I'm simply looking to get some formal cert to show my current employer that I have some legitimate Linux knowledge to possibly apply toward a move within my department. They have a self paced course for $499 that includes cost of taking their System Admin exam. I have been self studying for RHCSA but I figured cost/value of the Linuxfoundation course + exam for $100 more than RHCSA exam would be money better spent and possibly help me further prepare for RHCSA and take that exam in the future.

Has anyone got a Linuxfoundation cert? more importantly, what is hiring manager opinion on that?

I havent'.


From my point of view, being somewhat familiar with hiring cats to herd as they say, I'd have to say none. We've talked about what it takes to get hired, admin duties and such many times on LQ and for me a willingness to learn, self-reliance, communication skills (listening is hard), flexibility and a cool head to me provide a better basis to build upon than any cert in this or adjacent Galaxies. (Sure, that means you'd have to find a company that doesn't just say that "people are their greatest asset" but is actually willing to invest.) So in short it's experience that counts. I'd suggest you talk to people in your company that actually hold the job you want to apply for and see if what they do actually provides you with the challenge you're looking. If what they do (filtering out the seemingly glamorous stories) is to your liking then you know if the investment is worth it. Else there's no harm in looking elsewhere, is there?.. (And I'm sorry if this wasn't the answer you were looking for.)

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Thanks. That is actually a great answer. I work alongside the two linux/unix admins at my job daily. They both are amongst the most bored/disgruntled people on my team haha. Not sure what that says. they have been at it for around 15 years and 25 years so they may just be burned out...just like I am in my current role

If you want to get a certification, then your employer should be the one getting it for you ... and paying for it, out of their "professional development" budget.

You should not be paying money out of your own pocket, to demonstrate to your employer that they should move or promote you, and a piece of paper won't really help you if they are so clueless that they don't see it for themselves.

I do not have a Linuxfoundation cert, nor am I a hiring manager. But I have met several cert-holding individuals, and based upon their knowledge (or lack thereof) I have to say that a certification is, in itself, worthless.*

If you are INTERESTED, and actually like what you do, then that is worth a hell of a lot more than a certification. The latter only proves that at one point in time, you were able to answer a bunch of questions correctly.

Best regards,
HMW

*I am obviously NOT saying that everybody with a certification is bad at what they do.

To me (adapted to the situations I usually find myself in) it says they're fed up with inefficiency, miscommunication, bad management, clients, odd working hours, documentation, having to document seemingly common things for serfs, documentation that doesn't have examples, documentation that doesn't fit your problem, debugging stuff you never had to before, clients, undependable co-workers, bad management, Stuff that Breaks when you just put the spare Hardware Elsewhere, vendors, clients fscking up their setup, silly questions, miscommunication, nobody telling you it's a BGP problem (doh), problems cause by middleware, missing auditing records, clients, miscommunication, missing backups (auch!), missing documentation, data centres you can't reach but via some crappy panel, outages nobody tells you about (thanks AWS), clients changing stuff using documentation from 2004, dependency problems, hardware troubleshooting that requires hands on data centre access 200 miles away, odd working hours, bad breaks (too much grease), clients calling at night, even worse: management calling at night, missing documentation for the client that just migrated, missing client contact details, somebody deploying Windows 2003, WordPress, web-based Management Panels from 2005, incessant port scanning, site audits without prior notice, incidents popping up like mushrooms, odd working hours, bad dinners (lukewarm and still too much grease), bad documentation, stress, fatigue, "Assertiveness training", "project-based effectivity training", assessments led by no-no's and on and on. They may be socially unskilled, ill-mannered, terminally angry, cursing, utterly disgrunted, lead-lined, iron clad almost extinct Rhinoceros stomping through the dystopian remains of the nuclear holocaust that is IT. Really doesn't mean they don't actually like their job.

You up for it?

You are definitely correct. I don't know how it is where you work but I am guessing 75% of my department's training budget goes unused every year. The last two years they have been holding group training on site for broader topics (python programming/scripting for example) but Linux is a very narrow scope of what we support here so I don't see them ever offering group training there. And while individual training is sometimes approved based on schedules, workload etc, certifications are never approved...which is in obvious ploy to keep people from having the company pay for certs and leave for more money elsewhere. There are certs that more directly apply to my current position that I have had through other employers that are 5 years expired now because I can't get approval to renew them even though the apply to my day to day work. Sad but true.

It doesn't work that way.

No corporation is going to invest in their employees. Especially if it empowers the employee to find better work/pay someplace else.

I paid for all of my certs out of my own pocket. My previous companies may not see the value, however there are others companies who will.

I don't have that cert. Right now, I have Linux+, working towards RHCSA.

My recommendation is to look at various job postings online and see what certs the IT job postings are asking for. Or look at various IT cert forms to get feedback from its members, PM me and I can send you one that is very active and the members are honest.

Honestly, I feel that only the Red Hat certs are the only ones that have name recognition at this time.

If you look at the cost in terms of absolute $ spent, Linux Foundation runs special promotions every now and then and I got my voucher for LFCSA on their anniversary ($150 for the exam plus free re-take plus access to their training materials), so it's not like you are paying the full price at all times. It also actually cost less than RHCSA exam while being performance- based exam if you don't live in a city that has a Red Hat testing/training center, because you are taking the exam from the comfort of your home so you don't have to arrange travel and accommodation and time away from work. So convenience is LFCSA's advantage.
As far as recognition, it is yet to be seen/earned. I am yet to see a job opening that requires LFCSA but you'll see many that ask for RHCSA. And even more for RHCE.
As far as showing competence to your current employer, when I took my RHCSA I met admins that admitted they did not know how to create a tar and few other very basic things that lead me to believe there are people who can talk themselves into a role with the employer.

I know a number of IT folks like this as well. It seems that they are moving from job to job every six months because they can't do the job and have to leave.

Thanks for the advice. I'm just going to continue to self study for the RHCSA for starters and take it when I feel ready (probably between Jan-March). I figure $400 spent on taking and passing that exam is the best use of my money if I'm going to spend it myself. I also agree that from my experience, the days of employers paying for training and certs is going away. I think when people stayed at a company for their entire career that happened. In today's market there is no loyalty on either side. I know the only way I'll ever get bigger than a 3 annual raise is to leave my job for another company and my employer knows this too. I think most companies expect and even want you to leave after 2-5 years so they can replace you with someone cheaper but they don't want to help you leave by paying for your training. I know for a fact that my company has a certain amount of training credits from Redat, Cisco, VMware and other companies every year for free as part of our support contracts but they still will not let anyone take training or certs even though it's not costing the company anything other then having the person out of the office for a week.

BTW, I got this books and it's great

http://www.pearsonitcertification.co...-9780789754059

Of course I'm specifically learning RHEL 7 and my cert will be in 7 and it doesn't seem like many customers are even using 7 in the real world yet