone or got in very early so some elaboration would be nice.
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See a lot of “no higher Ed, just learned from experience.” any tips on things to do to gain more experience in sysadmin adjacent skills?
I like to think I’m quite competent with Windows/Linux, been a computer geek since I was really young, in a senior “tech support” position, but the kind of things I do at work are usually less advanced then the random side projects I do for fun… I’m basically the Linux guy for our group but that’s not saying much as the support is next to 0 until you get to an actual product role.
It feels like you’d have to have the job to get the experience, but maybe I’m just not aware of what/if there are any particular projects or things to do that could help with more sysadmin side knowledge.
To give a quick easy example, I have a friend who just started a server maintence type role at a different company and was tasked with setting up a Linux server, she ran into several snags trying to set it up with the documentation she was provided by the company, I asked what distro was it, and what commands was she running? Turns out it was just that she waa given instructions for YUM rather then APT (it was Ubuntu) lol
I did like one semester of computer science, does that count?
Honestly I just google shit until I understand it. Linux has great documention, and where it fails you can just read the source code.
Same, I do mean moreso building particular skills that businesses are looking for.
If it helps, 80% of the work i do when wearing my sysadmin hat is just ensuring that all of our systems are communicating properly.
I’m fresh off the school bench myself, and work is now requiring us to take RHCSA, RHCE and Terraform certs. As we are consultants this is the only “proof” customers will trust when they choose us for various jobs.
So far so good though, starting with RHCSA and it’s really good practice, especially for getting to know the ins and outs of the Linux system(RHEL). The learning material (the official stuff from red hat) is also very thoughtful, with theory, quizzes, guides and labs.
Best of luck 🙌
No higher education, no certifications, just 10 years of experience on different IT job positions, raging from junior web dev to big DevOps projects.
In my experience (I’m in EU/PL) what matters most are actual technical skills and ability to demonstrate them on interview. I changed my job like 5 times and each time I aim for slightly more advanced work and slightly better revenue.
I’m certifiably insane, have a doctorate in frustration, and many studies published of “Oh, fuck, what is this? I don’t have time for this now, I have shit to get done”.
Good luck.
everyones just like, “10 years of experience”…nobody is hiring people without experience so people without experience cant get experience…i dont get it…
The job market is circular and full of automation
Yes, it’s actually pissing me off reading these comments a little because it’s not very helpful to tell me to get experience when I don’t have any prior experience. That’s why I have these certs and a degree man
I have an unfinished Software Engineering degree. While studying, I started a small businesses to do some freelance IT work on the side and one client offered me a full-time job, so I put the studies on hold and then never looked back. Been climbing through different positions and companies since then. Experience is valued much higher than a diploma, especially in an industry that evolves too quickly for education to keep up. I quit the industry recently to start teaching, because there is huge need for teachers that can teach programming, and working with people is much more rewarding than a big paycheck (imo).
In all of my job interviews, I’ve been asked more about the company I started while studying, than the degree that I quit. So I guess my tip is to start your own thing or start teaching. Having your own business with a license also makes it way easier for big companies to hire you for contract work.
No certifications, no degrees, just good, old fashioned 15 years of experience.
I got dropped out from university. I got a Microsoft Azure Fundamental cert since then, now I’m a mixed Windows/Linux sysadmin at an SMB. YMMV, I’m in Europe btw.
What’s the pay like for system admins in Europe on an average? Asking for mid-level (5-7 years of experience)
Depends a bit where you live, but my guess is on average € 45-50k, with whatever local benefits there are. Which translates to between 3 and 4k a month, depending on whether a 14th month is included. But this can be a lot higher or lower depending on the location.
My certs have all expired, but when I started I didnt have any at all.
The thing that worked for me was to apply to small businesses(Look into local MSPs). Places that have ~20 employees have much less rigor about certs and will more likely test that you’re amicable enough to mesh with the rest of the team. From there you can build experience and often get thr company to pay for your certs.
None, anymore.
Eventually you end up with a resume/knowledge that sells itself.
I’m not talking about government jobs that require certain certs, though.
In my anecdata (TO), all the sysadmins I know have a CS degree. I don’t know many. Personally I haven’t professionally been a sysadmin per se but I’ve done cloud infrastructure design, development and maintenance at scale.
German here, no certs aswell
I got in to IT by just writing on my CV what I know I can do and what I learned in my free time.
Some company interviewed me, I could convince them that I really know a lot of stuff and that got me in.
Ever since then all I had where the companies I worked at and that was sufficient
none, I was just blessed with the role against my will because no one else was around
No certs just learning on the job + every IT/development job I could take in highschool
Just a lot of experience.
