Bachelors Degree necessary for most linux administration jobs?
 

I asked this question on another forum but this forums seems to have more experienced linux professionals who can probably give a more accurate perspective.

I'm currently enrolled in WGU and have about two years worth of college credits under my belt even though WGU doesn't give out Associates Degrees. I know a bachelors degree isn't really a hard requirement because I currently work as a Jr Systems Administrator for a web hosting company but it seems the most linux administrator job postings that I've seen at other companies want a bachelors degree or twice the amount of experience if you don't have one. I don't think I'd find myself unable to get another job but I'd like to make sure that I would be able to get another job doing linux administration if need be.

Are their any linux administrators on this site who have less than a Bachelors Degree and if so, has not having a Bachelors Degree made it difficult for you to find employment?

Have you found that most companies have been willing to wave the degree requirement and do you think employers would look at two years of school at a 4 year college as equivalent to an Associates Degree?

Also do you think it's worth continuing to pursue a degree even if I need to take out student loans to do so or should I just focus on certifications and experience for now and pay down what student loan debt I do have before it becomes to much?

I worked for a F500 company for a couple years and only 2 people there in the IT department had a degree; one in journalism and the other in photography. In the IT world, experience speaks volumes.

Agree. Experience is the key. There are lots of people with degrees in IT, and until they get a few years of experience under their belt what they most make is a mess. It seems to me thats because we have this huge hype in culture that says academic acheivement is everything, they proceed thinking they already know everything, and invariably balls things up.

That said, degrees can open doors to the jobs where you get to gain said experience, but they are most definitely not the most important thing.

Certifications are good ways to get junior positions and experience, particularly if gained under your own steam, i.e. home labs etc are excellent because they demonstrate that this is not just a day job for you, its a personal interest and you are more likely to be motivated to do things right.

May depend on the company. Some do require it for any exempt position.

The twice-as-much experience seen is often more of a guideline, in my experience. They may SAY 3-5 years, but if you go in with a solid year of good work (and can back it up), they aren't going to turn you away. And sometimes that's just something HR departments do, to weed out weak candidates. They don't know anything about the positions they post for, just that they get a request, and have to put something quantifiable down.
No, I got my first job before I got my degree, and it was actually harder to find my SECOND job, after I got it.
Sometimes, it depends on the company and your experience.
You should focus on EXPERIENCE. I give VERY little weight to a 'certification', since they are very common and fairly easy to obtain. If you wind up interviewing with someone like me and put down certifications, expect to be shoved into a lab with a pretty good laundry list of things to do, with ZERO phone/internet access and a time limit. If you have the experience to back up your certifications, you'll either accomplish it all, or accomplish most of it, and have clues as to what to do to finish. I've seen MANY 'certified' folks have no real idea what to do, and some folks with no certifications/degree breeze through it.

I had/have zero student loan debt, because I worked during school. I paid for what courses I could, and kept grinding. The bachelors helped me get an interview once, but I was able to get a higher paying job due to experience. From there, that paid for my masters, which helped pay for doctorate.

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone. @TB0ne. Glad to hear that the specific years of experience requirement isn't set in stone. I also agree that certs aren't everything at least in the linux world. It's not something I intend to go broke over or even wrap myself up in too much since most job postings I've seen want specific experience that may not apply to any one certification. I'd rather just make sure I'm more familiar with the technology that businesses are using like tomcat and vmware and whatnot. Personally I've just been considering the RHCE to make my resume look nicer and because I'm pretty familiar with most of the exam objectives already due to current experience.

I'm mostly just wondering about the degree requirements because I'm considering taking a break and settling for 2 years of school at least while my wife finishes pharmacy school. I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake.

Also, do you really have a doctorate? And are there really linux jobs in AL. I'm just wondering because all my family lives down there and if I'd have know that I could find employment in the IT field down there I'd probably plan on moving down there one of these days. Maybe I should go that route and pay for the rest of school out of pocket once I've paid of my current student loans which thankfully aren't too much at the moment.

Yes, I really have a doctorate. And yes, there really are Linux jobs in AL. The major cities are loaded with them...Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile. Also lots of manufacturing plants around, and they all use some flavor of *nix. Hyundai has a HUGE Sun installation to control the production line. I know they started with over 100 Sun V880's just for controlling/monitoring the OTHER systems. They've upgraded a few times since then. Huntsville is big into aerospace.