Im trying to get a start in IT and i have a few contacts who advised me to follow them on the unix/linux route. They would then give me all the help they can.
I'll be taking the exam in about six months having never worked in IT
Im a family man in my 40's and have run my own construction company
London is where I'll be working
Six months ago I never heard of Linux
But have always been familiar with computers
Obviously experience is all important
But will the rhce get me in the door?
kevmcool

The only man who can get you a work is yourself. Trust yourself and you will not fail. =) Everything else is just a miscellanious things that may or may not bother you.
Of course if you'll have rhce, it worths something.
from related threads: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...g-rhce-556272/
Good luck!

Short answer, at least as far as I go...no, it won't get you in the door. As Web31337 pointed out, the only one who can do that is you.

If you've got contacts in the industry, and they can speak to your abilities (technical and otherwise), that goes much further than a 'certification'. If you never heard of Linux until a few months ago, and your resume reflects that, a RHC is worthless....most hiring managers will assume you passed a basic test, just to get a certificate, and don't have the REAL knowledge to back it up.

On the other hand, if they call your contacts, and they can honestly say, "Well, he's been working hard for six months, and is dedicated to learning more. He's sharp, a quick learner, and a good guy to work with", you'll get much further.

A good cover letter, stating what you've worked with, and your desire to keep learning, is better. Get some solid knowledge...install Linux on a PC at home. Learn how to configure Samba services, for Windows boxes to play nicely with Linux. Learn basic networking setup skills. Set up DHCP services, sendmail, and learn some basic bash scripting, and other 'business type' things, so you can answer questions about them intelligently. At this point, they'll look at that as all very good things...with a CV that clearly says 'six months experience', they won't be looking for alot of depth, but the WILLINGNESS to learn.

Also, write, spell, and speak clearly. IT may not have the 'people skills' needed for other customer-facing jobs, but you will have to work with others on your team. Punctuation, spelling, etc., will all show up VERY much on a cover letter/CV, and often makes the difference between it getting shredded, or getting a phone call.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the feedback fellas it's much appreciated.
My buddie who is "guiding" me said pretty much the same
He sees new people at his work coming with degrees and they just got no passion for it
I remember him saying that getting the RHCE would be hard
But getting a foot in the door might be harder
His company sent a dozen or so workers on the RHCE course and they all came back with RHCT's
He told me if I got the RHCE in a short space of time it would show I was serious about it
He "kindly" set me up with VMware, RHEL Server 5, W2K3 server, VEA Storage Foundation, SUSE ,Win2000 Pro
Thank God for VM's

Amen for that.

Don't get me wrong, an RHCE won't *HURT*, but I've always put experience ahead of a certification. If I have two folks who are looking, and one of them has a certification, and the other doesn't, but has some good experience, I'll lean towards them.

As a rule, expect some sort of technical grilling. The kind of stuff you don't see on exams. Things like:

- If you were having a problem with a database server running slow, what are some things you'd check?
- If your server can only see things in one subnet, what's the likely cause?
- How would you check and/or set a NIC to be gigabit?
- What's a good method for ensuring mail services remain uninterrupted, even if a server fails?

Think of questions like that. I've seen many folks who can't come up with ANYTHING, and alot of them have certifications. While some bitter, cynical veterans (like me. ), have seen this for years, and have been fighting the fires. Coming up with a good chain of things to check, and working under pressure, are biggies too.

Yep. As the others have said, you have to depend on your selling yourself, and it helps a lot to have contacts. My daughter got a BSEE from UCLA a few years ago and there were simply no jobs or even interviews. Now she's gone back to school for a masters in something she has a passion for. Get the certifications, but get the passion, get contacts, and learn to sell yourself.