Linux 101
 

Greetings,
New to this forum and Linux in general. I am 49 years old and have been in the mainframe operations field for over 20 years and find myself laid off. Trying to get another job but it seems my field is a dead horse as most of the jobs are now overseas (as is my old job). I want to push into a new area and have been thinking about getting RHCSA certified. I have zero experience with Linux and servers and general but want to learn. To start my journey I thought I would buy the LINUX Bible from Amazon and make a bootable USB drive with Fedora for my Lenovo u310 Ideapad to start down that road. Once I get a bit of experience with Linux, I will pursue certification.
I am looking for a little guidance if these 'first steps' seem appropriate and if you have any other suggestions or ideas on how to get started or where to go from here.
I have no other certifications or degrees, in general, is getting RHCSA certified as a start a good career move for future jobs etc?

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions etc!

Hello and welcome to the forum :)

Although members who have this certification can better verify the opinions expressed, I thought the information here might be helpful. :)

Regards...

Thanks ardvark71,
I read the article and it was helpful although the bit about ...
Cons:

1. RHCSA will not solve any purpose for fresher, before going for the certification you must have experience of at least 2-3 yrs.

has me a bit confused/worried. Are they saying that you need to have some years of xp before trying for the certification?
I guess I am trying to decide what sort of education/certification I should spend my time and money on these days to become relevant in the current IT market again. I am of an age that I dont have years and thousands in student loans to spend trying to rebuild my career. I am trying to figure out what I can do to enhance my current experience and move into a new relevant field that I can find a a job for and make a career out of quickly. I thought about project management but there again, it seems you need to already be working in that field in order to obtain PMP certification.
It seems like all I can find are IT help desk jobs, programming jobs, project manager, and jobs wanting unix/linux server system admin xp. I was mainly a batch scheduler, coordinator, and system monitor for mainframe data centers in the past.
So ... looking for ideas which perhaps this isnt the proper forum for in which case I apologize in advance.

Hi...

You know, honestly, I'm not entirely sure. I'm not in that particular field. From what I see here, I really don't think Red Hat requires this, although, at the same time, knowing something about what you will be tested on will be very important. ;)

It might be helpful for you if you were to enroll in a training class in the area where you live. Please see here. There are courses that will help you prepare for the RHCSA exam. :)

I'm sorry you lost your job and that you are facing having to "start over" again. It's a difficult spot to be in, to say the least. I would be very happy to pray for you concerning this, if you'd like. From personal experience, I know our God can do anything, including helping folks find work. :)

Not at all, this is a very good place for that. Please let us know (and continue to post) if you have any further questions. :)

Regards...

You're just asking for opinions here, since obviously no one can guarantee how your career go, but here's been my experience...

Ages ago, I was certified in some closed source high-end graphics and video applications. I got zero jobs based on my certification.

Later, I got into open source, and eschewed certification because the ones I did have left a bad taste in my mouth. Based on the fact that I taught myself practical skills, was willing to learn, and enthusiastic about what I was doing, I have not been unemployed since.

So my feelings on certifications is that they are learning tools. If you need a goal to move toward, then go for a certification. If you are self-motivated and have a knack for designing your own curriculum, ignore certifications and learn the same thing. Staunchly refuse to use anything but that which you want to learn.

Then start out in the obligatory entry-level gig, and go from there.

Certs can come later, and in my experience it's usually at the point when either your employer decides "oh my gosh, all our employees should have $foo certification, let's pay for them all to take the tests" or it's when you're consulting for your own business and you see that two bids side-by-side are consistently favouring the one with certs after the signature line.

Just my experience, almost all within the media/entertainment field. Could be drastically different in other industries.

Thanks to you both for the input and thanks for the prayers ardvark, I can use all the help I can get these days!

I am not afraid of hard work and will keep positive just need to find my bearing to sail towards at this point I guess as I feel a bit rudderless in this market.

Cheers again for the input :)

Main frame computers are still used by the NHS in the UK and quite widely so I don't know what opportunities might be present:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/201..._applications/

A year old report but they are, I think, the main stay in England also.

Fred.

If you can handle MF operations, you can handle the little machines and operating systems.
The same quirks of processing (bio-brain handles) that make for a success at one affect the other.
Linux is, however, more open and wild than any frame operation. You can fire from the hip more often without missing the mark, because that is exactly the kind of community that developed and supports this OS.

It takes a little getting used to, I admit, but is well worth your time.

Certs have value on your resume, and that is about it. They can help you get the job you want, but you need more than the cert to keep up. A production focus, attention to detail, methodical thought habits, and good listening skills all matter just as much as technical skills in the long run.

Welcome to the jungle!

You're more than welcome! If you feel inclined, please keep us updated as this process continues. If you'd like, you can use your blog space here to do that. :)

Regards...

Yes keep yourself motivated in open source stuff such as Linux, check out the job listing in your area and check whether any common skill always stood out from job listing and I guess focus on that.

I think in some ways certification helps, but knowledge and skill will play a part as well.


"When God closes a door, He opens another one."

Keep any old paperwork and certificates for later on job interviews or applications. Learn Linux on your own like I did. Members signatures and blogs here are full of useful resources and self hep instructions .

You found out in English speaking working environment. Everyone switched to Spanish. So now you need to learn Spanish. It won't happen overnight and non of your English speaking skills are any use to you. In fact. They are hindrance in learning Spanish.

I still get offers from the City I live in for doing support in the City management offices. On my own schedule ,<on call>, and part time if I wish. This would not be the case when I was your age. I had not turned on any computer then.

I just have a GED. But I can drive computers and fix hardware like no bodies business.
But I am retired now and have more interest in supplementing my income with a pet day care center for the other people that punch a time clock.

I know the stress you are experiencing. Free Trade made me re-think being a industrial electrician. Some thing I did for years. Tried Prison Maintenance. But that was soul sucking work. So moved on to making my money fixing motorcycles.

Worked out pretty well actually. Been happy now and living comfy for over 20 years now. But I had to roll up my sleeves and apply some elbow grease to my life.

Good luck and this was posted by the uneducated Linux using scooter tramp.

Hint/suggestion. Click the links in my sig.

Edit: I will know if you are serious when that Windows 10 icon disappears from your posts profile.

Thanks to you all for the wonderful advice and support, what a great community you all have here!

Quick question, I am looking at ebay to find an old laptop I can use to install linux on to work with, I was thinking of getting an IBM/Lenovo thinkpad. Can you suggest a/some models I should be looking at that seem to have the best compatibility/potential?

Hi...

Well, along the line of purchasing a Thinkpad, I happened to find this article, which gives a pretty glowing report of the T420. I've never used this model so I can't personally verify it myself but if you're interested, you can take a look at the ones offered on ebay here. :)

In terms of other brands (and/or models) of laptops and Linux compatibility, from personal experience, look for one that has a Nvidia graphics chip (best driver support in Linux, in my opinion.) Avoid Broadcom wireless chips, as they can be difficult or impossible to get working In linux. In this respect, look for something with Intel or Atheros (particularly a chip that uses the Ath9k or Ath10k driver.)

Hope this helps. :)

Regards...

So, RHEL is pretty much the industry 'std' (such as there is one ...) and the assoc Certs can't hurt.
However, you will need some xp just to do the course(s), never mind pass the exam.
NB: RH exams are hands on practicals, without access to books/internet etc. ie just the man (manual) pages that are installed on the system.

Also, RHEL itself must be paid for to get support & updates. OTOH, Centos is a free rebuild of RHEL and includes updates, just not support.
For support, start here ;)

The first thing you'll need to get familiar with is the default cli lang 'bash'; these are useful:
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

HTH & welcome to LQ :)

Thinkpads are good and typically have good support in Linux - Lenovo likes to stick with Intel for everything on their business grade models (processors, graphics, wifi), and Intel is good about keeping drivers for their hardware updated in the mainline Linux kernel. I have a T420s at home, it's a bit long in the tooth and I've since moved on to another laptop for my day-to-day, but it still works well, and so far it's run every Linux distro I've tried just fine out of the box. It runs OpenSUSE 13.2 permanently, and seems to enjoy it.