Career change

Discussion in 'Training & Development' started by starfury6, Jan 5, 2006.

  1. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    Well after much deliberation and half heartedly starting to study for MCDST certification I have reach a crux point. I have accepted voluntary redundancy from the engineering company I have been working for for the last 14 years and terminate at the end of the month. I'm looking for a career change into IT which I have been interesed in for some time.

    In order to prove the skills I already posses and build on them ten fold, I am going to be studying some of the Redhat Linux Essentials eLearning series and then I have the Red Hat Certified Technician RH133 course and exam booked for March https://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/courses/rh133_content.html (lot to cover in 4 days). I have this book on it's way to study before attending the course:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072255390/026-9548677-8481258?_encoding=UTF8

    I am primarily interested in working in a UNIX Support environment with an eye to a Senior UNIX Sys Admin Team Leader position as my long term goal. I am however, well aware of the competitive nature of the industry and the amount of qualified people out there, so if after some months searching for 'THE job I'm not behond lowering my sights a little to take 'A' job to get my foot in the door. Even to start out in M$ Support where I have some skills and where I can go back to do the MCDST to help.
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  2. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    Good Luck to you.

    You may find that Windows support on the desktop level will go hand in hand *nix support on the server level.

    I'm just curious though at what type of companies will you be looking to work? Whilst I know that many companies have a mix of MS and *nix servers I would think that it would only be pretty big enterprise's that have demand fo someone who soley (sp?) specialises in *nix.

    Forgive my ingnorance if if mistaken though, I'm just interested. :blink
     
  3. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    To be honest the type of company hasn't been foremost in my mind at the moment. Banking seems to be a great area to get into money wise, although working for an IT company seems a great way to start, such as IBM. A lot of the roles I've seen on monster.co.uk and jobsite.co.uk seem to be pretty specific as to which OS's and software they require experience of and I haven't seen many which ask for experience or expertise in both UNIX and M$.

    I suppose I am comfortable with the large company mentality and environment so I guess I'd be looking to that size. I haven't ruled anything out though.

    Any advice you can offer?

    I believe I have an excellent CV. A few friends interview for their IT dept in Banks in the city, and they went through my CV with their colleagues to help be refine it.
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  4. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    All I can say really is what I've already said, and also that friends in high places never hurt! :biggrin
     
  5. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    hehe I am doing my best to capitalise on the contacts I have in IBM here (we outsource IT to them) and in other companies! 8)
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  6. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    Contacts are a great asset to have in any career, as long as you (and they) remain neutral if it comes down to going for a job with them.

    Whilst it is one thing to recommend someone for a position at a company, it can burn bridges if they do it purely out of friendship.

    8)
     
  7. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    Well nothing came of those. Shame really.

    But the studying is going really well. I completed the RedHat Linux Essentials courses I took online and am studying Red Hat Certified Technician Linux Study Guide by Michael Jang to prepare me for the RHCT Course and Exam I am now taking W/C April 3rd (I postponed it due to moving house).

    All going to plan so far. :)
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  8. zimbo
    Honorary Member

    zimbo Petabyte Poster

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    good for you starfury6! Can you give us more details on your course.. i think you may be the first one here to do rhct and it looks good! you had linux experience right? 8)
     
    Certifications: B.Sc, MCDST & MCSA
    WIP: M.Sc - Computer Forensics
  9. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Welcome back, starfury6. I echo what zimbo says...keep us posted as to your experiences studying for the RHCT. :)
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  10. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    I well recommend the book, although they need to update it for RHEL4 since it covers RHEL3. Not many differeces but they are there. The GUI config programs being system-config-blah rather than redhat-config-blah and all the newer versions of programs with better functionality.

    The course is a week long and being hosted by a company called Xpertise here in the UK. Mine is in London not far from Fenchurch Street Station week commencing April 3rd.

    It was about £1780 and covers the RH133 course (https://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/courses/rh133_content.html) which is pretty intensive for 4 days. They're laying on lunch :) . The on the Friday is the exam RH202 (https://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/courses/rh202.html) which is 1 hour Troubleshooting and System Maintenance which you need to attain 100% and then 2 hour Installation and Cinfiguration which needs 70%. It's also 100% practical, there are no multi choice parts to the exam. The study I'm doing is hellped by the Fedora Core 4 DVD I downloaded and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS Cd's that I got a 30day trial of to practice with. The book is to prepare for the exam and the course covers the same material. I just want to be prepared.

    As for ym experience I did 2.5 years Application support on HP-UX and have had my own Debian server for about 4 years so I knew quite a bit but am learning quite a bit. I really need the cert to show on my CV that I can do what I say I can do :D
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  11. zimbo
    Honorary Member

    zimbo Petabyte Poster

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    WOW!! 8) Congrats man and good luck with the exam! Im glad we will have a red hat guru on CF soon! :biggrin

    Do you have to do the training to get the cert? And why such a high price?
     
    Certifications: B.Sc, MCDST & MCSA
    WIP: M.Sc - Computer Forensics
  12. Keimos

    Keimos Byte Poster

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    Hi starfury6,

    Learn C and C++, then learn the various versions of Unix if that is the environment you want to get in.

    Red Hat will help but is probably not the right flavour. (The most common) Debian, help?

    Unix comes in three forms, Original, IBM and (cannot remeber, it is late)

    Linux original is only based on Unix, think about it.

    Keimos
     
    Certifications: Microsoft Office Specialist
  13. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    Hey keimos, thanks for the advice but I'm not interested in programming aside from some script writing so Perl is on my list but not C or C++. Did a bit during my degree. Not my cuppa :)

    As for the price Zimbo I guess it's due to the nature of their training. Only 6 people per class with a workstation per person and they lay on lunch, all the course materials and..... RedHat Promotional materials! lol!

    You don't have to do the training for the cert but I thought that since I had the dough I'd go for it. There is the RedHat way to learn how to do things as well as the usual Linux way. I'm quite looking forward to it.
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  14. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    Well my preparation hasn't gone bad. Still have a lot to learn but I am well prepared and have covered everything which is on the course in prep for the exam. A lot of the material I reviewed I already new but plenty of new stuff in the book for me.

    Course starts Monday 3rd and the exams are 3 hours on Friday.

    *crosess fingers*
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA
  15. Keimos

    Keimos Byte Poster

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    Hi starfury6,

    Don't get to much brain strain and good luck

    Keimos
     
    Certifications: Microsoft Office Specialist
  16. starfury6

    starfury6 Nibble Poster

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    Thanks, will let oyu know about the course and naturally how I do on the exam.
     
    Certifications: RHCT4, RHCT5
    WIP: SCSA

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