I've been a pro, full-time photographer for the past 15 years but I've been contemplating switching careers to linux system adminstration. I'd like to get the RHCE cert to do this.

Computer science was my minor in college for a while, but I did not complete all the courses for the minor. But I completed most of them! I've also been a linux/bsd hobbyist and user since 1998 doing installs and setting up the computer so it does what I want.

What sort of job opportunities might I have if I acquired a RHCE cert? I looked at the skill set involved in acquiring this cert and I'm already familiar with a lot of the topics, though no doubt I'd have to bring my skills up another order or magnitude to get to a level where I could pass the test.

What sort of day-to-day activities does a linux admin with a RHCE cert typically engage in? What are the challenges of the job?

Thanks in advance!

Realistically you would be looking at an entry level administrator position, your experience is strictly from a non-business environment that doesn't have the same security concerns and requirements a business does. A certification or degree is not a replacement for experience, but it is good for opening doors. It also depends where you live, some areas are much more technical hotbeds for systems administration than others... there is no way to get functional experience than to do the work though, with a good certification (and that one does qualify) and a year or two of experience you could easily look towards further into the field. I would suggest rounding your knowledge out a bit with a good knowledge of networking.

As far as the day to day activities of a systems/network administrator... it varies job to job and vastly based on the size of the company. I've had jobs where I was literally the "abuse and tos violations administrator" i sat around and deleted accounts for spam and violations of the companies terms of service (after appropriate research and documentation of course.) I've had jobs where I spent 90% of my time setting up new systems and networks and firewalls. I've had jobs where I spent a huge amount of my time maintaining existing systems and automating complex applications. I've had jobs where I was either the only IT person or one of a very small group and we literally did ANYTHING that had ANYTHING to do with a computer.

this is a good question. i hope you don't mind me jumping on the fun bus too.

i have over 11 years experience in IT. my latest is in security and controls with a global enterprise level company. i'm actually over the security and controls type of work and i feel like i'm ready to reinvent myself so i too was looking at linux admin type work.

although my background isn't in linux type OSs, i do know my way around centos/redhat boxes and i can list it on my resume. it was only about 10% of my job though.

i was thinking that i wouldn't jump right in to rhce but rather grab the slightly more obtainable rhct. do you think that would be beneficial? also, if you had your hand on the pulse... what would you say the job market is like? it seems the security field is flooded right now.